News – Page 558 – Spaceflight Now

Iridium satellites rolling off assembly line in Arizona

July 13, 2016 Stephen Clark

Construction is complete on the first batch of 81 new satellites to overhaul Iridium’s mobile communications network, and the data relay stations will soon head from their factory near Phoenix to California’s hilly Central Coast for launch Sept. 11 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Delta 2 rocket being assembled at Vandenberg for penultimate launch

July 12, 2016 Justin Ray

The next-to-last Delta 2 rocket is being stacked at its California launch site to take flight in January to put a civilian weather satellite into polar orbit.

Last shuttle commander ‘back in the fight’ with Boeing

July 11, 2016 Stephen Clark

When Chris Ferguson climbed into the commander’s seat of the shuttle Atlantis five years ago for the spaceship’s final flight, he didn’t know what turn his career would take when he returned to Earth. Now the former F-14 fighter pilot helps lead Boeing’s development of the CST-100 Starliner space taxi, one of two U.S.-built commercial spacecraft selected by NASA to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Mystery payload for spy satellite agency launching aboard next Atlas 5

July 10, 2016 Justin Ray

United Launch Alliance is preparing an Atlas 5 rocket to boost an undercover satellite into orbit for national security later this month.

STS-135 video: ‘Poetry in motion’

July 10, 2016 Justin Ray

Watch the shuttle Atlantis’ backflip, which occurred five years ago today, before docking to the International Space Station.

Soyuz brings three to space station

July 9, 2016 William Harwood

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft featuring a variety of avionics upgrades and other changes to improve reliability and performance docked with the International Space Station early Saturday after a two-day orbital chase, bringing three fresh crew members to the lab complex.

Navy’s new MUOS 5 communications satellite experiences snag in space

July 8, 2016 Justin Ray

Trouble has befallen the U.S. Navy’s new communications satellite that was launched from Cape Canaveral two weeks ago, suspending orbit raising maneuvers and leaving the craft half-way between its rocket deployment orbit and a circular geosynchronous orbit.

On this date in history: The final space shuttle launch

July 8, 2016 Justin Ray

Five years ago today — July 8, 2011 — Atlantis launched on the final space shuttle mission after 31 years as the centerpiece of America’s human spaceflight endeavors.

Japan’s Hitomi observatory made cosmic discovery before failing

July 7, 2016 Stephen Clark

Japan’s doomed Hitomi observatory peeled back a veil on the inner workings of the Perseus cluster of galaxies before the satellite spun out of control earlier this year, revealing in unprecedented detail how gas heated to millions of degrees behaves around an unseen supermassive black hole, scientists said Wednesday.

Photos: Crew of three rides Soyuz into orbit

July 7, 2016 Stephen Clark

A veteran Russian cosmonaut and two spaceflight rookies rocketed into orbit from a Kazakh launch base Wednesday on the first flight of a new-generation Soyuz capsule, kicking off a two-day pursuit of the International Space Station.