Tag: Eumetsat
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Photos: Sentinel 3B satellite prepared for launch from Plesetsk Cosmodrome
Europe’s Sentinel 3B environmental satellite was shipped to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia’s far northern Arkhangelsk region in March for a month-long campaign to prepare the spacecraft for liftoff aboard a Rockot launcher. The remote military base, nestled in a forest around 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow, is Russia’s primary launch site for…
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Six firm launch contracts booked with Arianespace
Artist’s illustration of the Ariane 62 rocket. Credit: ESA–David Ducros, 2016 Arianespace has received its first two confirmed launch contracts for Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket, and the company recently announced four more launch bookings to loft communications and weather satellites into orbit aboard Ariane 5 and Soyuz boosters from French Guiana. Two Ariane 6…
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Jason 3 satellite begins surveying world’s oceans
Artist’s concept of the Jason 3 satellite mapping the ocean surface with its radar altimeter. Credit: NASA Two months after its foggy blastoff from California on a Falcon 9 rocket, a $364 million oceanography satellite has returned the first data from its radar altimeter mapping global sea levels, catching this year’s ongoing El Niño in the…
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Satellite launched to measure motions of the oceans
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 10:42 a.m. PST (1:42 p.m. EST; 1842 GMT) Sunday. Credit: SpaceX A new satellite built to extend a 24-year series of joint U.S.-European ocean observatories climbed away from a foggy California launch pad and sailed into orbit more than 800 miles above Earth on Sunday aboard a SpaceX…
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Live coverage: Falcon 9 launches ocean study satellite, barge landing fails
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with the Jason 3 ocean altimetry mission. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
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Photos: Falcon 9 poised on hillside launch pad in California
The first Falcon 9 flight of 2016 is ready for takeoff Sunday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and these photos show the rocket positioned on its launch mount overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The 224-foot-tall rocket will blast off at 10:42:18 a.m. PST (1:42:18 p.m. EST; 1842:18 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 4-East at…
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Ideal weather predicted for Falcon 9 launch Sunday
Photo credit: SpaceX Meteorologists predict mostly sunny skies, mild temperatures and light winds Sunday for the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from California’s Central Coast with a $364 million oceanography satellite for U.S. and European science institutions. The forecast is so favorable that U.S. Air Force meteorologists give a 100 percent chance of…
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Hold-down firing completed ahead of Sunday’s Falcon 9 launch
Nine Merlin engines on the Falcon 9’s first stage fired up Monday for a static fire test at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX’s launch team ran through a traditional preflight test Monday, putting a Falcon 9 rocket through a mock countdown, loading it with a supply of liquid propellant and briefly…
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Hold-down firing completed ahead of Sunday’s Falcon 9 launch
Nine Merlin engines on the Falcon 9’s first stage fired up Monday for a static fire test at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX’s launch team ran through a traditional preflight test Monday, putting a Falcon 9 rocket through a mock countdown, loading it with a supply of liquid propellant and briefly…
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Offshore barge landing targeted after next Falcon 9 launch
The first stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is pictured after landing at Cape Canaveral following a Dec. 21 launch with 11 satellites. Credit: SpaceX Nearly a month after nailing a landing a rocket landing at Cape Canaveral, SpaceX plans to steer the next flight of a Falcon 9 booster toward a recovery vessel in…