Orbital Sciences Press Release: Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) announced today that its Pegasus® rocket successfully launched the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) satellite for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The IRIS spacecraft was deployed into its targeted orbit approximately 400 miles above the Earth and early results confirm that the satellite is […]
Following a one day delay due to a power outage in the area around Vandenberg AFB. Orbital Sciences is preparing to launch NASA’s IRIS satellite aboard the air launched Pegasus XL booster. IRIS, which stands for Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, is designed to study the behavior of a little understood region of the sun’s atmosphere, the “interface” region […]
What was already likely to not be a very happy week at United Launch Alliance just got a whole lot worse. Only a day after SpaceX entered into an agreement with the Air Force to begin the process of qualifying its boosters for EELV business, Reuters is reporting that the Federal Trade Commission is opening an […]
International Space Station Expedition 36, which officially began with the undocking and departure of the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft on May 13th, is set to get underway in earnest with the launch of the TMA-O9M capsule this afternoon. Liftoff is scheduled from Baikonur at 4:31 EDT, with docking to take place approximately 6 hours later. Joining Commader Pavel Vinogradov and […]
It is a very rare occasion to see the first flight of a new launch vehicle, but if all goes well Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares Launch Vehicle will blast off from the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility at 5:00 PM (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 17th. The launch window extends to 8:00 PM each day through the […]
One of the challenges standing between SpaceX and the debut of the Falcon 9 V1.1 is completing testing of the enormous payload fairing which will protect commercial spacecraft on rides to orbit aboard the new booster. The 5.2 meter diameter fairing with a 13.9 meter usable length which will be among the largest in the world, is built by SpaceX and is […]
Seven hours and fifty minutes after a flawless liftoff from Baikonur at 2:42 AM Friday morning (local), the three person crew aboard Expedition 35’s Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft opened the spacecraft’s hatch and entered the International Space Stations’s Poisk module. The new record breaking fast ascent, which was accomplished in four orbits, had been employed on three previous Progress resupply missions but this […]
The recently reported split between SpaceX and Stratolaunch Systems raises some interesting questions regarding the future of Paul Allen’s project. The inclusion of SpaceX and its Falcon launch vehicle always seemed to make more sense for Stratolaunch than it did for SpaceX, which after all, is doing quite nicely on its own. According to reports, Stratolaunch, which has yet to […]
Orbital Sciences Corporation announced today that it is beginning preparations for the first launch of its new Antares rocket at the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) in Virginia. After delays related to certifying the pad, and most recently to a bad battery in its transporter assembly, OSC began rolling the Antares to the launch pad for […]
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