Tag: CubeSats
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Electron fails during 13th launch
Nearly three weeks after the last flight of Rocket Lab’s workhorse Electron rocket, the California-based company performed the most rapid turnaround between launches to date with the launch of Electron Flight 13. However, the rocket failed during second stage flight. The mission – which featured seven small satellites as the payload – launched from Rocket…
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Rocket Lab plans next launch Saturday, closes in on first mission from Virginia
The Electron rocket for Rocket Lab’s next mission. Credit: Rocket Lab Rocket Lab is readying for a launch from its New Zealand spaceport Saturday (U.S. time) with seven commercial satellites from Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom, while teams at Wallops Island, Virginia, move closer to Rocket Lab’s first launch there as soon…
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University-built CubeSat launched with swarm of auroral science nodes
Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket climbs away from a launch base in New Zealand Saturday. Credit: Rocket Lab Rocket Lab successfully launched five small satellites from New Zealand Saturday for customers in the United States and Australia, including a CubeSat with a novel swarm of tiny magnetometers to measure the plasma currents that shape colorful auroras.…
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Live coverage: Rocket Lab back in action with twilight launch in New Zealand
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand carrying payloads into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office, NASA and the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Rocket Lab’s live video…
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Virgin Orbit’s air-launched rocket fails on first test flight
Virgin Orbit’s carrier aircraft — a Boeing 747 named “Cosmic Girl” — took off from Mojave Air and Space Port at 2:56 p.m. EDT (11:56 a.m. EDT) Monday with the company’s LauncherOne rocket under its left wing. Credit: Matt Hartman / Shorealone Films Making its first flight, a privately-funded air-launched rocket developed and built by…
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Virgin Orbit eager for data from first flight of air-launched rocket
A view of Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne vehicle under the left wing of a Boeing 747 carrier aircraft at Mojave Air and Space Port in California. Credit: Virgin Orbit Virgin Orbit is setting modest expectations ahead of the company’s first attempt to reach orbit with a liquid-fueled air-launched rocket, emphasizing a hunger for flight data on…
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Virgin Orbit schedules its first orbital test launch this weekend
EDITOR’S NOTE: A launch attempt Sunday was scrubbed due to a faulty sensor. Virgin Orbit did not immediately announce a new target launch date. A full-scale mock-up of Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket falls away from a modified Boeing 747 carrier jet during an inert drop test in July 2019 over the Mojave Desert of California. Credit:…
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Cygnus departs space station, beginning extended experimental mission
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 12:30 p.m. EDT (1630 GMT) after Cygnus release. The Cygnus cargo freighter has been released from the International Space Station’s robotic arm, ending the spacecraft’s 83-day stay at the orbiting complex. WATCH LIVE: https://t.co/eyXXSFxOFR pic.twitter.com/XucgpieiSM — Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) May 11, 2020 A Cygnus supply ship built by Northrop Grumman departed the…
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Arianespace to resume launch preparations in French Guiana
Europe’s primary launch site is the Guiana Space Center, located in Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeastern coast of South America. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – L. Boyer Targeting a pair of satellite launches in June and July, ground teams will resume work at the Guiana Space Center in South America…
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Swarm of NASA nanosats to probe source of solar eruptions
This image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory in 2013 shows the bright light of a solar flare on the left side of the sun and an eruption of solar material shooting through the sun’s atmosphere, called a prominence eruption. This same region of the sun sent a coronal mass ejection out into space. Credit: NASA/SDO…