Tag: Launch
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Launch timeline for Atlas 5’s mission with InSight
A United Launch Atlas 5 rocket is set to dispatch NASA’s InSight lander toward Mars, kicking off an interplanetary journey from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The 188-foot-tall (57-meter) rocket, propelled by an RD-180 main engine, is set for liftoff during a two-hour launch window Saturday that opens at 4:05 a.m. EDT (7:05 a.m.…
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Communications satellite launched from China to connect Asia-Pacific
A Long March 3B rocket lifts off with the Apstar 6C communications satellite. Credit: Xinhua A Chinese-built communications satellite owned by Hong Kong-based operator launched Thursday aboard a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang space base in southwest China. The Apstar 6C communications craft lifted off at 1606 GMT (12:06 p.m. EDT) Thursday from…
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Live coverage: InSight Mars mission lifts off from California aboard Atlas 5 rocket
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of an Atlas 5 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with NASA’s InSight lander heading to Mars to study the red planet’s interior structure. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. NASA’s live video coverage of the Atlas 5 launch will begin at 3:30 a.m.…
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Live coverage: Upgraded Falcon 9 rocket test-fired at pad 39A
Live coverage of SpaceX’s preparations for the first Falcon 9 “Block 5” rocket launch from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will launch the Bangabandhu 1 communications satellite. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Spaceflight Now Members can watch a live view of the launch pad.
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Time-lapse video: First Falcon 9 Block 5 arrives at pad 39A for hotfire test
SpaceX’s first Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket, sporting changes to make the booster easier to reuse, rolled out of its hangar and up the ramp to launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Thursday ahead of a planned hold-down engine firing. The two-stage rocket, revealed for the first time Thursday, features black landing…
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Firefly’s commercial satellite launcher to use Delta 2 pad at Vandenberg
File photo of a Delta 2 rocket at Space Launch Complex 2-West at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: United Launch Alliance A commercial rocket under development by Firefly Aerospace will conduct its first orbital test flight in 2019 from a launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California that will become vacant with…
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Managers clear InSight for launch after heat shield review
Ground crews oversee the installation of InSight’s heat shield last month. Credit: USAF 30th Space Wing/Aaron Taubman NASA officials have determined that the robotic InSight lander is ready for its mission to Mars after concluding that the probe should not suffer the same flaw that led to a crack in a heat shield undergoing tests…
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Photos: NASA’s InSight lander buttoned up for trip to Mars
The payload fairing of InSight’s Atlas 5 launcher was closed around the spacecraft April 16. Credit: USAF 30th Space Wing Now cocooned inside a heat shield and the nose shroud of an Atlas 5 rocket that will send it to Mars, NASA’s InSight lander is awaiting launch May 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.…
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Video: Blue Origin flies New Shepard rocket for eighth time
Video credit: Blue Origin Blue Origin’s New Shepard booster, topped with a capsule carrying a dummy dubbed Mannequin Skywalker, took off Sunday from the company’s sprawling test site in West Texas on a 10-minute trip to the edge of space and back. The hydrogen-fueled rocket lifted off from the test site near Van Horn, Texas,…
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Suborbital test flight moves Blue Origin closer to launching people
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) with new apogee number. The New Shepard booster took off from West Texas at 12:06 p.m. CDT (1:07 p.m. EDT; 1707 GMT). Credit: Blue Origin The privately-developed New Shepard booster, designed and built by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin, took off from a launch…