NASA has selected for possible flight demonstration 10 proposals from six U.S. states for reusable, suborbital technology payloads and vehicle capability enhancements with the potential to revolutionize future space missions. After the concepts are developed, NASA may choose to fly the technologies to the edge of space and back on U.S. commercial suborbital vehicles and […]
Rockets
NASA Launches Suborbital RockSat-X Mission With Student Payloads
A Terrier-Improved Malemute suborbital rocket carrying experiments developed by university students nationwide in the RockSat-X program was successfully launched at 6 a.m. EDT August 13 from NASA’s launch range at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The RockSat-X program is conducted with the Colorado Space Grant Consortium. The goal of the program is to provide […]
Delta IV Rocket Successfully Launches Sixth Wideband Global Satcom Military Satellite
Blazing through the evening skies over Florida, a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket blasted off at 8:29 p.m. EDT on August 7, beginning another successful mission to delivery a Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) satellite to geosynchronous orbit for the United States Air Force. Forty minutes after blasting off from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex […]
One Special Day in the Life of Planet Earth Shining Brightly In The Black Void
Color and black-and-white images of Earth taken by two NASA interplanetary spacecraft July 19 show our planet and its moon as bright beacons from millions of miles away in space. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured the color images of Earth and the moon from its perch in the Saturn system nearly 900 million miles (1.5 billion […]
Atlas V 551 Launches Its Heaviest Payload Yet, MUOS-2 For The U.S. Navy
Rattling windows as it pierced cloudy skies above Cape Canaveral, the most powerful version of the Atlas V rocket blasted off from Space Launch Complex 41 at 9 .a.m. EDT today on the 6th mission this year for launch provider United Launch Alliance. An hour later, Atlas successfully deployed the second Mobile User Objective System […]
Eastern Range (ER) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) Spaceport Concept
Introduction: This concept explores the Eastern Range (ER) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) being managed as a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-licensed commercial launch site (i.e., a spaceport). The concept to be discussed is that launch programs (U.S., commercial, civil, and national security space sector launch and test and evaluation (T&E) programs) would contract […]
Educational CubeSat Demonstrations Take To The Skies Aboard Prospector Rocket
Four tiny spacecraft soared over the California desert June 15, 2013 in a high-altitude demonstration flight that tested the sensor and equipment designs created by NASA engineers and student launch teams. The satellites, known as CubeSats, lifted off from the Friends of Amateur Rocketry launch site in the Mojave Desert aboard a Prospector 18 rocket, […]
Delta IV Returns To Flight With Successful Launch Of WGS-5 Spacecraft
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – The Delta IV EELV returned to flight today after experiencing upper state problems on its last mission. The rocket successfully launched the fifth Air Force Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS-5) from Space Launch Complex-37, with liftoff occurring at 8:27 p.m. EDT and separation of WGS-5 40 minutes later. Notably, the launch took […]
Atlas V’s First GPS Launch Is A Success
Thundering into cloudless blue skies, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket successfully completed its first mission to deploy a Global Positioning System satellite for the Unuted States Air Force. Roaring off the launch pad exactly on time at 5:38 p.m. EDT, Atlas completed its mission three and a half hours later when it deployed […]
Vega’s Second Launch Successfully Deploys Proba-V Vegetation Monitoring Satellite
The second flight of ESA’s newest launch vehicle has been completed from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Two Earth observation satellites, ESA’s Proba-V and Vietnam’s VNREDSat-1A, were released into different orbits, demonstrating the rocket’s versatility. Estonia’s first satellite, the ESTCube-1 technology demonstrator, was also released into orbit.