Tag: military space
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Surveillance photos reveal apparent explosion on Iranian launch pad
This image, tweeted by President Trump on Friday, appears to come from a high-resolution camera on a U.S. government drone or satellite. It shows damage to an Iranian satellite launch pad. A day after commercial satellite images revealed a smoke plume over an Iranian launch pad, President Trump tweeted a remarkably high-resolution aerial photograph of…
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Trump reauthorizes U.S. Space Command
Air Force Gen. Jay Raymond, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence participated in a White House ceremony Thursday to reestablish U.S. Space Command. Credit: Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour President Trump reestablished U.S. Space Command in a White House ceremony Thursday, setting up a unified combatant…
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U.S. military spaceplane breaks its own longevity record in orbit
Artist’s concept of the X-37B spaceplane in orbit. Credit: Boeing A robotic U.S. military spaceplane surpassed 719 days in orbit Monday, setting a new record for the longest flight of the Air Force’s winged X-37B orbiting experiment platform nearly two years after launching from Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Air Force officials have…
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Proton rocket lifts off with Russian military satellite
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated on Aug. 6 after confirmation of a successful mission. File photo of a previous Proton launch. Credit: Roscosmos A Blagovest communications spacecraft lifted off Monday aboard a Proton rocket to complete a network of four relay satellites in geostationary orbit for the Russian military. The Proton rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome…
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Russia launches military communications satellite
A Soyuz-2.1a booster lifts off Tuesday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome with a Russian military Meridian communications satellite. Credit: Roscosmos A Russian military satellite rocketed into orbit Tuesday on top of a Soyuz launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome to provide communications coverage over Russia’s polar regions. The Meridian relay satellite lifted off at 0556 GMT (1:56…
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UAE military satellite lost in Vega launch failure
A Vega rocket fired off its launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana, at 9:53:03 p.m. EDT Wednesday (0153:03 GMT Thursday), but fell back to Earth minutes after after suffering an in-flight failure. Credit: Arianespace A European Vega launcher failed Wednesday night around two minutes after liftoff from French Guiana and fell into the Atlantic Ocean,…
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Four Russian military satellites launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome
Four unidentified Russian military satellites rode a modified Soyuz booster into orbit Wednesday from a remote space base north of Moscow. The satellites lifted off at 1714 GMT (1:14 p.m. EDT) Wednesday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a military launch base around 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow. The launch occurred at 8:14 p.m. Moscow…
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Live coverage: Vega rocket fails during launch of UAE surveillance satellite
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Vega rocket with the Falcon Eye 1 Earth-imaging satellite for the United Arab Emirates. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Arianespace’s live video webcast begins at approximately 0135 GMT (9:35 p.m. EDT), and will be available on this page.
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Arianespace delays Vega launch to avoid unfavorable high-altitude winds
EDITOR’S NOTE: Launch postponed again Sunday. The Falcon Eye 1 observation satellite, encapsulated inside the Vega rocket’s Swiss-made payload fairing, is prepared for attachment on top of the launch vehicle. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – P. Baudon The launch from French Guiana of a solid-fueled Vega rocket with a European-built surveillance satellite…
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Chinese state media confirms Long March launch failure
File photo of a previous Long March 4C launch from the Taiyuan space base. Credit: Xinhua A Chinese Long March 4C rocket failed to place its top secret military payload into orbit Wednesday after a launch from the Taiyuan space base southwest of Beijing, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. The three-stage rocket lifted…