After scrubbing a previous launch attempt due to high level winds in the upper atmosphere, Arianespace has rescheduled the launch of the second Vega rocket for this evening, May 6th, at 10:06:31 p.m. Eastern. The launch will take place from the Guiana Space Center, which the consortium also humbly calls The Spaceport, in Kourou, French Guiana. Launch coverage will be provided […]
Monday saw the 1,800th launch of the Russian Soyuz booster, a rocket updated, but also still very recognizable, as an immediate successor to the radio guided R-7 ballistic missile which was first planned in 1953. The record-setting launch, conducted from the space launch facility at Baikonur in Kazakhstan, was carried out on the Soyuz-U variety of the venerable rocket, which boosted a Russian Progress freighter to the International Space Station. The […]
Kicking off a full 2013 launch campaign, an Ariane V ECA heavy lift booster carrying two satellites lifted off from the CSG space center in French Guiana today, and in the process established a record performance of placing 10,317 kg into GTO. The larger of the two satellites, the 6,265 kg Amazonas 3, was built by Space Systems/Loral Satellite for Spanish operator Hispasat. […]
After a 24 hour delay to allow high level winds at the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan to subside, a Soyuz 2-1a rocket blasted off into the night sky at 16:24 UTC carrying the final 6 satellites of Globalstar’s second generation, 24 bird constellation. After separation from the third stage, the restartable Fregat upperstage will deliver the satellites to a circularized 52 degree orbit where they […]
The newest version of the venerable Russian Soyuz launch vehicle continued a successful launch campaign out of the Arianespace/European Space Agency’s equatorial launch facility in French Guiana Saturday evening. Carrying the multi-purpose French Pleiades 1B observation satellite which will serve military, governmental and commercial customers, the Soyuz-ST-A, which includes a Fregat upperstage, lifted off at 8:02 PM CST (11:02 PM local) Specially modified to withstand […]
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