Tag: LEOStar 2
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NASA satellite to study ionosphere launches after two-year delay
Artist’s illustration of the Ionospheric Connection Explorer satellite. Credit: NASA A refrigerator-sized satellite soared into orbit aboard an air-launched Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket Thursday night over the Atlantic Ocean, finally setting off on a $252 million mission to probe the dynamic boundary region where space and Earth’s atmosphere meet. NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or…
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Timeline for Pegasus XL’s launch with NASA’s ICON satellite
Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL rocket will take about 11 minutes to place NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite into a roughly 357-mile-high (575-kilometer) orbit after an airborne launch off Florida’s east coast. The nearly 53,000-pound (24-metric ton) rocket will drop from the belly of a modified L-1011 carrier plane, named Stargazer, flying on an…
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Live coverage: NASA’s ICON satellite successfully launched
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket with NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer satellite. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. NASA TV’s live video coverage of the Pegasus XL launch with the ICON satellite begins at 9:15 p.m. EDT (0115 GMT). Become a member today and support…
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Pegasus rocket ready for airborne launch with NASA scientific satellite
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) on Oct. 9 with 24-hour launch delay. A Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket is mounted underneath an L-1011 carrier jet, which will fire the launcher into orbit as soon as Wednesday night off Florida’s east coast. Credit: NASA/ Ben Smegelsky After a year-long delay to troubleshoot recurring…
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Pegasus rocket launch postponed
The ICON spacecraft was re-encapsulated inside the Pegasus XL rocket’s nose cone at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, after an aborted launch campaign in June. Credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin Continuing a series of delays keeping NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer on Earth, NASA announced Tuesday that the satellite’s launch aboard an air-dropped Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket…
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NASA likely to relocate delayed Pegasus launch to Florida
A Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket, carried underneath a modified L-1011 airplane, departed Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on June 6 on the way to Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The rocket and carrier jet returned to Vandenberg on June 8 after engineers encountered a technical problem with the launch vehicle during the…
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Carrier jet with Pegasus rocket returning to California, postponing NASA satellite launch
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT). The L-1011 carrier aircraft with Northrop Grumman’s air-dropped Pegasus launcher departed Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on Wednesday on a planned two-day ferry flight to Kwajalein Atoll. The aircraft and Pegasus rocket will return to Vandenberg after teams encountered a technical concern en route to Kwajalein.…
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Pegasus rocket, NASA satellite head for launch base in Pacific
The Pegasus XL rocket, fastened underneath an L-1011 carrier plane, took off Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, en route to Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Credit: Gene Blevins/LA Daily News Slung under the belly of a specially-equipped carrier airplane, a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket took off Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base…
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NASA’s new planet-hunting satellite begins climb into science orbit
Artist’s illustration of TESS in space. Credit: NASA/Goddard Looping back near Earth for the first time since its launch one week ago, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite fired its thrusters early Wednesday to begin boosting its orbit toward the moon for a May 17 gravity assist maneuver that will help catapult the probe into its…
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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…