Current Launch Vehicles

A New (ish) North American Rocket: The Cyclone 4

A New (ish) North American Rocket: The Cyclone 4

Buried by the coverage of yesterday’s explosion of a SpaceX Falcon 9 at Cape Canaveral was the somewhat unexpected announcement that Ukraine’s Yuzhnoye Design Office is moving rapidly towards establishing a commercial launch operation for its Cyclone 4 rocket in North America. According to the press release, which is included below, the Cyclone 4 would […]

Sea Launch May Sail Again

Sea Launch May Sail Again

Russia has found a buyer for Sea Launch, the innovative but troubled launch consortium which combines an ocean going platform with Zenit boosters built in the Ukraine to loft satellites to GTO from the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Following the suspension of operations in 2014, Russia had been looking to sell Sea Launch in order to […]

North Korea Conducts Space (Missile Test) Launch

North Korea Conducts Space (Missile Test) Launch

North Korea has conducted what appears to be a second successful space launch. The first took place on December 12, 2012 and was to confirmed as to placed an object into orbit. North Korea claimed it was an Earth observation satellite named Kwangmyŏngsŏng. Two previous launches were claimed also claimed to be successful, but those […]

Pegasus Launch Cost Soars to $55 Million

Pegasus Launch Cost Soars to $55 Million

  A recent KSC launch award to Orbital Sciences Corporation for a 2016 mission highlights just how expensive the Pegasus booster, once hailed as revolutionary, has become.  The $55 million order for the air launched Pegasus for the CYGNSS mission is nearly what SpaceX is charging a commercial customer for the EELV class Falcon 9, […]

Sea Changes for Sea Launch

Sea Changes for Sea Launch

For nearly 15 years.  the large ComSat  launch market has been dominated by three companies; Arianespace, which operates the market leading Ariane V, International Launch Services of Reston, Va., which markets the Russian built Proton heavy lift rocket, and Sea Launch, which operates the Ukraine/Russian Zenit-3SL. Although the Proton has certainly had its share of […]

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