Tag: Orbital
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Orbital Raises $5 Million to Develop Distributed Space-Based AI Data Center Network
Los Angeles-based startup Orbital has raised $5 million in a pre-seed funding round to support the development of a space-based computing network aimed at providing artificial intelligence processing capabilities from orbit. The funding round was led by Speedrun, the startup accelerator operated by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and included participation from a broad group of venture…
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Launch Roundup: SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and Firefly set to launch amid busy launch manifest
This week, a busy launch manifest saw SpaceX launch the Crew-10 and two Starlink missions from Florida and the delayed SPHEREx/PUNCH and Transporter 13 missions from California. Outside of the United States, Rocket Lab flew an Electron from New Zealand. A Chang Zhang 8 rocket launched from a new commercial pad in China which also…
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Launch Roundup: New Glenn and Starship headline a week dominated by SpaceX missions
SpaceX dominated this week’s launch manifest with two Falcon 9 missions and the seventh flight of its Starship rocket. The two Falcon 9 missions will see the launches of a Transporter rideshare mission, and two Moon landers. Blue Origin’s New Glenn achieved orbit on Thursday morning following the scrub of its maiden flight attempt on…
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Launch Roundup: Sentinel 1C and PROBA 3 among ten planned launches
This week is busy in spaceflight, with 10 orbital launches planned throughout the week. China has, as expected, continued its launch cadence from last week with three more launches this week. SpaceX planned to launch five Falcon 9 missions in five days with the launches of four Starlink missions and one customer payload but has…
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Launch Roundup: Falcon 9 launches continue, Rocket Lab to launch two Electrons, Russia to fly to ISS
Following the sixth flight of SpaceX’s Starship on Tuesday, eight additional orbital launches were planned worldwide. Rocket Lab launched an experimental hypersonic testbed payload using a modified Electron from Wallops. What’s more, a second Electron launched a batch of nanosatellites into low-Earth orbit from New Zealand less than 24 hours later. Meanwhile, SpaceX continued to…
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Launch Roundup: Starship flies, booster caught
SpaceX flew the Starship-Super Heavy on Sunday, Oct. 13. This was the fifth test flight of the full Starship-Super Heavy stack and the first attempt at catching the booster. On Friday, Oct. 11, SpaceX Falcon 9 missions were released from the hold imposed on them while an investigation into the anomaly with the second stage…
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Launch Roundup: Falcon Heavy returns with GOES-U, Firefly Alpha launch attempt
Following a week in which Tropical Storm Alberto brought high seas, wind, and rain-related delays to the launch schedule in Florida, SpaceX managed to get back on track this week with launches from all three of the active Falcon launch pads, including a Falcon Heavy. Toward the end of the week, the Japanese Aerospace and…
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Sierra Space tests upcoming in-space habitat as other commercial space stations continue development
On Jan. 21, Sierra Space performed an “ultimate burst pressure test” on a full-scale model of its Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE) habitat — an inflatable space station module. The launcher-agnostic habitat is designed to be launched encapsulated within any four-meter fairing, docked to a space station in orbit, and then inflated to a 9-meter…
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NASA awards CRS2 contracts to SpaceX, Orbital ATK, and Sierra Nevada
NASA has announced the contract award winners for the Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS2) phase of the agency’s ongoing partnership with commercial companies for cargo resupply of the International Space Station. The contact will see SpaceX, Orbital ATK, and Sierra Nevada – with Dream Chaser – perform resupply runs to Station starting in 2019. CRS2 awards: Following the success…
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Pegasus celebrates quarter of a century milestone
In an era of new launch system development, Orbital ATK’s Pegasus has shown her staying power, passing the milestone of 25 years of operation. The air-launch system will continue to provide a unique role until at least 2017 and her heritage may also live on as part of the Stratolaunch system that is currently under…