Category: Space
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ULA launches WGS 7 satellite
This evening United Launch Alliance launched the seventh Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) military communications satellite aboard its Delta IV rocket. The launch, which was delayed yesterday due to stormy weather, proceeded with a smooth countdown this afternoon resulting in the Delta IV lifting off at 8:07 pm EDT. Once in orbit the 2nd stage will…
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TMA-17M Docks with ISS
Following the successful launch earlier the Soyuz TMA-17M carrying Oleg Kononenko, Kimiya Yui and Kjell Lindgren arrived at the international Space Station following a four orbit journey. After the launch it became clear that as with TMA-14M one of the solar panels had not deployed correctly, this didn’t impact the docking and as before the…
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Soyuz TMA-17M launches to ISS
Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren launched this evening from Baikonur Cosmodrome towards the International Space Station. Once in orbit the spacecraft deployed its solar panels and KURS docking antenna’s before beginning the six hours, four orbit chase of the ISS. We will follow up with an article…
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SpaceX releases preliminary data on 6/28 Falcon 9 failure
More than three weeks ago during the launch of the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station the Falcon 9 second stage suffered an anomaly that resulted in the lost of the spacecraft and its payloads. Today Elon Musk announced that the preliminary investigation into the accident indicates that a strut inside the Liquid Oxygen…
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Is No News Good News for the #SpaceX accident
On the 5th July Elon Tweeted the following Expect to reach preliminary conclusions regarding last flight by end of week. Will brief key customers & FAA, then post on our website. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2015 However it is now 11 days later and we still haven’t heard any news on what caused…
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Ariane 5 launches two satellites
In the second launch of the day an Arianespace Ariane 5 ECA rocket lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana carrying the Star One C4 and MSG-4 satellites. The flight was delayed from the original launch date due to oil contamination which has since been resolved, the countdown today ran smoothly allowed the rocket to lift…
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New Horizons Phones Home
Following this mornings flyby of Pluto the New Horizons spacecraft has phoned home. And tomorrow morning it will starting returning the high priority data from its numerous observations. The spacecraft which was launched in Jan, 2006 has traveled more than 3.2 billion miles to reach the Pluto system, during the 9.5 years of travel most of…
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Was the SpaceX accident due to Sabotage?
As we continue to wait for information from SpaceX on the cause of the Jun 28th accident that resulted in the loss of the CRS-7 mission a number of people have asked this question. Today we want to look at this scenario and see just how unlikely it is. It is no secret that SpaceX…
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And now we wait #PlutoFlyby
New Horizons has completed its closest approach to Pluto with a historic flyby at 7:50am EDT today, however we will not hear back from the spacecraft for another 12 hours as it will now turn around and continue observations as it moves away from the system, this time with our Sun in the background. The…
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T-1 days until #PlutoFlyby
By this time tomorrow NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will be zooming past the Dwarf Plant Pluto capturing details of the planet from just 12,500 km (7,800 mi) away closer than any spacecraft has ever been. The spacecraft is now deep in the encounter mode of operation, this means that if anything goes wrong it will…