Tag: commercial-space
-

Photos: Ground crews load final cargo into Cygnus supply ship
Technicians working at launch pad 0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia completed the final loading of cargo into Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus supply ship late Tuesday, and the Antares rocket was raised vertical again in preparation for Wednesday’s countdown. Specialists removed the top of the Antares rocket’s payload shroud and opened the forward hatch…
-

Antares launch timeline on the NG-11 mission
Credit: Orbital ATK Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket will deliver a Cygnus supply ship into orbit Wednesday to begin a day-and-a-half pursuit of the International Space Station. The rocket’s two RD-181 engines will ignite around 3.7 seconds before liftoff from pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, a complex owned by the state of Virginia at…
-

Northrop Grumman introducing new capabilities on Cygnus cargo craft
File photo of a Cygnus supply ship departing the International Space Station on Northrop Grumman’s 10th cargo mission Feb. 8. Credit: NASA The next Cygnus resupply mission to the International Space Station set for liftoff Wednesday from Virginia’s Eastern Shore will introduce new capabilities for the commercial cargo freighter, including a longer operating life enabled…
-

Photos: Antares reaches launch pad in Virginia for space station cargo mission
A two-stage Northrop Grumman Antares rocket rolled out of its horizontal integration facility Monday for the mile-journey south to launch pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia, where liftoff on a space station resupply mission is scheduled for Wednesday. Riding a self-propelled transporter/erector along a two-lane road, the Antares rocket completed the one-mile…
-

Falcon Heavy core booster tips over in rough seas after drone ship landing
The Falcon Heavy’s core booster is seen moments after landing on SpaceX’s drone ship Thursday. Credit: SpaceX The core booster from the Falcon Heavy rocket that launched Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida tipped over in rough seas after landing on an offshore drone ship, SpaceX officials said Monday. The Falcon Heavy’s core…
-

Photos: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy aces second mission
Photos captured by remote cameras placed at launch pad 39A show SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket soaring skyward Thursday evening atop more than 5 million pounds of thrust. The triple-core rocket, powered by 27 Merlin main engines, fired away from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. EDT (2235 GMT) Thursday,…
-

World’s largest airplane completes first flight
Stratolaunch’s rocket carrier jet, the largest in the world, took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port shortly after 7 a.m. PDT (10 a.m. EDT; 1400 GMT) Saturday. Credit: Gene Blevins/LA Daily News Built for hauling rockets aloft to launch satellites, the world’s biggest airplane landed Saturday after a widely-anticipated test flight over California’s…
-

Photos: Stratolaunch’s giant airplane flies over Mojave
Stratolaunch’s rocket carrier jet, the largest aircraft in the world by wing span, took off Saturday morning from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California for its first test flight. The twin-fuselage airplane took off at 6:58 a.m. PDT (9:58 a.m. EDT; 1358 GMT) Saturday and flew for nearly two-and-a-half hours, reaching a top…
-

SpaceX retrieves Falcon Heavy fairings from sea for reuse on future launch
One half of the Falcon Heavy’s payload fairing after retrieval from the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday night. Credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk said Thursday that the company’s recovery fleet in the Atlantic Ocean recovered the two halves of the Falcon Heavy’s payload shroud after the heavy-lifter’s second launch from the…
-

Photos: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy fires into a clear evening sky
Soaring into a clear early evening sky, SpaceX’s second Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off from a seaside launch complex Thursday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida before a crowd of thousands of space enthusiasts. The 229-foot-tall, 40-foot-wide (70-meter by 12.2-meter) Falcon Heavy climbed away from pad 39A with 5.1 million pounds of thrust from…