Tag: US Air Force

  • Engineers lose control of U.S. military weather satellite

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    Artist’s concept of a DMSP weather satellite in orbit. Credit: Lockheed Martin The U.S. Air Force has been unable to send commands to the service’s newest weather satellite for nearly a month, and engineers are trying to determine if the spacecraft can be salvaged, officials said last week. The polar-orbiting Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight…

  • Falcon 9 upgrade receives blessing from U.S. Air Force

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    SpaceX’s upgraded Falcon 9 rocket has flown one time, hauling 11 Orbcomm communications satellites into low Earth orbit in this Dec. 21 liftoff from Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX The U.S. Air Force on Monday certified the latest version of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, featuring higher-thrust engines, enlarged fuel tanks and a super-chilled propellant mixture, for…

  • Air Force stays the course with SpaceX rocket certification

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    File photo of a previous Falcon 9 launch. Credit: SpaceX Sunday’s Falcon 9 rocket failure may have blemished SpaceX’s success record, but the mishap will not keep the entrepreneurial space company from competing for U.S. military launch contracts with rival United Launch Alliance, according to an Air Force general. SpaceX won certification from the Air…

  • SpaceX cleared to launch U.S. national security satellites

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    File photo of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch. Credit: SpaceX The U.S. Air Force announced Tuesday that SpaceX is now eligible to compete for launches of U.S. national security satellites, closing a tumultuous chapter in the U.S. rocket industry and ending the Pentagon’s sole reliance on United Launch Alliance to haul military payloads into…

  • U.S. military’s X-37B space plane lands in California

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    The U.S. Air Force’s X-37B space plane touches down at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Credit: Boeing The U.S. Air Force’s X-37B space plane concluded its third mission Friday, streaking through the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean and gliding to an automated landing on a runway at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., after spending a…

  • GPS modernization continues with quick pace of launches

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    Artist’s concept of a GPS 2F-series satellite in orbit. Credit: Boeing A new satellite launched Aug. 1 has joined the U.S. Air Force’s GPS navigation network to help guide everything from bombs to road trippers to their destinations, with final preparations on track to send up another GPS spacecraft at the end of October. The…

  • X-37B space planes to move into shuttle hangars

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    An X-37B space plane sits on a runway at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., after landing on its second mission in June 2012. Credit: Boeing Boeing engineers are outfitting two decommissioned space shuttle hangars at the Kennedy Space Center for the U.S. Air Force’s secretive X-37B space plane, NASA announced Wednesday. The announcement in a…