Tag: Lockheed-Martin
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Photos: Navy satellite encapsulated, mated to Atlas 5
The U.S. Navy’s Mobile User Objective System communications satellite No. 5 was encapsulated in the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket’s payload fairing on June 4 at the Astrotech processing facility in Titusville, Florida. The 18-foot-diamter shroud covers the satellite during the initial minutes of flight as the 206-foot-tall rocket climbs through the atmosphere. On…
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Video: Asteroid sampler craft delivered to launch site
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx, the spacecraft that will grab a piece of Asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth, shipped to Kennedy Space Center from the Lockheed Martin production facilities in Denver on May 20 aboard an Air Force C-17. It was taken to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility to begin pre-launch processing. Liftoff atop a United…
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NASA probe that will make round trip to asteroid and back sent to launch base
Credit: OSIRIS-REx project CAPE CANAVERAL — Equipped with a robot arm, sample collector and return capsule, NASA’s asteroid-bound OSIRIS-REx probe emerged from its pristine factory and flew to the launch site in Florida this evening. A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will hurl the 4,650-pound spacecraft toward Asteroid Bennu on Sept. 8 for a…
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NASA probe that will make round trip to asteroid and back sent to launch base
Credit: OSIRIS-REx project CAPE CANAVERAL — Equipped with a robot arm, sample collector and return capsule, NASA’s asteroid-bound OSIRIS-REx probe emerged from its pristine factory and flew to the launch site in Florida this evening. A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will hurl the 4,650-pound spacecraft toward Asteroid Bennu on Sept. 8 for a…
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Orion capsule put under pressure in Florida
Lockheed Martin engineers and technicians prepare the Orion pressure vessel for a series of tests inside the proof pressure cell in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This capsule will fly on Exploration Mission-1 in 2018. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett The skeleton of NASA’s next Orion capsule,…
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Falcon 9 rocket wins landmark U.S. Air Force launch contract
File photo of a Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will launch a third-generation GPS navigation satellite for the U.S. military in 2018, the Air Force said Wednesday, breaking a monopoly held by United Launch Alliance since its formation nearly a decade ago. The second satellite in the Air…
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Air Force ends effort to recover DMSP weather satellite
Artist’s concept of a DMSP weather satellite in orbit. Credit: U.S. Air Force Attempts to restore the U.S. Air Force’s newest weather satellite to service have ended, a military spokesperson said Wednesday, cutting a planned five-year mission short less than two years after it launched. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 19, or DMSP F19, spacecraft…
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MUOS 5 satellite comes to Florida on way to geosynchronous orbit
MUOS No. 5 in the factory before shipment to Cape Canaveral for launch. Credit: Lockheed Martin CAPE CANAVERAL — The fifth and final satellite for the U.S. Navy’s new mobile network to provide rugged smartphone communications to all branches of the military has arrived at the launch site for blastoff in May. The Mobile User…
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InSight Mars lander escapes cancellation, aims for 2018 launch
The InSight lander in its cruise stage configuration prior to undergoing acoustic testing at Lockheed Martin. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin The InSight Mars lander has won a reprieve from NASA’s top managers after persistent problems with one of the probe’s science instruments caused the mission to miss a narrow launch window planned for this month. The…
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Engineers lose control of U.S. military weather satellite
Artist’s concept of a DMSP weather satellite in orbit. Credit: Lockheed Martin The U.S. Air Force has been unable to send commands to the service’s newest weather satellite for nearly a month, and engineers are trying to determine if the spacecraft can be salvaged, officials said last week. The polar-orbiting Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight…