Astronomy – Spaceflight Now

Controllers troubleshoot problem with Hubble camera

January 10, 2019

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.

India’s first astronomy satellite launched into space

September 28, 2015

An Indian astronomical observatory rocketed into orbit Monday to study black holes and neutron stars — the compact, powerful remnants of exploded stars — in a five-year mission lauded as a milestone in India’s space program.

Japanese X-ray observatory completes decade-long mission

September 4, 2015

An orbiting astronomical observatory launched 10 years ago to probe violent stellar explosions and black holes has been deactivated after it stopped regularly communicating with the ground, the Japanese space agency said Thursday.

NASA picks candidates for new space telescope

August 3, 2015

NASA has selected three finalists for a new Explorer-class astrophysics satellite mission scheduled to launch by the end of 2020, and two of the proposals aim to fulfill similar goals to an X-ray telescope shelved after cost overruns in 2012.

Fixing Hubble’s blurry vision

April 23, 2015

The second report in our series marking the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s launch looks at the observatory’s flawed mirror and the Herculean effort to fix it.