In the wake of serious outage on the U.S. Air Force Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral, officials this morning released a few new details into the nature of the problem that took a tracking station out of commission. The loss of the station, due to a short circuit in a critical radar system, consequently forced […]
Launches
Atlas 5 Rocket Launches To Successfully Deploy NASA’s Newest TDRS Satellite
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket thundered into space carrying NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite satellite on a nearly two hour-long ride to geosynchronous orbit. Lighting up the night sky at 9:33 p.m. EST January 23 from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex-41, the successful launch marked the first of 15 ULA launches scheduled […]
NASA’s Morpheus Lander Soars Over Kennedy Space Center As Tests Continue
NASA’s Morpheus lander testbed resumed testing following a break for the Christmas holiday, making its fifth successful free-flight on January 16 at Kennedy Space Center. The 57-second test began at 1:15 p.m. EST with the Morpheus lander launching from the ground over a flame trench and ascending about 187 feet, nearly doubling the target ascent […]
Antares Blasts Off With Cygnus On First Contracted ISS Resupply Mission
Marking the beginning of regular supply runs to the International Space Station, Orbital Sciences Corporation sucessfully launched its Cygnus cargo craft aboard Antares rocket January 9 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. Following a delay of several days due to record-breaking cold and a powerful solar flare, Antares blasted off on […]
Antares Set For Chilly Launch To Space Station
1/8/14 7:00 am EST UPDATE: Early this morning the Antares launch team decided to scrub today’s launch attempt due to an unusually high level of space radiation that exceeded by a considerable margin the constraints imposed on the mission to ensure the rocket’s electronic systems are not impacted by a harsh radiation environment. The solar […]
SpaceX Rings In The New Year With Launch Of Thai Satellite
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral for the second time in just over one month today, demonstrating the shortest pad turnaround for the spaceport in over a decade. Making its third flight in the upgraded v1.1 configuration, the rocket successfully placed a communication satellite into geostationary transfer orbit for Thaicom Plc, […]
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Poised For First Launch Of New Year
Looking to start 2014 with a roar, SpaceX is gearing up to launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Thai communication satellite January 6 from Cape Canaveral. The launch comes just over one month since the last Falcon 9 mission, also a commercial launch from Florida and signifies the intensity with which SpaceX is solidifying […]
Photo Feature: NASA Readies TDRS-L Spacecraft For Late January Launch
NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS)-L was the focus of a media opportunity Januar 3, at the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, FL. Media viewed the TDRS-L spacecraft and interviewed project and launch program officials from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; the Launch Services Program at the agency’s Kennedy Space […]
SpaceX Delays Falcon 9 Launch Of Thaicom 6, Remains Confident Of January Liftoff
Bird-watchers on the beaches of Cape Canaveral will have to wait a few more days to see Florida’s first satellite launch of 2014. SpaceX announced this afternoon that launch of the THAICOM 6 communication satellite is being delayed until at least January 6. Some sources reported that an unspecified issue with the launch vehicle’s payload […]
NASA’s Next Mars Lander Gets A Launch Vehicle
NASA has selected United Launch Services LLC of Centennial, Colo., to launch the Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission to Mars. InSight will launch in March 2016 aboard an Atlas V 401 rocket from Space Launch Complex 3E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. NASA InSight Fact Sheet InSight […]