Falcon 9
Space Station
Mission Reports
Astronauts perform third spacewalk to fix cosmic ray detector
After prepping their patient — a $2 billion cosmic ray detector — during two earlier spacewalks, two space station astronauts ventured back outside for a third outing Monday to carry out what amounted to transplant surgery, installing replacement coolant pumps in a bid to revive the costly instrument and extend its life.
Falcon 9
Mission Reports
Mission Reports
Astronauts complete bonus objectives in first in series of AMS repair spacewalks
Two astronauts ventured outside the International Space Station Friday for the first of four spacewalks to repair a $2 billion cosmic ray detector, breezing through work to prep the device for invasive surgery to splice in new coolant pumps and extend the instrument’s life probing the composition of the universe.
Mission Reports
Complex spacewalk repair work begins Friday
After four years of brainstorming, custom tool development and training, two astronauts plan to venture outside the International Space Station Friday for the first of four spacewalks to repair a $2 billion cosmic ray detector. The excursions are considered the most challenging since work to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
Mission Reports
Next three-man Soyuz crew training to have space station to themselves
The next three-man crew to launch on a Soyuz rocket — comprising two Russian cosmonauts and a veteran NASA astronaut — is training to have the International Space Station to themselves after their arrival at the orbiting research outpost in April, at least until new U.S. commercial crew ships enter service.
Mission Reports
Space station receives spacewalking gear, new baking oven
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir took control of the International Space Station’s Canadian-built robot arm Monday to capture a Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship carrying crew provisions, spacewalking gear to repair an aging particle physics experiment, tech demo satellites for the U.S. military, and an oven to bake the first cookies in space.
Antares Launcher
Space station resupply mission successfully launches from Virginia
A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket, upgraded to carry heavier payloads into orbit, lifted off Saturday from a launch pad on Virginia’s Eastern Shore with a Cygnus supply ship in pursuit of the International Space Station with fresh food, a collection of biological and technology demonstration experiments, a zero-g baking oven, and repair gear for an aging $2 billion particle physics experiment.
Antares Launcher
Repair equipment for particle physics experiment aboard next station cargo launch
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus supply ship set for liftoff Saturday will deliver to the International Space Station the final hardware for a series of ambitious spacewalks later this month to install a new coolant system on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a $2 billion particle physics experiment seeking the cosmic signatures of dark matter and antimatter.