News – Page 512 – Spaceflight Now

Falcon 9 rocket ready for all-important return to service Saturday

January 13, 2017 Stephen Clark

SpaceX rolled a fully-assembled Falcon 9 booster out of its hangar and lifted it on top of a launch pad Friday for the first time since an explosion grounded the commercial rocket last year, setting the stage for a one-second launch window Saturday to take off from California’s Central Coast and deploy the first 10 satellites in orbit for a $3 billion upgrade to Iridium’s globe-spanning message relay network.

Video: Highlights of second Expedition 50 spacewalk

January 13, 2017 Justin Ray

Video highlight reel of Expedition 50 commander Shane Kimbrough and flight engineer Thomas Pesquet conducting six-hour spacewalk on Jan. 13.

Station astronauts complete second battery swap spacewalk

January 13, 2017 William Harwood

Two space station astronauts carried out a trouble-free five-hour 58-minute spacewalk Friday, completing complex battery replacement work on the right side of the lab’s solar power truss with enough time left over to carry out a variety of lower-priority “get-ahead” tasks.

Video: Narrated preview of Jan. 13 spacewalk

January 12, 2017 Justin Ray

This is a narrated animation previewing the steps and activities to be performed by the International Space Station astronauts during the battery replacement spacewalk on Jan. 13.

Minotaur rocket launch for NRO expected at Wallops by end of 2018

January 12, 2017 Stephen Clark

A classified National Reconnaissance Office satellite mission assigned last month to launch on an Orbital ATK Minotaur 1 rocket will take off from Wallops Island in Virginia by the end of 2018, a U.S. Air Force spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.

Atlas 5 and Delta 4 achieve milestones in parallel on the same morning

January 12, 2017 Justin Ray

Critical operations were completed this morning by United Launch Alliance at Cape Canaveral to prepare two rockets for upcoming flights into space.

Commercial Earth-observing craft recover from off-target launch

January 11, 2017 Stephen Clark

Two Chinese satellites launched into the wrong orbit Dec. 28 have reached their planned perch at an altitude of around 300 miles and sent back their first high-resolution views of Earth for their Beijing-based commercial owner.

Two asteroid missions get nod from NASA

January 11, 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA has selected two robotic missions to visit asteroids in the early 2020s from a field of proposed interplanetary probes, approving projects to explore a metallic relic from the early solar system and a half-dozen so-called Trojan objects left over from the formation of the outer planets.

Multi-national contribution to U.S. military network delivered for launch

January 11, 2017 Justin Ray

The next satellite for the U.S. military’s communications network, this one purchased by five international allies, has arrived in Florida for its launch in March atop a Delta 4 rocket.

Planet Earth observed through telescope orbiting Mars

January 10, 2017 Stephen Clark

One of NASA’s satellites orbiting Mars has looked back home to record a Martians-eye view of the Earth and moon from 127 million miles across the solar system.