X-rays – Page 3 – Spaceflight Now

Russia ships X-ray astronomy satellite to launch site

April 25, 2019 Stephen Clark

A Russian X-ray astronomy satellite with major contributions from German and U.S. scientists and instrument developers arrived Thursday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a launch in June aboard a Proton rocket.

Study teams comb through NASA’s wish list for new telescope

July 21, 2017 Stephen Clark

Scientists outlining four concepts for a powerful new space telescope that could launch in the 2030s this week said improvements in optics, detectors and access to huge new rockets like NASA’s Space Launch System could revolutionize the way astronomers observe potentially habitable planets, black holes, and the earliest galaxies in the universe.

JAXA, NASA approve replacement for failed Hitomi astronomy satellite

July 6, 2017 Stephen Clark

The Japanese space agency is moving ahead with a smaller-scale X-ray astronomy satellite to replace the failed Hitomi observatory, which spun out of control about a month-and-a-half after its launch last year.

Chinese astronomy satellite placed into orbit by Long March rocket

June 15, 2017 Stephen Clark

China’s first X-ray astronomy satellite launched Thursday on a mission to survey the Milky Way galaxy for black holes and pulsars, the remnants left behind after a star burns up its nuclear fuel.

Photos: Falcon 9 rocket takes flight with station-bound cargo craft

June 6, 2017 Stephen Clark

Here’s another batch of photos from Saturday’s Falcon 9 launch from Florida’s Space Coast with nearly 6,000 pounds of supplies heading for the International Space Station.

Dragon supply ship delivers to space station for second time

June 5, 2017 Stephen Clark

A commercial Dragon cargo craft wrapped up a two-day trip to the International Space Station on Monday with a glacial laser-guided final approach before astronauts grasped the supply ship with a robotic arm, completing the refurbished capsule’s second journey to the orbiting research complex.

Japan’s Hitomi observatory made cosmic discovery before failing

July 7, 2016 Stephen Clark

Japan’s doomed Hitomi observatory peeled back a veil on the inner workings of the Perseus cluster of galaxies before the satellite spun out of control earlier this year, revealing in unprecedented detail how gas heated to millions of degrees behaves around an unseen supermassive black hole, scientists said Wednesday.

Japan gives up on rescuing black hole observatory

April 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

Japan’s space agency says it has ceased efforts to rescue a failed X-ray astronomy satellite after it spun out of control and broke apart in orbit, declaring the nearly $400 million mission lost two months after its launch.

Attitude control failures led to break-up of Japanese astronomy satellite

April 18, 2016 Stephen Clark

Japan’s Hitomi X-ray observatory, beset by an attitude control problem that has disrupted communications since March 29, may have shed one of its power-generating solar panels or deployable telescope in orbit and is spinning too fast to contact ground controllers, officials said.

U.S. military rules out collision as cause of Hitomi satellite’s woes

March 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

As Japanese ground controllers struggle to restore communications with a tumbling space telescope in orbit, the U.S. military’s space surveillance experts have eliminated one cause for the satellite’s troubles.