News – Page 337 – Spaceflight Now

China adds to Beidou fleet with Long March launch

June 24, 2019 Stephen Clark

Another satellite for China’s Beidou navigation network rocketed into orbit Monday on top of a Long March 3B launcher.

NASA technology experiments hitching a ride on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket

June 24, 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA is sending into orbit Monday night a spacecraft to test a safer type of rocket fuel, an ultra-precise atomic clock that could change the way missions navigate in deep space, and an experiment to examine the resiliency of electronics to radiation.

Photos: Falcon Heavy reaches pad 39A for its first night launch

June 24, 2019 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket rolled out of its hangar and up the ramp to pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, then was raised vertical at the seaside launch complex early Monday in preparation for a late-night liftoff with two dozen weather observation and technology demonstration satellites.

Live coverage: International Space Station crew lands in Kazakhstan

June 24, 2019 Stephen Clark

Russian commander Oleg Kononenko, Canadian co-pilot David Saint-Jacques and NASA flight engineer Anne McClain closed out a 204-day mission in orbit Monday with an undocking from the International Space Station at 7:25 p.m. EDT (2325 GMT), followed by landing in Kazakhstan aboard their Soyuz MS-11 capsule at 10:47 p.m. EDT (0247 GMT Tuesday).

American, Canadian, Russian space station fliers set for return to Earth

June 24, 2019 William Harwood

A Russian cosmonaut, his Canadian co-pilot and a NASA flight engineer packed their Soyuz spacecraft for departure from the International Space Station Monday night, targeting a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out an action-packed 204-day mission.

Live coverage: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy lifts off from Kennedy Space Center

June 24, 2019 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:30 a.m. EDT (0630 GMT) to begin a three-and-a-half hour mission to deliver two dozen satellites into three distinct orbits. The Falcon Heavy’s two side boosters returned to Cape Canaveral for successful landings, but the center core stage crashed during a landing attempt on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

Next Atlas 5 launch delayed by battery failure

June 23, 2019 Stephen Clark

The next launch of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket with the U.S. Air Force’s fifth Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite, previously scheduled for Thursday, has been delayed to no earlier than July 12 to replace a failed battery on the vehicle.

Falcon Heavy to flex muscles on demanding demo launch for U.S. Air Force

June 23, 2019 Stephen Clark

On its third flight Monday night, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket will fly to three different orbits with two dozen spacecraft on a mission set to last more than six hours, prompting SpaceX founder Elon Musk to declare it the company’s “most difficult launch ever.”

Russia postpones launch of X-ray astronomy mission

June 21, 2019 Stephen Clark

Russian officials postponed the planned launch of a Proton rocket with an X-ray astronomy satellite Friday until no earlier than July 12 resolve a problem with an inadvertently drained battery on the vehicle.

European space mission to get close-up view of new comet

June 21, 2019 Stephen Clark

A new flyby mission selected by the European Space Agency this week for launch in 2028 will be the first to intercept a new comet or interstellar object fresh from the frozen depths of the outer solar system, or beyond.