Test launch of Russia’s heavy-lift Angara rocket marred by upper stage failure

An Angara A5 rocket lifts off Dec. 27 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense The third test launch of Russia’s heavy-lift Angara A5 rocket Dec. 27 was marred by an upper stage failure that stranded a dummy payload in a low orbit. The Angara A5 rocket launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, located in Russia’s Arkhangelsk region about 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow, at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) on Dec. 27, according...

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Webb telescope begins unfurling tennis court-sized sunshield

Artist’s concept of the James Webb Space Telescope with one half of its sunshield deployed. Credit: NASA Flying outbound from Earth at a distance of more than 400,000 miles, the James Webb Space Telescope extended one of two booms Friday to begin unfurling the mission’s five-layer sunshield. With the port-side boom deployed, work is underway tonight to extend another boom on the starboard side. The critical deployments mark some of the most nail-biting...

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Webb ready for critical work to open sunshield

JWST’s sunshield deployment during a ground test at Northrop Grumman. Credit: NASA The James Webb Space Telescope opened covers that protected the mission’s folded sunshield Thursday, and deployed a momentum flap to help the observatory balance against the unending light pressure from the sun. The steps pave the way for a critical three days of work to open the sunshield and tension all five of its ultra-thin layers, made of kapton with aluminum...

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OneWeb adds 36 more satellites to internet network

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifts off Dec. 27 with 36 OneWeb satellites. Credit: Roscosmos A Russian Soyuz rocket launched Monday with 36 more OneWeb internet satellites, the 12th of 19 Soyuz missions needed to deliver into orbit the company’s first-generation network of nearly 650 spacecraft. The mission took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 8:10:37 a.m. EST (1310:37 GMT), or 6:10 p.m. local time at the historic cosmodrome in Central...

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Long March 7A rocket deploys two Chinese tech demo satellites

A Long March 7A rocket lifts off Dec. 23 from the Wenchang space center. Credit: CASC China launched two classified Shiyan satellites Dec. 23 into a geostationary transfer orbit aboard a Long March 7A rocket, one of the country’s newest launch vehicles. The mission took off from China’s Wenchang launch base on Hainan Island. The 199-foot-tall (60.7-meter) rocket launched from Wenchang at 5:12 a.m. EST (1012 GMT) on Dec. 23, according to the China...

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Telescope tower extends on Webb observatory

Artist’s illustration of Webb’s configuration as of Dec. 29, with its Deployable Tower Assembly extended. Credit: NASA The James Webb Space Telescope extended a four-foot tower Wednesday to give the observatory’s mirrors and instruments, designed to function at cryogenic temperatures, enough separation from the hot side of the spacecraft after the mission’s sunshield deploys over the next few days. Webb’s Deployable Tower Assembly moved the telescope’s...

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Former Astronaut Rich Clifford Dies, Aged 69

Former @NASA_Astronauts Rich Clifford died Tuesday, aged 69. He was one of the 1st U.S. astronauts to spacewalk outside Russia's Mir space station. from AmericaSpace https://ift.tt/3ECwvMa via World Space In...

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High-stakes sunshield deployment begins on Webb telescope

Artist’s illustration of the Webb telescope’s sunshield pallet opening. Credit: NASA Mission controllers started the risky process Tuesday to unfurl the James Webb Space Telescope’s sunshield, a five-layer thermal barrier necessary to give the observatory infrared vision into the distant universe. Two large pallets containing the sunshield membranes were folded up on each side of Webb’s primary mirror for launch. Now, with Webb on course toward...

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Webb telescope completes first course correction burn, deploys main antenna

  A view of the circular high-gain antenna in its stowed position on the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now The James Webb Space Telescope fired its rocket thrusters for the first time late Saturday to line up for course toward an observing post nearly a million miles from Earth, then deployed a high-rate communications antenna Sunday to transmit science data to the ground. The milestones were the first major...

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Live coverage: Soyuz rocket set for launch with more OneWeb satellites

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with 36 OneWeb broadband satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Arianespace webcast Roscosmos webcast Arianespace’s live video stream begins at approximately 7:30 a.m. EST (1230 GMT) and is in English. Roscosmos’s live video stream begins at approximately 7 a.m. EST (1200 GMT) and is in Russian. from Spaceflight Now https://ift.tt/32txfpM via World Space In...

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Webb telescope finally leaves Earth in search of light from first galaxies

An Ariane 5 rocket, propelled by a main engine and two solid-fueled boosters, leaps off the pad at the Guiana Space Center with the James Webb Space Telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope, a NASA-led international collaboration that took nearly 30 years and $10 billion to get to the launch pad, finally left Earth with a Christmas morning rocket ride from a European spaceport in South America, setting off on a mission to hunt for the first light...

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Live coverage: Countdown begins for launch of James Webb Space Telescope

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of an Ariane 5 rocket with the James Webb Space Telescope. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter. NASA TV will provide live video coverage of the Ariane 5 launch with JWST beginning at 3 a.m. EST (0800 GMT) on Dec. 25. The launch window opens at 7:20 a.m. EST (1220 GMT). from Spaceflight Now https://ift.tt/32psCgn via World Space In...

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Webb’s fate hinges on high-risk sunshade, mirror deployments

If you want to see the faint, stretched-out light from the first stars and galaxies that began shining at the end of the cosmic dark ages a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, you’re going to need a big telescope. But not just any big telescope. You’re going to need to put it in space where it will have to operate at a few degrees above absolute zero to register the exceedingly faint infrared traces of that bygone era, detecting light...

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