Exploring The Frontier Of Space
Marking the 200th launch for the venerable Atlas-Centaur family of rockets and 52nd Atlas V, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V thundered off the launch pad Tuesday night to deploy the third Mobile User Objective System for the United States Navy. MUOS-3 joins two existing satellites in geosynchronous orbit providing secure, reliable high-speed communications to […]
January 20, 2015 – Five rockets are on the pad and waiting to go from the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. The weather and/or science conditions have not been conducive for launch to support the Mesosphere-Lower Thermosphere Turbulence Experiment (MTeX), Mesospheric Inversion-layer Stratified Turbulence (MIST) mission and the Auroral Spatial Structures Probe (ASSP). The […]
January 13, 2015 – The interaction of solar winds and Earth’s atmosphere produces northern lights, or auroras, that dance across the night sky and mesmerize the casual observer. However, to scientists this interaction is more than a light a display. It produces many questions of the role it plays in Earth’s meteorological processes and the […]
The new year is off to a hot start for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). The engine that will drive America’s next great rocket to deep space blazed through its first successful test Jan. 9 at the agency’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The RS-25, formerly the space shuttle main engine, fired […]
A Falcon 9 rocket blasted into space early this morning carrying the fifth mission to resupply the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract with Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Topped by the company’s Dragon spacecraft, Falcon lifted off on time at 4:47 am EST from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral AFS […]
The next launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to deliver cargo to the International Space Station is being delayed until early January, company officials confirmed this morning. Trouble encountered during a test firing of the vehicle’s first stage prompted SpaceX to move the launch date until after the holidays. During the static test on […]
We should learn today whether or not SpaceX will be able to attempt a launch this week of its Falcon 9 rocket on a mission to the space station. However, a slip of a day or two, possibly longer, is expected after difficulties were encountered during Tuesday’s static test fire of the rocket’s nine Merlin […]
The largest Atlas rocket to fly from California blasted off tonight on a successful mission to deliver the classified NROL-35 satellite to polar orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office. Following a one day delay due to bad weather, the United Launch Alliance Atlas V-541 lifted off from Space Launch Complex-3 at 10:19 p.m. EST. “We […]
As the company continues to recover from October’s spectacular launch failure of the Antares medium-lift launch vehicle, Orbital Sciences Corporation announced that it has signed a contract with United Launch Alliance to conduct one and possibly two cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station using ULA’s Atlas V. The Atlas launch vehicle, with a […]
Reaching a pinnacle in its nine-year development program, NASA’s next-generation Orion deep-space exploration craft soared through a picture-perfect test flight today to mark a major milestone in NASA’s plans to return to human space exploration with sights firmly fixed on Mars. Exploration Flight Test-1 was Orion’s first mission and the first “real-life” test for many […]