Orbital Science Antares rocket launch delayed - Boat in Safe Zone

Orbital Sciences postponed its planned launch of the Cygnus cargo ship toward the International Space Station on Monday due to a boat in the waters near the Virginia launch pad.

"Tonight's launch of the Antares rocket carrying the Cygnus cargo craft has been scrubbed," a NASA commentator said on the US space agency's live broadcast.

The boat was located inside the rocket's designated safety range, just to the southeast, and Orbital decided it was too risky to send the rocket soaring overhead.

Attempts to contact the boat were unsuccessful, NASA said, and the liftoff had to be scrubbed 10 minutes before it was scheduled to go.

"Tonight's Antares launch has been postponed because of a ship in the mariner avoidance area," Orbital said on its launch blog.

The next launch attempt is expected Tuesday at 6:19 pm (2219 GMT).

The cargo ship is aiming to make its third contracted mission with NASA, carrying nearly 5,000 pounds (2,200 kilograms) of supplies and science experiments for the six orbiting astronauts.

Russian-US ISS crew blast off from Kazakhstan - Arrival Delayed

A crew of two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut blasted off Tuesday from Kazakhstan on a Russian Soyuz rocket for the International Space Station, with US-Russia space cooperation continuing amicably, despite the diplomatic standoff over Ukraine.

Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev along with Steve Swanson of NASA took off in a spectacular night-time launch at the start of a fast-track six-hour journey to the orbiting laboratory, where they will spend half a year.

All the stages of the launch went without a hitch and the Soyuz capsule successfully went into the correct orbit.

Docking with the ISS was expected at 03:04 GMT Wednesday but this has been delayed until 07:58 Thursday.

After the retirement of the US shuttle, NASA is for now wholly reliant on Russia for delivering astronauts to the space station on its tried-and-trusted Soyuz launch and capsule system.

Space officials have made clear that space cooperation, one of the few areas of genuine mutual work between Russia and the United States, will continue unaffected by the mounting diplomatic strains that have seen the US impose sanctions on Russian officials over Moscow's seizure of Crimea.

A yellow toy duck nicknamed "quack" given to Swanson by his daughter hung in the cockpit and started floating a few minutes into launch as the crew started to experience weightlessness.

-'We'll live together peacefully'-

Arrival Delayed
The next trio of crew members destined for the International Space Station is now looking forward to a Thursday arrival at the orbiting laboratory after their Soyuz spacecraft was unable to complete its third thruster burn to fine-tune its approach. 

Flight controllers in the Mission Control Center outside Moscow are now reverting to a backup 34-orbit rendezvous, which would result in an arrival and docking at 7:58 p.m. EDT Thursday, March 27.

NASA Orion EFT-1: First Test Flight of Orion Space Capsule delayed until December

Artist's concept of a ULA Delta 4 Heavy rocket standing poised on the pad ready to launch NASA's Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1).

The first flight of Orion is now slated for December 2014.

Credit: NASA

he countdown to the maiden launch of Orion, a NASA space capsule designed to take astronauts out into the solar system, is now three months longer than previously planned.

The space agency on Friday (March 14) announced that it was retargeting the first flight of its Orion spacecraft from autumn to just before winter this year.

"The Orion team continues to work toward completing the spacecraft to be ready for a launch in [the] September [to] October [period]," NASA stated on its website.

"However, the initial timeframe for the launch of the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) has shifted ... to early December to support allowing more opportunities for launches this year."



The EFT-1 mission will fly the Orion capsule to an altitude of approximately 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) above the Earth's surface, more than 15 times farther out than where the International Space Station (ISS) orbits.

By flying out to those distances, NASA will be able to judge how Orion performs in, and returns from, deep-space journeys.

Flying atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 Heavy rocket, EFT-1 precedes the first flight of the Orion capsule on its intended launch vehicle, NASA's new Space Launch System (SLS), targeted for 2017.

By 2021, NASA plans to send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft on a mission to the vicinity of the moon to rendezvous with a redirected asteroid, before ultimately launching a crew to Mars in the 2030s.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launch delayed: Robonaut-2B waits for its new legs on Space Station

Robonaut R2A waving goodbye as Robonaut R2B launches into space aboard STS-133 from the Kennedy Space Center. 

R2 is the first humanoid robot in space. 

Credit: Joe Bibby

Unfortunately, R2 was designed without legs, as a desktop robotic unit but a set of new legs were designed, developed and built to complete R2.

R2 was meant to receive these new legs this weekend but the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon, it's cargo craft payload, has been postponed until 30th March 2014.

So, R2 is going to have to wait until then for his new legs.

