Tag: launch

Artemis I Launch Weather Projected to be Favorable, Storms Expected for Saturday SpaceX Launch

Florida Today reports that Florida “summertime weather could threaten a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch scheduled for Saturday night from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. On the other hand, conditions for Monday morning’s highly anticipated liftoff of NASA’s massive Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule from Kennedy Space Center seem to be more favorable.” On Saturday night, “SpaceX teams will likely have to contend with 40% ‘go’ conditions for the 58th liftoff of dozens of Starlink satellites at 10:22 p.m. EDT from LC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. But, Space Force forecasters expect those conditions to improve to around 60% throughout the launch window which closes just after midnight.”
Full Story (Florida Today)

 

 Watch the Artemis I launch live on NASA TV

Launch scheduled for Monday, August 29, between 8:33 a.m. and 10:33 a.m. EDT

SpaceX Plans to Launch Falcon 9 Ahead of Artemis 1 Mission

Florida Today reports that SpaceX teams “at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station are still targeting this week for the launch of more Starlink internet satellites, one of the last flights before a massive NASA rocket takes off to the moon.” A Falcon 9 rocket “is slated for liftoff at 3:24 p.m EDT Friday, the opening of an instantaneous window at Launch Complex 40.” Space Launch Delta 45 forecasters said Thursday, “It is expected that there will be some showers and storms in the area during the window, likely just inland of the launch site. The main threats will be cumulus clouds and lightning associated with showers and storms in the vicinity, some which may drift back towards the launch site.”
Full Story (Florida Today)

Blue Origin Launches Sixth New Shepard Flight

CBS News reports that Blue Origin “launched its sixth New Shepard passenger flight Thursday, taking a half dozen space tourists on a supersonic dash to the edge of space and back, complete with a few minutes of weightlessness and out-of-this world views from 66 miles above west Texas.” The New Shepard rocket and capsule took off from Blue Origin’s “West Texas launch site Thursday, carrying an international six-member crew on a 10-minute flight to the edge of space and back.”
Full Story (CBS News)
More Info (AIAA Statement)

 

 Video

New Shepard Mission NS-22
(Blue Origin; YouTube)

NASA Selects SpaceX Falcon Heavy for Next Space Telescope Launch

The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reports that with the “success of the James Webb Space Telescope images released this month, NASA is gearing up to send up yet more powerful hardware to capture next-generation images of the universe, and has chosen SpaceX for its ride.” The mission will see the “company’s Falcon Heavy launching the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to space from Kennedy Space Center on a mission targeting liftoff in October 2026.” The space telescope’s launch “was dubbed a top priority by the 2010 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey.” The telescope was previously known as the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope.
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel – Subscription Publication)

Vega C Makes Maiden Flight

Space News reports that the new Vega C medium-lift rocket took off on its maiden flight Wednesday, “carrying an Italian physics satellite and six cubesats.” The Vega C was launched from the ESA facility in Kourou, French Guiana at 9:13 a.m. EST “at the end of a two-hour launch window. Technical issues had twice halted the countdown sequence.” The primary payload was the 295-kilogram Laser Relativity Satellite-2 (LARES-2), placed “in an unusual inclined orbit at 5,893 kilometers to test Einstein’s theory of General Relativity.”
Full Story (Space News)
 
 
 

 

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First launch of the ESA’s new Vega-C launch vehicle, July 13, 2022
(SciNews via YouTube)

Rocket Lab Launches NROL-162 Payload into Orbit

SPACE reports that Rocket Lab has delivered “another spacecraft to orbit for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which operates the nation’s fleet of spy satellites.” The Rocket Lab Electron booster “topped with the NROL-162 spacecraft lifted off from the company’s New Zealand site on Wednesday (July 13) at 2:30 a.m. EDT (0630 GMT; 6:30 p.m. local time in New Zealand).” About an hour later, “the Electron’s ‘kick stage’ deployed NROL-162 into Earth orbit as planned, Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck confirmed via Twitter.” Rocket Lab wrote Wednesday that NROL-162 “will strengthen the NRO’s ability to provide a wide range of timely intelligence information to national decision makers and intelligence analysts to protect the United States’ vital interests and support humanitarian efforts worldwide.” NROL-162 is a “joint effort of the NRO and the Australian Department of Defence.”
Full Story (SPACE)
 
