Tag: United Launch Alliance
-
Fog and flames: Up-close photos from the Mars InSight mission’s launch pad
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — As thick fog enveloped Space Launch Complex 3 early this morning, the Mars InSight lander roared off the launch pad aboard an Atlas 5 rocket, starting its journey to the Red Planet. My three remote cameras were 300 to 400 feet away from the launch pad, and you can see…
-
ULA touts new Vulcan rocket in competition with SpaceX
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Artist’s illustration of a Vulcan rocket launching from Cape Canaveral. Credit: United Launch Alliance SpaceX and its visionary founder Elon Musk win the lion’s share of public attention in the commercial rocket arena, with dramatic, increasingly routine booster landings and spectacular stunts like the launch of Musk’s Tesla…
-
Photos: Atlas 5 blasts off with GOES-S weather satellite
NOAA’s newest weather satellite, heading for a perch with coverage over the western United States and the Pacific Ocean, launched March 1 from Cape Canaveral on top of an Atlas 5 rocket. The 197-foot-tall (60-meter) rocket, built by United Launch Alliance, lifted off at 5:02 p.m. EST (2202 GMT) on March 1 from Cape Canaveral’s…
-
Weather satellite for the West Coast launched from Cape Canaveral
Credit: United Launch Alliance A weather satellite set to bring new storm tracking capabilities to the western United States and the Pacific Ocean rode into space atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket Thursday. Kicking off a 15-year service life, the 11,488-pound (5,211-kilogram) robotic weather observer lifted off at 5:02 p.m. EST (2202 GMT)…
-
Photos: Atlas 5 treks from hangar to launch pad with GOES-S weather satellite
Rolling out on the eve of liftoff with the GOES-S weather satellite, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket journeyed 1,800 feet from its vertical assembly hangar to Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 launch pad Wednesday. Riding a 1.4-million-pound mobile launch platform, the Atlas 5 emerged from the Vertical Integration Facility around 10 a.m. EST (1500…
-
Second of NOAA’s “high-definition” weather satellites ready for launch
Artist’s concept of the GOES-S satellite in orbit. Credit: Lockheed Martin The second satellite in a quartet of new NOAA weather observatories is awaiting liftoff Thursday aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, heading for a position 22,000 miles from Earth to scan the western United States and Pacific Ocean for typhoons, wildfires and…
-
White House emphasizes industry over science in Space Council appointments
Vice President Mike Pence visited a United Launch Alliance hangar Tuesday evening at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where a Delta 4-Heavy rocket is being readied for liftoff in July. Tory Bruno, ULA’s president and CEO, briefed Pence on the facility. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now A roster of representatives from the commercial space industry, astronauts,…
-
ULA announces takeover of commercial Atlas 5 launch sales
File photo of an Atlas 5 launch from Cape Canaveral. Credit: ULA United Launch Alliance announced Monday that the company will assume responsibility for commercial marketing and sales for Atlas 5 rocket missions, taking over for a Lockheed Martin division that previously sold Atlas 5 launch services on the commercial market. The change will mean…
-
Photos: Mobile gantry rolled back to reveal Delta 4 rocket at Vandenberg
The 32-story-tall mobile service tower at the Delta 4’s launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California was retracted away from the rocket Thursday in advance of a planned liftoff with a top secret National Reconnaissance Office payload. The classified NROL-47 payload is set to ride the 217-foot-tall (66-meter) rocket from Space Launch Complex…
-
Classified payload hoisted atop Delta 4 rocket at Vandenberg
A clandestine satellite owned by the National Reconnaissance Office has been raised atop its United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, for liftoff Jan. 10. Already encapsulated inside the Delta 4’s payload fairing, the spacecraft was recently transferred from a nearby processing facility and hoisted by a crane inside the…