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    Report: Northrop Targets Oct. 26 Launch for ICON Spacecraft

    Northrop Grumman plans to launch on Oct. 26 the Ionospheric Connection Explorer spacecraft aboard the Pegasus rocket, NASASpaceflight.com reported Friday. The rocket will launch from the Stargazer L-1011 aircraft that will take off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. ICON was originally scheduled to launch in June, but Northrop postponed the take-off after Pegasus sent off-nominal data […] More

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    Orbital ATK Backs Delta II Rocket Launch With Solid Rocket Motors, Payload Fairing

    Orbital ATK supplied a composite fairing component and nine graphite epoxy motors – GEM 40 – for a United Launch Alliance-built Delta II rocket that took off Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The first Joint Polar Satellite System that NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration developed through a collaborative effort launched aboard the Delta […] More

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    Reports: SpaceX Delays Falcon 9 Rocket Launch Due to Bad Weather

    Space Exploration Technologies has delayed a Falcon 9 rocket launch previously  slated to take off Monday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California due to high winds and rain at the site, CNN reported Sunday. Jill Disis and Danielle Wiener-Bronner write that SpaceX now expects to launch its rocket with an initial set of 10 NEXT satellites for Iridium on Jan. […] More

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    Elon Musk Cites Cause of SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Explosion

    Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, has said the company thinks it has “gotten to the bottom of the problem” that resulted in the explosion of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket in September. “It involves a combination of liquid helium, advanced carbon fiber composites, and solid oxygen… Oxygen so cold that it actually enters solid phase,” Musk […] More

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    China’s Rocket for Proposed Space Station Completes Inaugural Flight

    A China-built rocket designed to transport spacecraft and astronauts to the country’s proposed space station launched Saturday at 8 a.m. Eastern time from a launch pad on Hainan Island in the South China Sea, SpaceFlight Now reported Saturday. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., the prime contractor on the Chinese space program, said the Long March 7 […] More

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    ULA Launches NRO Payload, 13 Rideshare CubeSats; Jim Sponnick Comments

    United Launch Alliance has launched a National Reconnaissance Office payload and 13 CubeSats for the Government Rideshare Advanced Concepts Experiment aboard an Atlas V rocket as part of the NROL-55 mission. The Boeing–Lockheed Martin joint venture said Thursday the mission is in support of national defense and is the company’s 10th launch since the beginning of the year. Jim […] More

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    Boeing-Lockheed JV Carries Out 100th Launch

    A United Launch Alliance-built rocket launched early Friday morning to mark the 100th mission carried out by the joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, NASASpaceflight.com reported Friday. An Atlas V rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to carry the Morelos-3 communications satellite into space, William Graham writes. The Atlas V contains an RL10 engine-powered Centaur upper stage, […] More

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    Orbital ATK to Build Motors for ULA Atlas V, Vulcan Rockets

    United Launch Alliance has selected Orbital ATK as the sole provider of solid boosters for the Atlas V and Vulcan launch vehicles as part of a long-term strategic partnership between both businesses that takes effect in 2019. Orbital ATK said Tuesday it will design and develop two new motors for the Boeing–Lockheed Martin joint venture to support both government and commercial […] More

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    ULA-Ball Aerospace Event Features Rockets, Payloads Built by Students, Interns

    The United Launch Alliance and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Student Rocket Launch event featured sport rockets and payloads built by students and interns as part of efforts to promote science, technology, engineering and math careers. ULA said Saturday interns at the two companies and K-12 students from Colorado worked with mentors to design, build and test […] More

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    SpaceX’s Elon Musk Eyes Chance of Success in Rocket Part Recovery for Reuse

    SpaceX is preparing for the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket as the mission marks the first time that a rocket component will be retrieved post-launch for reuse, Popular Science reported Saturday. Loren Grush writes that the rocket’s first-stage component is due to land on a spaceport in the Atlantic Ocean as the rest of the spacecraft delivers cargo to the International Space […] More