News – Page 318 – Spaceflight Now

Spacewalkers continue repair of cosmic ray detector

November 22, 2019 William Harwood

In a complex bit of orbital surgery, two spacewalking astronauts cut into a $2 billion cosmic ray detector Friday, venting away life-sustaining carbon dioxide refrigerant and then snipping eight coolant lines the size of soda straws to prepare the high-tech “patient” for a coolant pump transplant.

Boeing’s first space-ready Starliner crew capsule meets its Atlas 5 launcher

November 21, 2019 Stephen Clark

Boeing’s first Starliner crew capsule to fly in space departed its factory Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a trip to a launch pad a few miles away, where teams raised the craft atop an Atlas 5 rocket for liftoff next month on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station.

SpaceX’s first Starship prototype ruptures during cryogenic test

November 20, 2019 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s first partially-assembled Starship vehicle, originally built for atmospheric test flights, ruptured in dramatic fashion Wednesday during a cryogenic loading test at the company’s launch facility in South Texas.

Chinese Mars rover completes landing trial ahead of 2020 launch

November 19, 2019 Stephen Clark

China has performed a hover and hazard avoidance test on a model the country’s first Mars rover, while engineers ready the real spacecraft for launch toward the red planet in mid-2020.

SpaceX offering Starship to NASA for lunar landing missions

November 19, 2019 Stephen Clark

SpaceX is eligible to propose using its next-generation Starship vehicle to carry NASA robotic science payloads to the lunar surface, the U.S. space agency announced Monday, on missions that could precede future Starship flights with people on-board. SpaceX is one of five companies NASA selected Monday to join a roster of commercial transportation providers to deliver scientific instruments and technology demonstration packages to the moon as soon as 2022.

China’s Kuaizhou launcher flies for second time in four days

November 19, 2019 Stephen Clark

Demonstrating a quick turnaround launch capability, China launched a light-class, solid-fueled Kuaizhou 1A rocket Sunday, four days after the same type of satellite booster fired into orbit from the same launch pad.

ULA kicks off next Delta 4-Heavy launch campaign

November 17, 2019 Stephen Clark

The next Delta 4-Heavy rocket was raised vertical Friday at Cape Canaveral, signaling the start of a comprehensive series of pre-flight tests before liftoff next year with a top secret U.S. government spy satellite.

Astronauts complete bonus objectives in first in series of AMS repair spacewalks

November 15, 2019 William Harwood

Two astronauts ventured outside the International Space Station Friday for the first of four spacewalks to repair a $2 billion cosmic ray detector, breezing through work to prep the device for invasive surgery to splice in new coolant pumps and extend the instrument’s life probing the composition of the universe.

Broadband satellite to serve Pacific islands delivered to Florida launch base

November 15, 2019 Stephen Clark

A powerful commercial communications satellite to broadcast Internet signals over the Asia-Pacific region has arrived at Cape Canaveral for final launch preparations ahead of a planned Dec. 15 liftoff on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Starlink ‘train’ traces path across twilight skies

November 14, 2019 Stephen Clark

The 60 Starlink satellites deployed Monday by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket have traced paths across twilight skies around the world this week, but their brightness is expected to dim as the spacecraft — designed to beam broadband signals down to Earth — spread out and climb to higher altitudes.