Tag: Delta 4 Heavy
-
Delta 4-Heavy launch postponed by unspecified payload issue
NROL-37 mission poster. Credit: United Launch Alliance CAPE CANAVERAL — Payload readiness has delayed next weekend’s planned Delta 4-Heavy rocket launch for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. Liftoff had been targeted for the afternoon of June 4. A new launch date has not yet been established. The NRO is the secretive government agency responsible for…
-
Photos and video: Payload mated to Delta 4-Heavy rocket for upcoming launch
CAPE CANAVERAL — Shielded from view within the protective rocket nose cone, a covert surveillance satellite has been mounted atop a Delta 4-Heavy rocket for launch June 4. The United Launch Alliance triple-barrel booster will heave the National Reconnaissance Office satellite into orbit for a classified mission. No details about the spacecraft, its purpose or…
-
Delta 4-Heavy passes countdown rehearsal for upcoming NRO launch
CAPE CANAVERAL — Successfully put through its countdown paces in a critical pre-flight test Thursday, America’s largest rocket currently in service moved closer to a June launch for the U.S. intelligence community. Liftoff of the United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy on the classified NROL-37 mission is targeted for June 4. Known as a Wet Dress…
-
Delta 4-Heavy goes to launch pad for national security flight
File photos of Delta 4-Heavy rollout and erection. Photos by ULA CAPE CANAVERAL — Rolling toward a mid-May deployment of a clandestine spy satellite, United Launch Alliance’s triple-body Delta 4-Heavy rocket moved from its Cape Canaveral assembly building to pad 37B yesterday. The 170-foot-long rocket, riding horizontal aboard a 36-wheel, diesel-powered transporter, emerged from the…
-
Next round of U.S. optical spy satellites to start launching in 2018
Credit: Pat Corkery/ULA CAPE CANAVERAL — The covert follow-on satellite program that will serve as a replacement to the nation’s surveillance “eyes” from space begins launching in 2018 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket will deploy the massive payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office in a…
-
Certification process begins for Vulcan to carry military payloads
Delta 4-Heavy (left) and the new Vulcan rocket (right). Credit: ULA CAPE CANAVERAL — The heavy-lift version of the United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan rocket will sell for half the price of today’s Delta 4-Heavy and a third of the price tag for the previous Titan 4, while offering a substantial increase in performance for…
-
Delta 4-Heavy selected for launch of solar probe
File photo of a Delta 4-Heavy rocket launch in June 2012. Credit: ULA A NASA spacecraft that will fly closer to the sun than any mission before will launch on a Delta 4-Heavy rocket in 2018, requiring a boost from the largest active launcher in the U.S. inventory and repeated flybys around Venus to reach…
-
2014’s top stories in spaceflight
The year ended with a deluge of big news, reminding us of the risks of spaceflight and the thin margins between success and failure on the final frontier. 2014 was also a year of breakthroughs in the exploration of the solar system and the future of human spaceflight. The Spaceflight Now editorial team has ranked…
-
-
Orion capsule completes epic space journey
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS “SPACE PLACE” & USED WITH PERMISSION The Orion spacecraft floats in the Pacific Ocean after splashdown. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now Boosted to an altitude of 3,604 miles by a powerful Delta 4 rocket, NASA’s Orion deep space exploration vehicle fell back to Earth Friday in the program’s maiden voyage, slamming into the…