University of Colorado – Spaceflight Now

NASA says goodbye to Kepler planet-hunter

November 18, 2018

Ground controllers have beamed the final commands to NASA’s Kepler telescope, turning off the spacecraft’s transmitters and disabling the craft’s automatic recovery software after the planet-hunting observatory ran out of fuel last month.

Photos: European Ariane 5 rocket climbs into space from French Guiana

January 29, 2018

An Ariane 5 rocket soared into orbit from French Guiana on Jan. 25 with the commercial SES 14 and Al Yah 3 communications satellite, but the launcher missed its mark and released the telecom craft into an unplanned orbit.

Probe into off-target Ariane 5 launch begins, SES and Yahsat payloads healthy

January 26, 2018

Arianespace will convene an independent inquiry board chaired by a top European Space Agency official to investigate why an Ariane 5 rocket flew off course Thursday night after liftoff from French Guiana with the SES 14 and Al Yah 3 telecom satellites, but both payloads will be salvaged to accomplish their planned missions, officials said Friday.

Ariane 5 deploys two telecom satellites in orbit despite telemetry loss

January 26, 2018

A European Ariane 5 rocket took off from French Guiana and delivered two commercial communications satellites and a NASA scientific package to orbit Thursday after an unexpected radio blackout raised worries that the mission failed. But questions lingered early Friday about the accuracy of the payload deployments.

Video: Ariane 5 makes a smooth blastoff before mission runs into trouble

January 26, 2018

A 180-foot-tall Ariane 5 rocket climbed into space from French Guiana on Thursday evening, but the mission ran into problems a few minutes later.

Video: Arianespace chief Stephane Israel announces launch anomaly

January 25, 2018

Arianespace chief executive Stephane Israel announced an anomaly occurred during Thursday’s flight of an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, shortly after the launcher’s second stage engine ignited.

NASA science instrument ready to study critical space weather boundary zone

January 25, 2018

A $66 million NASA-funded science sensor package bolted on to a commercial communications satellite is ready for a ride toward a 22,000-mile-high orbital perch Thursday on a European Ariane 5 rocket, commencing a two-year mission surveying a rarely-studied region of Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Live coverage: Ariane 5 lifts off from French Guiana

January 25, 2018

A European Ariane 5 rocket delivered two commercial communications satellites to orbit Thursday after Arianespace’s ground team lost telemetry from the launcher during its climb into orbit, raising concerns that the mission might have failed. The SES 14 and Al Yah 3 satellites are confirmed in orbit and healthy, but the parameters of their orbits are unknown. Both were heading toward 22,000-mile-high geostationary perches over the equator.

Build-up of Ariane 5 rocket complete for launch Thursday

January 23, 2018

The first Ariane 5 rocket scheduled for launch in 2018 has been topped off with two communications satellites for SES and Yahsat, moving the European booster closer to liftoff Thursday from a tropical launch pad in French Guiana with payloads to serve commercial and scientific missions.

Scientists say thinning atmosphere drove the drying and cooling of Mars

March 27, 2017

Data collected by NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft in its first two years at Mars confirm suspicions that the solar wind is blasting away the planet’s atmosphere and helped transform the world from a warmer, wetter and potentially habitable world into the barren landscape seen today, scientists said.