Tag: CubeSats
-
First Falcon Heavy night launch slips to June 24
File photo of a Falcon Heavy rocket rolling out to pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: SpaceX The first nighttime launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, and the first Falcon Heavy flight for the U.S. military, is set for no earlier than June 24 from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space…
-
Rocket Lab deploys experimental U.S. military smallsats on first night launch
Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket lifted off at 0600 GMT (2 a.m. EDT; 6 p.m. New Zealand time) Sunday. Credit: Rocket Lab On its first nighttime launch, Rocket Lab’s Electron booster climbed into orbit Sunday from New Zealand with a trio of small U.S. military payloads, demonstrating the privately-developed rocket’s ability to help meet the Air…
-
Live coverage: Rocket Lab launches three U.S. military smallsats
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand carrying three U.S. military-sponsored experimental satellites into orbit on the STP-27RD mission. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Rocket Lab’s live video webcast begins around 15 minutes prior to launch, and…
-
Photos: Antares rocket blasts off from Virginia
A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket launch April 17 from Virginia’s Eastern Shore marked the start of the 11th Cygnus resupply mission to the International Space Station. Firing away from pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, the 139-foot-tall (42.5-meter) Antares rocket arced toward the southeast over the Atlantic Ocean powered by…
-
Cygnus supply ship delivers 3.8-ton cargo load to International Space Station
The Cygnus spacecraft, christened the S.S. Roger Chaffee, is in the firm grasp of the space station’s Canadian-built robotic arm Friday after arrival. Credit: David Saint-Jacques/CSA/NASA NASA flight engineer Anne McClain grappled Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus supply ship with the International Space Station’s robotic arm Friday, marking the automated cargo freighter’s arrival after an abbreviated day-and-a-half-long…
-
Antares rocket boosts Cygnus supply ship toward International Space Station
Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls A commercial Cygnus cargo freighter packed with 3.8 tons of medical and pharmaceutical experiments, technology demonstration hardware, CubeSats, food and supplies rode an Antares rocket into orbit from Virginia’s Eastern Shore on Wednesday afternoon on the first leg of a day-and-a-half journey…
-
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…