Why 39A Matters The ongoing fight over Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39A has taken several interesting turns in the past week, beginning with a contentious House subcommittee hearing last Friday, and culminating in an email from Elon Musk published today in SpaceNews, which “calls the bluff” being put forward by Blue Origin and United Launch […]
The battle over who will lease NASA Pad 39A took a turn last week which was both surprising and with the injection of yet another Alabama congressman, disturbing. After SpaceNews originally reported that SpaceX was apparently the only bidder for the historic pad, it was subsequently revealed that Blue Origin is interested as well. If […]
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 […]
Update: Following a scrub on Thursday due a problem with helium pressurization, the launch of the Delta IV carrying SatCom 5 has been reset for 8:37 p.m. EDT this evening. Original: After a stand down dating back to October 4th , a United Launch Alliance (Boeing) Delta IV is prepared to return to flight this […]
The CRS-2 Dragon spacecraft, pictured shortly after recovery, was returned to port in Los Angeles at approximately 7:00 PM PT, Tuesday evening. As it turned out, the craft ended up returning a more substantial payload than anticipated, a total of 3,256 lbs, 200 more than planned. Details of the return, and the thruster problem which […]
Sea Launch A G suffered a major, and possibly crippling setback in efforts to regain a meaningful market position in the early hours of Friday morning (EST) when its Zenit 3-SL launch vehicle veered off its course immediately following liftoff. 50 seconds later, the main engine shut down, terminating thrust and sending the rocket and its Intelsat -27 payload […]
Powered by its Russian built RD-180 main engine, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 launched NASA’s TDRS-K communications satellite into orbit Wednesday evening, in a picture perfect liftoff from Cape Canaveral. The 401, which is the simplest version of the booster, departed right on time at 8:48 PM EST, ultimately placing the Boeing built satellite into a geosynchronous transfer […]
SpaceX and Israel’s Space Communication Ltd., Spacecom, announced late yesterday that it has won a launch order for Spacecom’s AMOS- 6 communications satellite. The launch of the 5 ton satellite to geosynchronous orbit is slated to be conducted in 2015 aboard a Falcon 9 out of Cape Canaveral. It will replace the AMOS- 2 satellite, which is scheduled to be retired in 2016. Unlike […]
As spaceship Earth embarks on another trip around the Sun, it’s an appropriate occasion to take a look ahead at the New Year and consider what developments might take place which could change the fundamental cost basis of reaching orbit. Suborbital Space: After seemingly endless delays, 2013 is poised to be the breakout year for the reusable suborbital launch industry. (but […]
Tuesday’s launch of a Atlas V rocket carrying the X-37B unmanned orbital space plane marked an interesting development in the gradual progression of reusable space flight capability. In the first place, it represented a return to flight of the RL-10 upper stage engine following an October Delta IV launch “anomaly” in which an underperfoming engine led to a longer than planned […]
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