Tag: United Launch Alliance
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New GPS satellite begins transmitting to users around the globe
CAPE CANAVERAL — Air Force ground controllers have activated service aboard the newest Global Positioning System satellite, achieving that milestone for the final spacecraft in a dozen built in a manufacturing batch to update the constellation. The GPS 2F-12 craft was launched into the navigation network from Cape Canaveral atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas…
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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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ULA’s candidates to replace RD-180 engine win Air Force funding
File photo of a hotfire test using components of Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine. Credit: Blue Origin The Pentagon has awarded at least $162 million in contracts to Aerojet Rocketdyne and United Launch Alliance for development work on the AR1 and BE-4 rocket engines, candidates to power the first stage of a next-generation rocket and replace…
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Blue Origin, ULA and Aerojet win Air Force contracts for U.S.-made rocket engines
Blue Origin’s BE-4 rocket engine goes through staged combustion testing. (Credit: ULA) Blue Origin, the rocket venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, is among the beneficiaries in a set of Air Force contracts aimed at developing U.S.-made replacements for the Russian-made engines that currently power many of America’s space missions. One of the contracts announced…
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Photos: More Delta 4 launch shots
The United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket blasts into the predawn skies at Vandenberg Air Force Base with the NROL-45 payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. Photo Credit: Gene Blevins / LA Daily News See earlier Delta 373 coverage. Our Delta archive.
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Delta 4 goes against the grain to backwards orbit for spy bird
Soaring in fine fashion before daybreak, a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket maneuvered a new spy satellite into a unique retrograde orbit this morning to join an expanding constellation of radar-imaging spacecraft. The 217-foot-tall orange and white vehicle used its hydrogen-fueled main engine and a pair of side-mounted solid rocket boosters to fire away…
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Video: Delta 4 launches before dawn from California
A replay of the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket launching on the NROL-45 satellite-deployment mission for the National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. See earlier Delta 373 coverage. Our Delta archive.
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Photos: Delta 4 launches on secret NROL-45 mission
A collection of pad photos from the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket flight to deploy the NROL-45 spy satellite payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. Photo Credit: United Launch Alliance See earlier Delta 373 coverage. Our Delta archive.
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National Reconnaissance Office to begin year’s manifest with Delta 4
File of Delta 4 Medium+ (5,2) on the pad at Vandenberg. Credit: Justin Ray/Spaceflight Now. See more images like this. Beginning the National Reconnaissance Office’s campaign of four launches in 2016 using boosters big and small to deploy a varied collection of new intelligence satellites, a Delta 4 rocket stands ready for liftoff before sun-up…
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Photos: NROL-45 payload fitted atop Delta 4 for launch
This collection of photographs shows the National Reconnaissance Office’s classified NROL-45 payload, already encapsulated in the Delta 4 nose cone, being moved from the payload processing facility at Space Launch Complex 6 and lifted atop the United Launch Alliance rocket for flight on Wednesday morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Photos by United Launch…