SpaceX Dragon cargo craft ISS re-supply mission delayed

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is being prepared for launch inside the SpaceX hangar at Cape Canaveral. 

Photo credit: SpaceX 

The next supply run by SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) has been delayed because of what sources described as apparent contamination that could pose problems for research hardware carried by the Dragon spacecraft.

SpaceX was scheduled to launch a cargo ship from Cape Canaveral, Fla., before dawn on Sunday when engineers noticed contamination of some sort on the Dragon's lower unpressurized trunk section..

On Thursday, the private company said it needed more time and postponed the launch for two weeks, until March 30.

Dragon, the unmanned capsule, holds about 2 tons of supplies and experiments.

It will also take up a pair of legs for the humanoid robot at the space station. Until now, Robonaut-2 has been stuck on a pedestal.

Two of six electrically powered payloads aboard the Dragon are mounted in the trunk section, a first for this mission, and engineers were concerned the contamination might "outgas" in orbit and cause problems for the station-bound hardware.

One of the payloads, the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS), "will test the use of laser optics to transfer information to Earth from space," according to the NASA-SpaceX press kit.

The other trunk payload includes four High-Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV), cameras that will be mounted on the station's hull.

Both payloads will be removed from the trunk by the station's robot arm.

By delaying the flight to the end of the month, engineers will have time to correct the problem while making way for the planned March 25 launch of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying three crew members to the international outpost.

This will be the third operational commercial resupply mission carried out by SpaceX under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA that calls for at least 12 flight to deliver some 44,000 pounds of cargo to the space station.

In a brief statement, SpaceX acknowledged the launch delay for the CRS-3 mission, but did not provide any details as to what prompted it.

"To ensure the highest possible level of mission assurance and allow additional time to resolve remaining open items, SpaceX is now targeting March 30th for the CRS-3 mission launch, with April 2nd as a back-up," the company said in an email release.

"These represent the earliest available launch opportunities given existing schedules, and are currently pending approval with the (Air Force Eastern) Range.

ESA GAIA Launch delayed by technical issue

The European Space Agency says it will delay the launch of a galaxy-mapping spacecraft due to a technical issue with some on-board components.

The launch of the Gaia mission -- intended to survey billions of stars to create a precise 3-D map of our Milky Way galaxy -- was postponed Tuesday after a technical issue was identified in another satellite already in orbit that shares some components with the Gaia spacecraft.

To avoid potential problems, the components on Gaia -- two transponders generating timing signals for down-linking the science telemetry -- will be replaced, the ESA's Paris headquarters announced Wednesday.

The transponders will be removed from Gaia, currently at the ESA Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, and returned to Europe where the potentially faulty components will be replaced and verified, the agency said.

The change means it will not be possible to meet the previously targeted launch date of Nov. 20, ESA scientists said; the next available launch window is Dec. 17 to Jan. 20, 2014.

Russian Angara Rocket Launch Delayed until 2014

Angara rockets, designed to provide lifting capabilities of between 2,000 and 40,500 kilograms into low earth orbit, have been in development since 1995.

The launch of Russia's new Angara carrier rocket has been delayed by at least a year, Defense Ministry officials said on Monday.

The light-class Angara is to be launched in mid-2014 and its heavy-class version toward the end of the same year, Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov said.

The light-class Angara was previously due to be launched in 2013.

Deputy Defense Minister Col. Gen. Oleg Ostapenko said in late April that the new rocket would only be launched after the construction of a new facility at the Plesetsk space center is completed.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Monday showed concern over the delays, saying the ministry would closely watch the development of the new rocket as a high priority project.

The development of the Angara is "very important," he said. "I will be regularly reviewing its progress in the course of weekly conference calls with the chief of the General Staff."

The Angara rocket family is a family of space-launch vehicles being developed by the Moscow-based Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center.

The rockets, which are to provide lifting capabilities between 2,000 and 40,500 kg into low earth orbit, are intended to become the mainstay of the Russian unmanned launcher fleet in the future and replace several existing systems. Angara rockets have been in development since 1995.

The rockets have a modular design similar to the US Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), based on a common Universal Rocket Module (URM).

The main purpose of the Angara rocket family is to give Russia independent access to space.

The rockets will reduce Russia's dependence on the Baikonur space center it leases from Kazakhstan by allowing the launch of heavy payloads from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia and from the new Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East.

SpaceX Cargo Capsule: Undocking from ISS and Return to Earth Delayed One Day

SpaceX private cargo capsule's trip home to Earth from the International Space Station has been delayed by one day to Tuesday because of weather concerns near its targeted splashdown site.

