SpaceX announced Monday two new Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rocket missions from Cape Canaveral, Arianespace said it cinched a contract to launch a Japanese TV broadcasting satellite, and International Launch Services revealed a deal to launch a Spanish telecommunications payload, ending a drought in commercial Proton launch orders.
Three space station crew members — two short timers completing a 10-day flight and a veteran cosmonaut who has logged a world record 879 days aloft over five missions — undocked from the International Space Station and returned to Earth Friday, landing safely on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a problem-free flight.
Fresh views from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft released Thursday reveal diverse landscapes on Pluto, possible dune fields, mysterious channels, and nitrogen ice flows in greater detail than ever before, but it is just the tip of the iceberg as data from the far-flung probe resumes streaming back to Earth.
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