Tag: Launch
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China returns Long March 3B rocket to service after June failure
A Long March 3B rocket lifts off from the Xichang launch base Sunday with two Beidou navigation satellites. Credit: Xinhua China’s Long March 3B rocket, used to power navigation and communications satellites into high-altitude orbits, launched for the first time in nearly five months Sunday with two spacecraft for the country’s Beidou positioning network. Sunday’s…
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Live coverage: Minotaur-C rocket launches with cluster of satellites
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Minotaur-C rocket with six SkySat and four Dove Earth-imaging satellites for Planet. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.
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Ten commercial Earth-observing satellites launched aboard Minotaur-C rocket
The Minotaur-C rocket fires away from pad 576E at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: Orbital ATK Returning to service after a six-year hiatus, Orbital ATK’s revamped Minotaur-C rocket soared into space Tuesday from California’s Central Coast with 10 commercial Earth-imaging spacecraft for Planet, a San Francisco-based company with a globe-spanning satellite fleet mapping the…
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Photos: Minotaur-C rocket awaits liftoff from California
Standing on a seaside launch pad overlooking the Pacific Ocean, a Minotaur-C rocket is set for launch Tuesday from California’s Central Coast with 10 Earth observation satellites manufactured in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. These photos show the Minotaur-C rocket, which stands about 104 feet (32 meters) tall, poised on a launch pedestal at Space…
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Timeline of Minotaur-C launch with SkySats and Doves
Credit: Orbital ATK Orbital ATK’s Minotaur-C rocket will deliver 10 commercial Earth observations satellites into a 310-mile-high (500-kilometer) orbit for Planet during a 20-minute flight sequence. The four-stage rocket, formerly known as the Taurus, is standing on a launch pad overlooking the rugged Pacific coastline, ready for its trip into orbit set to begin at…
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Familiar rocket with new name returns to flight Tuesday
Orbital ATK’s Minotaur-C rocket stands on its launch pad Monday at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now More than six years after back-to-back failures left the Taurus rocket with an uncertain future, a redesigned version of the launcher sporting a new name is set to loft 10 small Earth-imaging satellites into orbit…
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SpaceX, ULA win NASA contracts to launch Earth observation satellites
NASA has selected a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket (left) and a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket (right) to launch the Sentinel 6A/Jason-CS and Landsat 9 satellites in 2020 and 2021. Credit: SpaceX and ULA NASA has selected SpaceX and United Launch Alliance to deliver to orbit a joint U.S.-European oceanography mission and the next…
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Photos: News media shots of the NROL-52 liftoff
Cape Canaveral was the point of origination for the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket and the classified NROL-52 payload. Photo Credit: Alex Polimeni/Spaceflight Now See earlier NROL-52 coverage.
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Photos: Atlas 5 rocket powers NROL-52 payload to space
The Atlas 5 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral for its pre-dawn ascent to deploy the NROL-52 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. Credit: United Launch Alliance See earlier NROL-52 coverage.
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Video: NROL-52 launch aboard Atlas 5
The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, standing 194 feet tall and and weighing a million pounds, unleashes 1.6 million pounds of thrust from its main engine and two side-mounted solid boosters to launch the secret NROL-52 payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral. Courtesy: United Launch Alliance See earlier NROL-52 coverage.