Tag: Antares
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Firefly advances production of Eclipse and Blue Ghost, announces Ocula imaging service
Firefly Aerospace is continuing to make good progress toward the debut of the company’s next-generation launch vehicle, Eclipse, in partnership with Northrop Grumman. Formerly known as MLV, or Medium Launch Vehicle, Firefly and Northrop Grumman announced the rocket’s new name on May 29. Firefly also announced Ocula, a new commercial lunar imaging service that will…
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CRS NG-20 launches cargo, science to ISS aboard Falcon 9
The NG-20 mission has flown the Cygnus spacecraft S.S. Patricia Hilliard Robertson to a path that will take it to the International Space Station. However, as a first, it has launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 instead of an Antares rocket. This will be the first of three Cygnus missions to fly aboard Falcon 9…
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Northrop Grumman and Firefly’s Antares 330 and MLV plans take shape
As the Cygnus S.S. Laurel Clark spends its first days berthed to the ISS, the successor to the Antares 230+ launch vehicle that launched it is taking shape in the facilities of Northrop Grumman (NG) and Firefly Aerospace. The Antares 330/Medium Launch Vehicle (MLV), scheduled for its first flight in mid-2025, is being developed to…
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A flawless Cygnus launch brings eras to a close
WALLOPS ISLAND, Va.—I had been told that rocket launches are a physical experience, that the carefully controlled explosions that send payloads to space create waves of sound intense enough to be felt from over a mile away. But my first close-up experience with a launch involved the relatively small Electron rocket, and that left me…
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End of the line for Russia and Ukraine’s partnership in rocketry
A last gasp in a long-standing link between Russia and Ukraine in the field of rocketry could come this week in an unlikely place—the rural wetlands of eastern Virginia—halfway around the world from the battlefields where the nations’ military forces are locked in a deadly conflict. A commercial Antares rocket owned by the US aerospace…
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Antares 230+ farewell launch flying S.S. Laurel Clark to ISS
The final flight of the Antares 230+ launch vehicle, marking the end of the career of Northrop Grumman’s Antares 200 series of rockets, lifted off Tuesday with the NG-19 mission under the Commercial Resupply Services cargo contract to supply the International Space Station. The Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) NG-19 flight launched from LP-0A at the…
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Launch Roundup: SpaceX launches Galaxy 37; will launch Starlink Group 6-8
Breaking into the 31st week of 2023, from July 31 to Aug. 6, not much is held in store in terms of launches. Up first this week, a momentous flight took place when the last Antares 230+ flew to LEO during the NG-19 resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Following slightly more than…
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SS Sally Ride Cygnus arrives at ISS on NG-18 mission
Northrop Grumman launched the second to last Antares 230+ rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia for the NG-18 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) at 5:32:42 AM EST (10:23:423 UTC) on Monday, Nov. 7 Despite one of its solar arrays failing to fully deploy, the cargo vehicle successfully arrived at the ISS for berthing two…
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Northrop Grumman Cygnus NG-17 arrives at ISS
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus NG-17 spacecraft has arrived at the International Space Station on Monday, less than two days after it launched on the Antares 230+ rocket from Pad 0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Enhanced Cygnus spacecraft on this mission is named the S.S. Piers Sellers, in honor of the former NASA astronaut.…
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Northrop Grumman discusses Antares NG-16’s eventful countdown, talks future missions
On August 10, the S.S. Ellison Onizuka launched on an Antares 230+ rocket from Pad-0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. The NG-16 countdown was hampered with helium and ground computer issues leading up to the final T0 mark. But teams at Northrop Grumman were able to launch at the end of the launch window at…