Tag: Launch
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ULA’s heavy-lifter rolled out for solar probe launch
The Delta 4-Heavy rocket slated to launch NASA’s Parker Solar Probe was lifted vertical on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral on April 17, one day after it rolled to the pad from a nearby horizontal integration hangar. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman Gearing up for a predawn blastoff July 31, launch crews have positioned…
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Blue Origin preps for suborbital test flight Sunday
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated April 29 with new launch times. Blue Origin plans its next suborbital test launch Sunday from the company’s sprawling development complex in West Texas, the company’s owner Jeff Bezos announced Friday. The single-stage New Shepard rocket is scheduled for launch at 12:42 p.m. EDT (1642 GMT; 11:42 a.m. CDT), after thunderstorms apparently…
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Long March 11 rocket delivers five commercial satellites to orbit
A Long March 11 rocket lifts off Thursday from the Jiuquan launch base. Credit: CALT Five commercial Chinese satellites carrying video and hyperspectral imaging sensors took off Thursday aboard a Long March 11 booster. The five small satellites are part of a larger Earth-imaging fleet under development by Zhuhai Orbita Aerospace Science and Technology Co.…
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Atlas 5/InSight launch windows
Artist’s concept of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on its launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: NASA The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket carrying NASA’s InSight lander toward Mars will have a roughly two-hour predawn launch window each day from May 5 through June 8 to boost the science…
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InSight Mars lander joined with Atlas 5 launcher at Vandenberg Air Force Base
File photo of a payload being lifted atop an Atlas 5 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base before a previous mission. Credit: United Launch Alliance Ground crews at Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s Central Coast hoisted NASA’s InSight Mars lander atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket Monday, kicking off nearly two weeks…
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SpaceX set to debut upgraded Falcon 9 rocket
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) to correct schedule for first Crew Dragon mission. File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket standing at launch pad 39A in Florida before a previous mission. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX technicians at Cape Canaveral are readying for the first launch of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket configuration…
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Photos: Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with TESS
Look back on last week’s blastoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. The TESS mission will search for planets orbiting the stars in our solar neighborhood, finding worlds that are prime candidates for follow-up observations by more powerful telescopes, including the James Webb Space Telescope set…
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SpaceX to build BFR factory in Southern California
Artist’s concept of SpaceX’s planned spaceship on the moon. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX plans to build its massive BFR rocket boosters and spaceships inside a cavernous new factory at the Port of Los Angeles, officials announced this week. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti confirmed Monday during a State of the City address that SpaceX will produce…
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Orbital ATK names new launcher, selects upper stage engine
Artist’s illustration of Orbital ATK’s proposed OmegA rocket. Credit: Orbital ATK Orbital ATK’s proposed rocket to answer the U.S. Air Force’s desire for two families of satellite launchers with U.S.-made propulsion systems will be named OmegA, and the company has selected the cryogenic Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engine to power the vehicle’s upper stage, officials announced…
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All-sky surveyor launched from Cape Canaveral on the hunt for exoplanets
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off at 6:51 p.m. EDT (2251 GMT) with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Credit: Walter Scriptunas II/Spaceflight Now NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, built to find planets around other stars that are close enough for detailed follow-ups by future telescopes, launched Wednesday into a unique high-altitude orbit on top…