Tag: military space
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ULA completes fueling test on next Delta 4-Heavy rocket
A United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket stands at pad 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for a wet dress rehearsal. Credit: Dane Drefke / United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance engineers filled a Delta 4-Heavy rocket with super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants Friday at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during a…
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China’s first launch of 2020 lofts mystery payload
A Long March 3B rocket lifts off Tuesday with the TJS 5 satellite. Credit: People’s Daily A Chinese Long March 3B rocket launched a satellite Tuesday toward a position in geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) above Earth. Chinese state media claimed the mysterious spacecraft has a communication and television broadcast mission,…
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Rocket Lab to debut Virginia launch pad with U.S. Air Force mission next year
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) after press conference. File photo of an Electron rocket lifting off from Rocket Lab’s launch site in New Zealand, powered by nine liquid-fueled Rutherford engines. Credit: Rocket Lab / Andrew Burns & Simon Moffatt Rocket Lab plans to launch a research and development microsatellite mission for the…
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Falcon 9 performs extended mission in test for future U.S. military launches
An aft-facing camera on the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage captured this view of the Dragon spacecraft with its solar panels extended shortly after arriving in orbit Thursday. The upper stage continued its mission and performed a long-duration coast experiment after releasing the Dragon cargo ship. Credit: SpaceX An extended mission for the Falcon 9…
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Long-duration coast experiment on tap after Falcon 9 launch Thursday
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Dec. 4 after scrub. Artist’s illustration of a Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX will perform a multi-hour experiment on the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket after the launcher deploys a Dragon supply ship on the way to the International Space Station Thursday, gathering thermal data and other information…
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Russia launches space surveillance satellite
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Nov. 26 with video and orbital elements. A modified Soyuz rocket delivered a top secret Russian military payload into orbit Monday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia, according to the country’s defense ministry. The mission lifted off from the Site 43 launch complex at Plesetsk at 1752 GMT (12:52 p.m. EST;…
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ULA kicks off next Delta 4-Heavy launch campaign
A hydraulic erector raised United Launch Alliance’s next Delta 4-Heavy rocket vertical at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 37 launch pad Friday. Credit: United Launch Alliance The next Delta 4-Heavy rocket was raised vertical Friday at Cape Canaveral, signaling the start of a comprehensive series of pre-flight tests before liftoff next year with a top secret U.S.…
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X-37B’s return to Cape Canaveral in images
The U.S. Air Force has released an infrared video and additional images from Sunday’s landing of the military’s X-37B spaceplane in Florida after a top secret mission that lasted more than two years. The unpiloted spaceplane touched down at the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 3:51 a.m. EDT (0751…
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U.S. military’s X-37B spaceplane lands in Florida
Members of the X-37B recovery team, wearing hazardous material suits, approached the X-37B spaceplane for safety checks after the vehicle landed Sunday on the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: U.S. Air Force The U.S. Air Force’s reusable Boeing-built X-37B spaceplane returned to Earth early Sunday with a touchdown…
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Solid rocket motor test-fired for Atlas 5 debut next year
A new solid rocket motor built by Northrop Grumman has aced its final test-firing before a scheduled debut on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flight next year. Northrop Grumman’s GEM 63 solid rocket motor will replace the Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ-60A solid-fueled booster that has flown on Atlas 5 rockets since 2003. Billed…