Update: Following this evening’s abort, SpaceX released this statement “We observed unexpected readings with the first stage liquid oxygen system so we decided to investigate. The launch vehicle and satellite are in great shape and we are looking forward to the next launch opportunity on Thursday at 5:38 p.m. Eastern time.” Original story SpaceX Prepares […]
Displaying a some ironic sense of timing regarding his faith in the federal government’s ability to put together complex programs in a short time frame, the world’s first space tourist and founder of Inspiration Mars, Dennis Tito went to Washington yesterday, where in a prepared statement, he essentially asked NASA to assume Inspiration Mars concept […]
It began with a historic berthing in LEO, and ended with the successful return to flight of a troubled booster steeped in anachronism. And right in the middle, the future emerged on a pillar of fire piercing a blue Pacific sky. To begin at the ending, the oft troubled Proton booster returned to flight Sunday […]
Russianspaceweb.com reports today that an examination of debris from the July 2nd Proton accident strongly suggests that the vehicle’s angular velocity sensors were installed incorrectly, (upside down) causing the rocket to react to erroneous readings and swing wildly in an attempt to correct them. If the report is confirmed, it may be a source of greater concern than […]
After a difficult two-year span which had seen a surprising number of failures in the Russian launch industry, things appeared to be getting back on track in 2013. Until today. Within a few seconds of liftoff at 8:38 a.m. local time, (10:38 p.m. EDT Monday July 1) a Russian Proton-M booster carrying 3 Glonass (GPS) satellites began oscillating, exhibiting a loss of […]
The Soyuz Booster recorded its 1807th and 1808th successful launches in short order yesterday. At 1:28 p.m. EDT, (9:28 p.m. local) a Soyuz 2-1b blasted off from Baikonur carrying the Resource-P Russian remote sensing satellite. Two hours later, at 3:27 p.m. EDT, and half a world away, another Soyuz, this one equipped with a Fregat restartable upper stage, lifted off from the […]
A Russian Proton Booster, operating for International Launch Services out of Reston, Va. is set for the launch of the Anik G1 Canadian Comsat today at 2:36 PM EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch will be the second of 2013 for Proton, which is attempting to shake off a recent history of three failures […]
Source: RIA Novosti, Russianspaceweb A Russian built Proton rocket successfully lifted off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on Tuesday. Operated by International Launch Services, the booster blasted off shortly before midnight at 23:06 Moscow time, (7:06 pm GMT) and placed the Space Systems/Loral SatMex-8 telecommunications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit with 5 burns of the Briz-M upperstage. The flight was the first […]
Trouble plagued Sea Launch AG has secured it first order following a February 1st launch failure which saw the complete loss of the Zenit 3-SL booster and Intelsat-27 satellite only seconds after liftoff. The failure, which has been blamed on a Ukrainian built pump which supplied on-board power, occured 4.5 seconds after liftoff and resulted in the automatic shut-down of […]
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. […]
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