Launch – Page 63 – Spaceflight Now

Payloads revealed for next flight of X-37B military spaceplane

May 6, 2020 Stephen Clark

The next flight of the U.S. military’s reusable X-37B spaceplane — scheduled for liftoff May 16 from Cape Canaveral — will carry more experiments into orbit than any of the winged ship’s previous missions, including two payloads for NASA and a small deployable satellite built by Air Force Academy cadets.

SpaceX test-fires Raptor engine on Starship test rocket

May 6, 2020 Stephen Clark

A test-firing of a Raptor engine on the latest in a series of Starship test rockets Tuesday night in Texas moved SpaceX closer to performing a low-altitude “hop” to gather data on the vehicle’s launch and landing characteristics.

NASA plans to launch first two Gateway elements on same rocket

May 6, 2020 Stephen Clark

Aiming to reduce risk and costs, NASA has decided to launch the first two modules of the Gateway station in lunar orbit on the same heavy-lift rocket in 2023, rather than fly them on separate rockets and dock them together in deep space, according to the the agency’s chief human spaceflight manager.

China’s first Long March 5B rocket launches on crew capsule test flight

May 5, 2020 Stephen Clark

Flying without astronauts on a demonstration flight in Earth orbit, a test model of a next-generation Chinese crew capsule lifted off Tuesday on top of a heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket, the same launcher configuration that will loft segments of China’s planned space station.

Virgin Orbit’s first launch could happen later this month

May 4, 2020 Stephen Clark

Virgin Orbit could attempt its first orbital test launch later this month over the Pacific Ocean southwest of Los Angeles, capping a development program for an air-launched small satellite carrier that began in earnest eight years ago.

China to debut new version of powerful Long March 5 rocket this week

May 4, 2020 Stephen Clark

A prototype for China’s next-generation human-rated spacecraft — flying on a test flight without astronauts — is scheduled to ride a new version of the country’s heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket into orbit this week.

SpaceX aces last Dragon parachute test before crew launch

May 3, 2020 Stephen Clark

SpaceX completed Friday the last drop test of the Dragon crew capsule’s parachutes before the first launch of astronauts on the human-rated ship May 27, while technicians at Cape Canaveral have mated the spacecraft’s crew module with its unpressurized trunk section.

Hopeful for launch next year, NASA aims to resume SLS operations within weeks

May 1, 2020 Stephen Clark

With the Space Launch System’s inaugural test flight now officially delayed to November 2021, NASA says work halted by the coronavirus pandemic will resume within weeks to prepare for the first test-firing of the SLS core stage at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

SpaceX to debut satellite-dimming sunshade on Starlink launch next month

April 28, 2020 Stephen Clark

A new sunshade, or visor, designed to reduce the brightness of SpaceX’s Starlink broadband Internet satellites will debut on the company’s next launch, a measure intended to alleviate astronomers’ concerns about impacts on observations through ground-based telescopes, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Monday.

Falcon Heavy set for design validation milestone before late 2020 launch

April 27, 2020 Stephen Clark

The U.S. Space Force expects to complete design validation on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket by July, ahead of the launch of the military’s first high-priority national security mission on the heavy-lifter late this year.