Tag: United Launch Alliance
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Photos: Delta 4-Heavy blasts off from Vandenberg
The first of up to seven United Launch Alliance missions lifted off Jan. 19 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where a Delta 4-Heavy launcher fired into orbit with 2.1 million pounds of thrust from three hydrogen-fueled RS-68A main engines with a U.S. government spy satellite. The orange and white launcher, standing 233 feet…
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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture breaks ground on Alabama engine factory
United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno and Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith are front and center for a groundbreaking ceremony at the future site of Blue Origin’s rocket engine factory in Huntsville, Ala. (City of Huntsville Photo via Twitter) Civic leaders and space executives tossed shovels of dirt today to celebrate the groundbreaking for a…
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Delta 4 rocket launches NROL-71 spy satellite after a month’s worth of delays
United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4 Heavy rocket lifts off from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, sending the NROL-71 classified payload into space. (ULA Photo) The National Reconnaissance Office’s latest classified spy satellite, NROL-71, was launched today by a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket into California’s sunny skies. Today’s trouble-free countdown at Vandenberg Air…
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Delta 4-Heavy rocket launches U.S. spy satellite into unusual orbit
A Delta 4-Heavy rocket, comprising three hydrogen-fueled first stage boosters connected together, lifted off at 11:10 a.m. PST (2:10 p.m. EST; 1910 GMT) Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: United Launch Alliance A top secret surveillance payload owned by the National Reconnaissance Office soared into space Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in…
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Photos: Atlas 5 rocket transferred to launch pad in Florida
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated with rollout photos. The Atlas 5 rocket set for launch with the U.S. Air Force’s fourth AEHF communications satellite. Credit: United Launch Alliance A day-and-a-half before its liftoff with a U.S. Air Force communications satellite, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket rolled out to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral on…
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Bezos rocket engine selected for new Vulcan rocket
Artist’s concept of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket. Credit: ULA Ending months of speculation, Blue Origin, a company owned by Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos, has won a milestone contract to provide first-stage rocket engines for a powerful new booster being designed by United Launch Alliance to replace its current fleet of Atlas and Delta launchers, the…
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Blue Origin’s BE-4 rocket engine wins United Launch Alliance’s key multibillion-dollar backing
Blue Origin’s BE-4 rocket engine went on display at a Colorado space conference in April. (Blue Origin Photo) After years of development and months of suspense, Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has won a high-stakes race to provide United Launch Alliance with its BE-4 rocket engine. First word of the win came…
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Viasat selects Atlas 5 rocket for broadband satellite launch
File photo of an Atlas 5 rocket launch in 2012, using five strap-on solid rocket boosters. Credit: United Launch Alliance A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will send one of Viasat’s next-generation broadband satellites toward geostationary orbit from Cape Canaveral some time between 2020 and 2022, the companies announced Monday. The commercial satellite is…
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Towers at historic Florida launch pad toppled
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 7:50 a.m. EDT (1250 GMT) after demolition. Launch towers at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 17 launch pad were topped Thursday in an explosive demolition. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now The U.S. Air Force on Thursday demolished towers once used to assemble Delta 2 rockets at Cape Canaveral for missions to Mars, four dozen…
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United Launch Alliance picks Aerojet’s RL10 rocket engine for Vulcan upper stage
Aerojet Rocketdyne has successfully tested a full-scale, 3-D-printed thrust chamber assembly for its workhorse RL-10 rocket engine. (Aerojet Rocketdyne Photo) United Launch Alliance has chosen Aerojet Rocketdyne over Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture to provide the upper-stage rocket engine for its next-generation Vulcan launch vehicle. But the suspense continues in the bigger…