 
 

 

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Rocket Lab’s NROL-162 Launch, July 13, 2022
(The Launch Pad via YouTube)

ULA’s Atlas 5 Launches Two Space Force Satellites to Test Early Warning Technology

CBS News reported that “after waiting out cloudy weather, the U.S. Space Force launched two satellites atop an Atlas 5 rocket Friday to test ballistic and hypersonic missile early warning and tracking technology and to deploy a maneuverable spacecraft carrying an unknown number of classified payloads.” United Launch Alliance’s 196-foot-tall rocket lifted off at 7:15 p.m. EDT from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, “knifing through low clouds and quickly disappearing from view as it streaked away to the east over the Atlantic Ocean. Eleven minutes later, the Aerojet Rocketdyne engine powering the rocket’s second stage completed the first of three planned firings designed to put the two satellites in a circular orbit 22,300 miles above the equator.” According to CBS News, the “trip was expected to take about six hours, ending early Saturday with the satellites’ deployment from the Centaur second stage.”
Full Story (CBS News)
 
 
 

 

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Atlas 5 rocket launch with U.S. Space Force experimental satellites, July 1, 2022
(Spaceflight Now via YouTube)

ULA to Launch US Space Force Satellites on Thursday

Spaceflight Now reports that United Launch Alliance (ULA) teams “at Cape Canaveral rolled an Atlas 5 rocket to its launch pad Wednesday, moving the launcher into position for liftoff Thursday evening with a pair of geostationary satellites for the U.S. Space Force.” The rollout “began shortly after 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT), when the Atlas 5 emerged from the Vertical Integration Facility south of the launch pad. The 196-foot-tall (59.7-meter-tall) rocket rode a mobile launch platform along rail tracks to Space Launch Complex 41, the East Coast home of Atlas 5 launch operations.” Launch is set for 6 p.m. EDT Thursday, “the opening of a two-hour launch window. There is a 60% chance of favorable weather for Thursday’s launch window, according to the Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)

CAPSTONE Launched Tuesday Morning

CNET News reports that NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) was launched from the Rocket Lab launch facility in New Zealand on Tuesday, “paving the way for Artemis astronauts to return to the moon in the coming years.” CAPSTONE “will be testing new navigation systems and trying out the halo-shaped orbit around the moon that will one day be occupied by NASA’s Lunar Gateway. The Gateway will be a sort of small space station circling the moon that will be used for staging for Artemis missions to the lunar surface.”
Full Story (CNET News)
 
 
 

 

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Official NASA Broadcast of CAPTSTONE launch from New Zealand, June 28, 2022
(NASA via YouTube)

NASA Launches Rocket from Australia’s Northern Territory

SPACE reported that over the next weeks NASA “will launch three rockets from the Arnhem Space Centre in the Northern Territory on the Dhupuma Plateau, near Nhulunbuy. The rockets are 13 meter ‘sounding’ rockets that will not reach orbit but will take scientific observations.” This is the first time NASA will launch rockets from a commercial site in a foreign territory. The launch will “represent a major step forward for commercial space operators, as well as signaling the opportunity for future joint projects between Australia and the United States.” The rockets “have been designed and built by NASA and will be used for scientific investigations into the physics of the sun, astrophysics and the type of planetary science we can only conduct in the southern hemisphere.”
Full Story (SPACE)
 
 
 

 

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NASA launches rocket from Australia’s Northern Territory, June 26, 2022
(9 News Australia via YouTube)