Hurricane – Page 2 – Spaceflight Now

NASA flight controllers shelter in place during storm

August 27, 2017 William Harwood

Flight controllers and other essential personnel at NASA’s Johnson Space Center just south of Houston are sheltering in place, maintaining contact with the International Space Station during torrential rain and flooding across south Texas from the slow-moving remnants of Hurricane Harvey.

Flock of ‘microsats’ launched to measure winds inside hurricanes

December 15, 2016 Stephen Clark

A winged Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket dropped from the belly of a carrier jet off the east coast of Florida and fired into orbit Thursday with eight research satellites to fly around the tropics and return measurements of winds at the cores of hurricanes.

Hydraulic pump glitch scrubs Pegasus launch

December 12, 2016 Stephen Clark

Trouble with a hydraulic pump needed to release Orbital ATK’s air-launched Pegasus XL rocket from its carrier jet Monday has delayed the deployment of eight NASA hurricane research satellites until at least Wednesday.

Pegasus XL launch timeline with NASA’s CYGNSS microsats

December 12, 2016 Stephen Clark

Orbital ATK’s Pegasus XL rocket will take about eight minutes to reach orbit with NASA’s eight CYGNSS weather research microsatellites, then comes deployment of the spacecraft more than 300 miles above Earth.

Live coverage: Pegasus rocket successfully fires into orbit

December 12, 2016 Stephen Clark

An Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket carrying eight hurricane research satellites for NASA fired into orbit Thursday at 8:37 a.m. EST (1337 GMT) off the east coast of Florida.

Photos: Orbital ATK’s temporary Pegasus home base at Cape Canaveral

December 11, 2016 Stephen Clark

Take a look around the L-1011 jetliner, Pegasus rocket, and ground support gear at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Skid Strip for Monday’s scheduled launch of eight microsatellites to listen for winds inside hurricanes.

Video: Inside the CYGNSS satellite factory and the Pegasus carrier aircraft

December 11, 2016 Stephen Clark

Spaceflight Now visited the CYGNSS production facility at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio and the Pegasus XL rocket’s carrier plane at Cape Canaveral for rare looks at hardware that make NASA’s $157 million hurricane research mission possible.

Photos: Hurricane research satellites readied for launch

December 10, 2016 Stephen Clark

Eight miniature weather observatories, each the size of a piece of carry-on luggage, were installed on a specially-designed deployer module and mounted on the front end of an air-launched Pegasus XL rocket to prepare for Monday’s flight into orbit.

NASA-funded satellite fleet could give hurricane forecasting a boost

December 10, 2016 Stephen Clark

Eight mini-satellites packed snug inside a Pegasus rocket slung under a modified jumbo jet will fire into orbit Monday off Florida’s East Coast, launching on a $157 million NASA mission that could help forecasters better predict how strong hurricanes will be when they strike land.

Video: Preview briefing on NASA’s CYGNSS mission to improve hurricane forecasting

November 10, 2016 Justin Ray

Learn about the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System — NASA’s fleet of hurricane-tracking satellites — launching together on Dec. 12 from Cape Canaveral aboard a Pegasus rocket.