Tag: Orbital ATK
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Falcon 9 sails through customary preflight engine firing
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ignited its nine kerosene-fueled Merlin engines on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral on Tuesday evening in a critical milestone before liftoff with a commercial Thai communications satellite later in the week. Held down by restraints at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad, the two-stage booster fired its engines for…
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Timeline for Falcon 9’s launch of the Thaicom 8 satellite
The Falcon 9 rocket’s fifth flight of the year will take off from Cape Canaveral on Thursday, heaving the Thaicom 8 communications satellite into orbit on an easterly trajectory from Florida’s Space Coast. It will take about 32 minutes to inject the approximately 6,800-pound (3,100-kilogram) spacecraft into a highly elliptical geostationary transfer orbit on the…
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Upgraded Antares rolls out to launch pad for tests
An Antares first stage booster rolls out to pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops, Island, Virginia, on Thursday. Credit: Orbital ATK An Antares booster emerged from its hangar on Virginia’s Eastern Shore and rolled out to its launch pad Thursday for the first time since a rocket failure grounded Orbital ATK’s cargo…
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Orbital ATK eyes Kennedy Space Center as home of potential new launcher
File photo of the Vehicle Assembly Building with a crawler-transporter in the foreground. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett NASA announced Thursday that Orbital ATK has begun negotiations to lease a disused section of Kennedy Space Center’s iconic Vehicle Assembly Building and an Apollo-era launch platform for the company’s proposed next-generation rocket. The space agency said it selected…
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Orbital ATK eye VAB and MLP for potential EELV-class rocket
Orbital ATK and NASA have entered into an agreement to begin negotiations over the potential use of High Bay 2 inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The discussions, which also include the use of a former Shuttle Mobile Launch Platform (MLP), are being aligned towards Orbital ATK’s future possibilities involving the development of an EELV-class…
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Orbital ATK eye VAB and MLP for potential EELV-class rocket
Orbital ATK and NASA have entered into an agreement to begin negotiations over the potential use of High Bay 2 inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The discussions, which also include the use of a former Shuttle Mobile Launch Platform (MLP), are being aligned towards Orbital ATK’s future possibilities involving the development of an EELV-class…
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Cygnus cargo ship hooks up to space station; ULA investigates rocket glitch
The International Space Station’s robotic arm reaches out to grapple Orbital ATK’s Cygnus cargo ship in a video view with an overlay of computer data. (Credit: NASA TV) Orbital ATK’s Cygnus commercial cargo ship had a smooth link-up with the International Space Station today, delivering about 7,500 pounds of supplies, equipment, experiments and high-tech gizmos.…
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Cygnus cargo craft heads for space station with 3-D printer and more cool gizmos
United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket lifts off, sending Orbital ATK’s Cygnus cargo capsule into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. (Credit: NASA) Orbital ATK’s commercial Cygnus cargo capsule was lofted into orbit tonight atop an Atlas 5 rocket, carrying an upgraded 3-D printer, a gecko-type gripper, a fire-starting experiment and tons of…
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Preview: Cygnus to take flight Tuesday aboard Atlas 5 rocket
Credit: ULA CAPE CANAVERAL — A hundred days after the last U.S. commercial resupply of the International Space Station by a Cygnus cargo ship launched atop an Atlas 5 rocket, the booster and freighter duo will do it again Tuesday. It was just three months ago when a United Launch Alliance Atlas delivered Orbital ATK’s…
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International Space Station to study meteors hitting atmosphere
Astronaut Ron Garan, Expedition 28 flight engineer, caught this image from the International Space Station in 2011 during Perseid Meteor Shower. Credit: NASA CAPE CANAVERAL — Peering down at the Earth’s atmosphere from a research window aboard the International Space Station, a new science instrument launching Tuesday will compose unprecedented characterizations of the chemical makeup…