by Kerry Sheridan Agence France Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) — NASA on Sunday launched a $1.5 billion spacecraft toward the Sun on a historic mission to protect the Earth by unveiling the mysteries of dangerous solar storms. “Three, two, one, zero, and liftoff! Of the mighty Delta IV Heavy rocket with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, a daring mission to shed light on the mysteries of our closest star, the Sun,” said the narrator […]
Tag: aerospace
NASA counts down to launch of first spacecraft to ‘touch Sun’
by Kerry Sheridan Agence France-Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) – NASA counted down Friday to the launch of a $1.5 billion spacecraft that aims to plunge into the Sun’s sizzling atmosphere and become humanity’s first mission to explore a star. The car-sized Parker Solar Probe is scheduled to blast off on a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida early Saturday. The 65-minute launch window opens at 3:33 am (0733 GMT), and the weather forecast is […]
Airbus to sell 60 smaller planes to JetBlue
NEW YORK, United States (AFP)–Airbus announced Tuesday a deal to sell US airline JetBlue 60 airplanes that were formerly part of Canadian manufacturer Bombardier’s C series. It was the first contract since the aircraft were rechristened by the European aerospace giant as the A220-300, which can carry between 100 and 150 passengers. Airbus signed a memorandum of understanding with US carrier JetBlue for a contract worth about $5.4 billion based on list prices, the company […]
‘Flying brain’ designed to follow German astronaut launches Friday
by Kerry Sheridan Agence France-Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) – A floating, ball-shaped, artificial intelligence robot, specially trained to follow around a German astronaut at the International Space Station, is scheduled to blast off Friday on its ground-breaking mission. The basketball-sized device called CIMON — shortened from Crew Interactive MObile CompanioN — was described as a “flying brain” by Manfred Jaumann, head of microgravity payloads at Airbus. It launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Friday […]
NASA plans to send mini-helicopter to Mars
by Kerry Sheridan Agence France Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) — The US space agency said Friday it plans to launch the first-ever helicopter to Mars in 2020, a miniature, unmanned drone-like chopper that could boost our understanding of the Red Planet. Known simply as “The Mars Helicopter,” the device weighs less than four pounds (1.8 kilograms), and its main body section, or fuselage, is about the size of a softball. It will be […]
SpaceX launches world’s most powerful rocket toward Mars
CAPE CANAVERAL, United States (AFP) — The world’s most powerful rocket, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, blasted off Tuesday on its highly anticipated maiden test flight, carrying CEO Elon Musk’s cherry red Tesla roadster to an orbit near Mars. Screams and cheers erupted at Cape Canaveral, Florida as the massive rocket fired its 27 engines and rumbled into the blue sky over the same NASA launchpad that served as a base for the US missions to Moon four decades […]
SpaceX performs first ‘static fire’ of Falcon Heavy rocket
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — SpaceX on Wednesday test-fired its Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time in a launch pad experiment aimed at giving its main engines a trial workout before blasting off in the coming days. Touted as the “world’s most powerful rocket,” the Falcon Heavy is designed to one day carry crew and supplies to deep space destinations such as the Moon and Mars. “Falcon Heavy hold-down firing this morning was good. […]
SpaceX says rocket worked fine as spy satellite reported lost
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — A SpaceX rocket worked fine in its weekend launch of a secretive government satellite, named Zuma, the company said Tuesday after reports the payload did not make it into orbit. “For clarity: after reviewing of all data to date, Falcon 9 did everything correctly on Sunday night,” said Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of California-based SpaceX. “If we or others find otherwise based on further review, we will […]
UPDATE: Russia loses contact with Angolan satellite
by Olga Rotenberg and Anna Smolchenko Agence France-Presse moscow, Russia (AFP) — Russia has lost contact with Angola’s first national telecoms satellite launched from the Baikonur space pad, its maker said Wednesday — a fresh embarrassment for Moscow’s once proud space industry. The incident involving the Russian-made Angosat-1 followed a similar one in November when Russia lost contact with a weather satellite launched from a new cosmodrome in the country’s far east. Energia, Russia’s top […]
Russia loses contact with Angolan satellite — space industry source
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia has lost contact with Angosat-1, the first national telecoms satellite for Angola launched from its Baikonur space pad, a source in the space industry told AFP on Wednesday. “Contact has temporarily been lost,” the source told AFP by telephone, adding specialists were now looking into the matter. © Agence France-Presse
Russia launches telecoms satellite for Angola
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia on Tuesday launched a rocket carrying Angosat-1, the first national telecoms satellite for Angola, from its Baikonur space pad, with rare use of a rocket from Ukraine despite collapsed ties between the two nations. Live footage aired by Roscosmos space corporation showed the spacecraft take off into the night from the freezing launch pad in Kazakhstan. It reached initial orbit shortly after. The Zenit-2SB rocket carrying Angosat to orbit was […]
SpaceX postpones launch of secretive Zuma mission
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — SpaceX on Thursday postponed the launch of a secretive US government payload known as Zuma, a mission whose nature — and the agency behind it — is a mystery. “We have decided to stand down and take a closer look at data from recent fairing testing for another customer,” SpaceX said in a statement issued late Thursday about two hours before the planned launch window was to open. The fairing is the […]





