Tag: encapsulation

  • Ariane 5 launches two satellites on 7-year voyage to Mercury

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    Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon A powerful European Ariane 5 rocket blasted off from French Guiana late Friday and boosted a pair of satellites into space for a seven-year plunge into the inner solar system, a voyage requiring seven planetary flybys to slow down enough in the sun’s gravitational…

  • Photos: BepiColombo stacked for launch to Mercury

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    The BepiColombo spacecraft is pictured in launch configuratin shortly before stacking atop the Ariane 5 rocket in French Guiana. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – S. Martin Ground crews at the Guiana Space Center in South America have spent the last few months preparing the BepiColombo spacecraft, a tandem mission with European…

  • Multimedia: WGS 9 readied for launch

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    This collection of photographs and videos shows the Wideband Global SATCOM communications satellite No. 9 being encapsulated in the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 nose cone and hoisted atop the rocket for launch March 17 at 7:44 p.m. EDT (2344 GMT). Encapsulation occurred at the Astrotech processing facility on Feb. 14. Stacking atop the Delta…

  • Photos: EchoStar 19 encapsulated for launch atop Atlas 5

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    In preparation for liftoff Dec. 18 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, the powerful Internet-from-space broadcasting satellite called EchoStar 19 was encapsulated in the nose cone as seen below. The operation was performed at the commercial Astrotech processing facility in Titusville on Dec. 5. The satellite will be launched from Cape Canaveral’s Complex…

  • Photos: New U.S. weather observatory buttoned up for launch

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    United Launch Alliance encapsulated the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R, GOES-R, on Oct. 21 at the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Florida near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. GOES-R will be the first satellite in a series of next-generation NOAA GOES satellites. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch aboard a ULA Atlas 5 rocket on Nov.…

  • Photos: WorldView 4 satellite’s road to launch

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    DigitalGlobe’s WorldView 4 commercial satellite, which will join sister-spacecraft WorldView 3 in orbit to snap the highest quality Earth imagery available on the market at 31-centimeter resolution, was built by Lockheed Martin and will be launched Friday atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. On July 21, WorldView 4 was tucked…

  • Photos: Asteroid probe encapsulated, mounted atop Atlas 5 for launch

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    Technicians inched the two halves of the Atlas 5’s aluminum nose cone around NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to package the asteroid sample return probe, then moved the satellite to the rocket’s assembly building and hoisted it aboard the two-stage booster during the final days of August for the Sept. 8 launch. The United Launch Alliance rocket…

  • Photos: Navy satellite encapsulated, mated to Atlas 5

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    The U.S. Navy’s Mobile User Objective System communications satellite No. 5 was encapsulated in the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket’s payload fairing on June 4 at the Astrotech processing facility in Titusville, Florida. The 18-foot-diamter shroud covers the satellite during the initial minutes of flight as the 206-foot-tall rocket climbs through the atmosphere. On…

  • Photos: Cygnus encapsulated for journey into space atop Atlas 5

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    Now enclosed in the aluminum nose cone that will protect it during the climb through the atmosphere, the Cygnus cargo ship — the S.S. Rick Husband — remains on schedule for launch to the International Space Station on March 22 atop an Atlas 5 rocket. United Launch Alliance workers encapsulated the freighter on Wednesday with…

  • Photos: Cygnus encapsulated for journey into space atop Atlas 5

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    Now enclosed in the aluminum nose cone that will protect it during the climb through the atmosphere, the Cygnus cargo ship — the S.S. Rick Husband — remains on schedule for launch to the International Space Station on March 22 atop an Atlas 5 rocket. United Launch Alliance workers encapsulated the freighter on Wednesday with…