News – Page 363 – Spaceflight Now

Iridium eager to complete upgraded network with Falcon 9 launch Friday

January 10, 2019 Stephen Clark

The launch of 10 more upgraded spacecraft aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Friday will complete the build-out of Iridium’s modernized $3 billion global communications network, setting up for the debut of new broadband and aircraft tracking services in the coming months.

Controllers troubleshoot problem with Hubble camera

January 10, 2019 Stephen Clark

The partial shutdown of the U.S. government could complicate efforts to troubleshoot a suspected hardware problem with the Hubble Space Telescope’s premier science instrument, but officials are optimistic the camera will eventually be restored to operations, the head of the observatory’s science operations team said Wednesday.

Astronomers announce first exoplanets discovered by NASA’s TESS mission

January 9, 2019 Stephen Clark

Six months into its mission scanning the sky for planets around other stars, NASA’s orbiting TESS observatory has found three previously-undiscovered worlds and hundreds more exoplanet candidates, the first batch of a potential haul of up to 10,000 exoplanet detections over TESS’s planned two-year mission, astronomers announced this week.

DigitalGlobe’s WorldView 4 Earth-imaging satellite fails

January 7, 2019 Stephen Clark

DigitalGlobe’s WorldView 4 commercial Earth observation satellite, which launched in 2016 for a planned 10-to-12-year mission, has suffered a failure in its control moment gyros and is no longer able to acquire high-resolution imagery, officials announced Monday.

SpaceX about one month away from first commercial crew test flight

January 7, 2019 Stephen Clark

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said this weekend that the company is about one month away from launching the first Crew Dragon spacecraft on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station, a precursor to a demonstration launch with astronauts later this year. He also warned that early test flights of the commercial crew capsule, built under contract to NASA, will be “especially dangerous.”

Time-lapse: The Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon roll to the launch pad (members only)

January 7, 2019 Spaceflight Now

In this time-lapse video, the Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon atop rolls to launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center for the first time on January 3. The rocket was then lifted vertical for a series of fit checks and tests.

Chinese rover begins exploring far side of the moon

January 5, 2019 Stephen Clark

A robotic Chinese spacecraft named Chang’e 4 braked out of lunar orbit and slowed to a controlled touchdown on the far side of the moon Thursday, a first in the history of space exploration. The lander later deployed a small rover to explore the surrounding landscape.

SpaceX crew capsule, Falcon 9 rocket roll out to pad 39A in Florida for tests

January 3, 2019 Stephen Clark

SpaceX rolled out the company’s first space-worthy Crew Dragon spacecraft and its Falcon 9 launcher to pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the first time Thursday, beginning a series of fit checks before the commercial spaceship takes off on its first orbital test flight.

Most distant object ever visited resembles a snowman

January 2, 2019 Stephen Clark

The first well-resolved image of the faraway chunk of rock fleetingly visited by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft on New Year’s Day reveals the object — officially named 2014 MU69 but nicknamed Ultima Thule — is made of two lobes scientists say came together in an ancient slow-speed collision just as the solar system’s planets were forming.

Video: The New Horizons team hold news conference after flyby declared a success

January 1, 2019 Spaceflight Now

Watch as the New Horizons team hold a press conference an hour after they received confirmation that the spacecraft had successfully flown by Ultima Thule and had recorded the expected amount of science data.