Stephen Clark – Page 3 – Astronomy Now

BepiColombo flies by Earth, completing first leg of journey to Mercury

12 April 2020 Stephen Clark

Working with a reduced staff due to coronavirus-related restrictions, European Space Agency flight controllers monitored the BepiColombo spacecraft during a flyby of Earth on Friday, a maneuver that used our planet’s gravity to steer the mission on a course toward Mercury.

Swarm of NASA nanosats to probe source of solar eruptions

10 April 2020 Stephen Clark

NASA has selected a mission to dispatch six CubeSats, each the size of a toaster oven, to an orbit more than 32,000 kilometres from Earth to study massive particle ejections from the sun.

European Space Agency says Solar Orbiter launch delayed to 7 February

26 January 2020 Stephen Clark

Officials have delayed the launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket with the European-built Solar Orbiter spacecraft from Cape Canaveral by two days to Feb. 7, a ripple effect from time spent fixing a minor issue last week during a launch vehicle countdown dress rehearsal.

CHEOPS launched on follow-up exoplanet research mission

24 December 2019 Stephen Clark

The European Space Agency’s CHEOPs satellite is now in space for an ambitious mission to study already-discovered exoplanets in more detail.

British-built solar probe shipping to Florida launch site before Brexit

24 October 2019 Stephen Clark

The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft — assembled in Britain and set for liftoff in February — has completed environmental testing in Germany and is scheduled to ride a cargo plane to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin launch preparations 31 October, several weeks earlier than planned to avoid complications stemming from Brexit.

Hubble observes interstellar visitor

16 October 2019 Stephen Clark

The Hubble Space Telescope has returned an image of a comet that originated outside our Solar System, providing astronomers with their best view yet of an interstellar visitor.

NASA lunar orbiter to image Chandrayaan 2 landing site

13 September 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will try to locate India’s Vikram lander on the moon during a flyover of the landing site Tuesday. Indian space officials said they found the disabled spacecraft on the moon using the country’s own Chandrayaan 2 orbiter, but declined to release any images.

LightSail team declares success in solar sail experiment

1 August 2019 Stephen Clark

The gentle push of sunlight is slowly changing the orbit of the Planetary Society’s crowd-funded LightSail 2 satellite after it unfurled a thin solar sail the size of a boxing ring last week, officials confirmed Wednesday.

Mars 2020 rover on track for launch next July

31 July 2019 Stephen Clark

The launch of NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is less than a year away, and the steady pace of work inside the craft’s pristine assembly hall in California is keeping the mission on schedule for liftoff from Cape Canaveral next July, despite growing costs, according to mission managers.

India launches robotic mission to land on the Moon

22 July 2019 Stephen Clark

Seeking to become the fourth nation to successfully land on the moon, India launched an ambitious robotic lunar mission named Chandrayaan 2 on Monday, targeting a touchdown near the lunar south pole Sept. 6.