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.
Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Breaks The Sound Barrier In First Powered Free-Flight
For the first time, Virgin Galactic’s commercial spaceplane, SpaceShipTwo, fired up its rocket engine in free-flight for 16 seconds during its latest successful drop test which also saw the craft break the sound barrier for the first time. Managed by teams from Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic, the test begins the final phase of vehicle […]
Antares Roars In Successful Debut Launch
Rising up from a blast of fire and steam, Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares rocket roared off its Virignia launch pad this evening to begin successful inaugural mission. Liftoff occurred on Sunday, April 21 at 5:00 p.m. EDT from the new Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad-0A at the NASA’s’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. It marked the […]
ATK Successfully Tests New Upper Stage For Antares Rocket
ATK successfully tested its newly developed CASTOR® 30XL upper stage solid rocket motor today at the U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) in Tennessee. The test was the final qualification for the ATK commercial motor, which was jointly developed by ATK and Orbital Sciences Corporation in just 20 months from concept to completion. […]
SpaceX Dragon Capsule Returns To Earth After Successful Mission
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft successfully completed the second contracted resupply flight to the International Space Station on Tuesday, March 26, with a 12:36 p.m. EDT splashdown in the Pacific Ocean a few hundred miles west of Baja California, Mexico. “The scientific research delivered and being returned by Dragon enables advances in every aspect of NASA’s diverse […]
USAF Thunderbirds End Their Short 2013 Air Show Season On Florida’s Space Coast
This past weekend Titusville, Florida played host to the 36th annual Tico Warbird Air Show, and this year’s events proved to be the biggest in the Valiant Air Command’s history with the United States Air Force Thunderbirds headlining the weekend’s performances. Their visit to Florida’s Space Coast marked the end of the team’s very short […]
PHOTO GALLERY: Thunderbirds Kick Off Florida Space Coast’s 2013 Tico Warbird Air Show
This weekend kicks off Titusville, Florida’s 36th annual TICO Warbird Air Show. The event, which is held at Space Coast Regional Airport, is headlined this year by the United States Air Force Thunderbirds. Their visit marks the end of their very short 2013 air show season, and will draw record crowds to the small city […]
NASA’s Voyager-1 Spacecraft Has NOT Left The Solar System, Yet
Reports from various news agencies today have been stating NASA’s Voyager-1 spacecraft as having left the solar system. Although some in the astronomy community feel that Voyager 1 is in fact now traversing interstellar space, NASA and officials at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, the same folks who built the spacecraft and continue […]
Atlas V Launches The Air Force SBIRS GEO-2 Spacecraft
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket successfully launched the second Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) GEO-2 satellite for the U.S. Air Force at 5:21 p.m. EDT today from Space Launch Complex-41. ULA launched the first satellite in the constellation, GEO-1, aboard and Atlas V on May 7, 2011. This was the 3rd ULA launch […]
Thunderbirds Final Performance To Draw Big Crowds To Florida’s Space Coast This Weekend
This weekend Titusville, Florida will play host to the 36th annual Tico Warbird Air Show, and this year’s events may prove to be the biggest in the Valiant Air Command’s history with the United States Air Force Thunderbirds headlining the weekend’s performances. Not only that, but Tico will be the final Thunderbirds performance for the […]