NASA – Page 84 – Spaceflight Now

Rocket Lab sets new target date for first operational launch

October 31, 2018 Stephen Clark

Rocket Lab announced this week it has added two more nanosatellites to the first operational launch of the company’s Electron rocket, which is now scheduled to take off from New Zealand no earlier than Nov. 10, U.S. time, after a multi-month delay to resolve a technical problem.

NASA’s trailblazing Kepler telescope ends planet hunt

October 30, 2018 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Kepler telescope has run out of fuel and ended science operations, closing out a pioneering decade-long mission that showed planets are commonplace across our galaxy, agency officials said Tuesday.

NASA administrator says Russians on track for December Soyuz flight to station

October 23, 2018 William Harwood

Russian engineers have a “really, really good idea” about what went wrong during a Soyuz launch to the International Space Station Oct. 11, forcing the ship’s two-man crew to carry out an emergency abort, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Tuesday. He added that he expects the Russians to resume piloted Soyuz flights in December.

Pegasus rocket launch postponed

October 23, 2018 Stephen Clark

Continuing a series of delays keeping NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer on Earth, NASA announced Tuesday that the satellite’s launch aboard an air-dropped Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket will not occur as scheduled Friday.

NASA astronaut unfazed by frightening launch abort

October 16, 2018 William Harwood

Two minutes after launch aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket last week, NASA astronaut Nick Hague knew something had gone badly wrong.

Safety panel says much work left to do before commercial crew ships fly

October 13, 2018 Stephen Clark

NASA safety advisors on Thursday lauded hardware milestones on Boeing and SpaceX commercial crew capsules, but said multiple technical issues, including problems with parachutes, must be resolved before the human-rated ships are ready to carry astronauts, adding that both companies continue to pursue schedules that appear to be unachievable.

Soyuz failure probe narrows focus on collision at booster separation

October 13, 2018 Stephen Clark

Russian investigators believe a malfunction during separation of the Soyuz rocket’s four liquid-fueled first stage boosters two minutes after liftoff from Kazakhstan led to an emergency landing of a two-man crew heading for the International Space Station, officials said Friday.

Multiple replays of the Soyuz launch and abort

October 12, 2018 Spaceflight Now

Replays from cameras at the Baikonur Cosmodrome capture the launch of a Soyuz booster from different angles.

Soyuz crew lands safely after emergency launch abort

October 11, 2018 William Harwood

A normally reliable Soyuz FG rocket malfunctioned two minutes after liftoff from Kazakhstan Thursday, forcing a Russian cosmonaut and his NASA crewmate to execute an emergency abort and a steep-but-safe return to Earth a few hundred miles from the launch site. Russian recovery crews reported the crew came through the ordeal in good shape.

Watch a replay of the Soyuz launch and abort

October 11, 2018 Spaceflight Now

Watch as Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Nick Hague launch aboard a Soyuz rocket bound for the International Space Station but a Soyuz booster failure cut short their ascent into orbit.