SpaceX's unmanned Dragon spacecraft is now scheduled to splash down at 12:36 p.m. EDT (1636 GMT) on Tuesday (March 26) in the Pacific Ocean, 246 miles (396 kilometers) off the coast of Baja California, NASA officials announced Friday (March 22).

Dragon will be carrying about 2,670 pounds (1,210 kilograms) of equipment, hardware and scientific experiments, none of which should be affected by the slight delay, officials said.

"The additional day spent attached to the orbiting laboratory will not affect science samples scheduled to return aboard the spacecraft," NASA officials wrote in a Friday update.

Dragon launched toward the space station on March 1 and arrived two days later with about 1,200 pounds (544 kg) of supplies. The capsule's current mission is the second of 12 cargo deliveries California-based SpaceX is making under a $1.6 billion deal with NASA.

Dragon is slated to be released from the orbiting lab at 7:06 a.m. EDT (1106 GMT) on Tuesday. Its deorbit burn will take place 4 1/2 hours later, setting the stage for its Pacific Ocean splashdown. SpaceX personnel will retrieve the capsule with a crane-equipped boat and return it to shore about 30 hours later, NASA officials said.

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner begins first commercial flight

Boeing's Dreamliner has finally taken off on its maiden commercial voyage, three years later than planned.

The All Nippon Airlines (ANA) flight is carrying its first passengers from Tokyo to Hong Kong.

The Dreamliner had originally been scheduled for delivery in 2008, but Boeing has suffered a string of setbacks.

Wednesday's flight is a special charter, with normal services due to start in November.

Problems with the Dreamliner have put its launch behind schedule, the latest being an onboard fire during test flights in January, and the company will hope a successful launch will help put to bed some of the memories of prior setbacks.

Boeing says the twin-aisle, mid-size plane features the industry's largest windows, with higher cabin humidity and cleaner air - all of which combine to allow passengers to arrive at their destinations more refreshed.

Because of the materials used in construction - carbon fibre rather than aluminium - Boeing says the Dreamliner is about 20% more fuel efficient than similarly-sized models flying today.

That would be a big help for airlines coping with the high price of jet fuel, which is usually their biggest single cost.

ANA's chief Shinichiro Ito and Boeing vice-president Scott Fancher broke open barrels of sake with small hammers and passed it around to passengers as they boarded in Tokyo.

The airline auctioned six business-class seats on the inaugural flight, with one selling for $34,000 (£21,200) - around 13 times the price of a regular business-class ticket between the two Asian hubs.

The winner, Gino Bertuccio, won because he accidentally added an extra digit onto his bid - but he was happy regardless.

"Just thinking I'm going to be part of aviation history is a dream," he told the Wall Street Journal.

Vital Space Station Repairs delayed

NASA has delayed the start of major repairs on the International Space Station until Friday to give engineers more time to plan two spacewalks required to fix the outpost's ailing cooling system.

Space station managers had hoped to be ready to begin replacing a faulty ammonia pump in half of the space station's U.S. cooling system by Thursday, but the results of an underwater practice session by astronauts on Earth forced a delay.

The complicated spacewalk repairs are now targeted for
Friday and Monday.


The failed pump shut down over the weekend due to a tripped a circuit breaker caused by a power spike. It is a critical malfunction since the cooling system, which pushes liquid ammonia through plumbing lines, is vital to keep the space station's systems from overheating. [Graphic: Space Station's Cooling System Problem Explained]

American astronauts Douglas Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson will perform the two emergency spacewalks to replace the faulty ammonia pump with one of four spares stored on the space station's exterior. Two other astronauts are performing several practice dives at NASA's massive spacewalk rehearsal pool in Houston to help plan the complicated repair job.



'Gigantic' pump repair ahead

Caldwell Dyson said Monday that the ammonia pumps are "gigantic" and about the size of a laundry dryer box. It weighs 780 pounds (353 kg) and is 5 1/2 feet long (69 inches) by 4 feet wide (50 inches). They are about 3 feet tall (36 inches), making them very bulky and difficult to move.

"We're going to split up and one of us is going to take the failed one out and the other is going to prep one in a different location and then we're going to join up, swap one out for the other," Caldwell Dyson told the World Class Rockers, a band that was visiting Mission Control at the time. Caldwell Dyson is a lead singer for the all-astronaut rock band Max Q.

The first spacewalk is set to begin just before 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT) on Friday, NASA officials said.

Caldwell Dyson said the first spacewalk is dedicated to just swapping out the failed pump with a new one. On Monday, she and Wheelock will physically hook up the electrical and liquid ammonia lines, she added.

"That's, in a nutshell, what we're going to do," Caldwell Dyson said.