Tag: DARPA
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Military satellite ready for launch aboard converted Cold War-era missile
The Minotaur 4 rocket stands at Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The thermal insulation covering the lower stages of the rocket will be manually removed in the final hours of the countdown. Credit: Orbital ATK A U.S. military satellite awaiting launch Friday night from Cape Canaveral is small enough to fit…
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Assembly complete for Minotaur launcher at Cape Canaveral
A view of pad 46 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where crews have stacked a Minotaur 4 rocket for launch Aug. 25. Credit: Orbital ATK Using industrial cranes at a no-frills launch pad on the eastern tip of Cape Canaveral, a team of Orbital ATK and U.S. Air Force technicians have fully stacked a…
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Boeing, DARPA to base XS-1 spaceplane at Cape Canaveral
Artist’s concept of the XS-1 spaceplane before releasing its expendable upper stage. Credit: Boeing A reusable suborbital spaceplane the size of a business jet being developed by Boeing and the Defense Department’s research and development arm could be launching and landing at Cape Canaveral in 2020, officials said after the defense contractor won a competition…
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Boeing wins go-ahead from DARPA to build and test XS-1 military space plane by 2020
An artist’s conception shows Boeing’s Phantom Express XS-1 space plane in flight. (Boeing Illustration) The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency says it has selected the Boeing Co. to develop and test its XS-1 hypersonic space plane, using a design now known as the Phantom Express. Boeing won out over Northrop Grumman and Masten Space Systems…
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Budget proposal puts NASA satellite servicing mission in doubt
Artist’s concept of the Restore-L spacecraft (left) with the Landsat 7 satellite (right) for an in-orbit refueling demonstration. Credit: Space Systems/Loral NASA plans to shelve a robotic demonstration mission to refuel an aging Landsat Earth-imaging observatory and join forces with the private sector and a U.S. military research and development agency in a public-private partnership…
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NASA selects builder for robotic satellite servicing craft
Artist’s concept of the Restore-L spacecraft (left) with the Landsat 7 satellite (right) for an in-orbit refueling demonstration. Credit: Space Systems/Loral NASA has a builder to construct a five-ton spacecraft to catch up with the aging Landsat 7 Earth observation satellite and refuel it in 2020, employing robotic tools mastered in years of rehearsals on…
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DARPA group will promote best practices for using robots to make satellite repairs in space
(DARPA Infographic) Getting a satellite into orbit may be a challenging enough endeavor on its own, but the idea of repairing one robotically could create a whole new set of risks and rewards for space-focused industries and governments. DARPA is championing the benefit of being able to use robotic vehicles to physically inspect and modify satellites once they’ve…
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DARPA pushing new effort with Experimental Spaceplane, XS-1
Citing increasing U.S. launch costs and the “fleeing” of commercial customers to foreign launch service providers, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is continuing to push a bold strategy tied to a new, reusable spaceplane that the Agency envisions flying 10 times in 10 days for a cost of less than $5 million USD…
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Orbital Minotaur IV launches hypersonic vehicle – HTV-2b lost during flight
Orbital Sciences Corporation launched a Minotaur IV rocket carrying an experimental hypersonic prototype for the United States Air Force and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency into space on a suborbital trajectory. The rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base’s Space Launch Complex 8 at 14:45 UTC (07:45 local time) on Thursday. However, the HTV-2b…