Tag: USAF

Strypi Not So Super: Debut of DOD Small Launcher Fails

Strypi Not So Super: Debut of DOD Small Launcher Fails

Perched on its launch rail, the USAF Super Strypi rocket looked more like a typical Estes model rocket many might have build and launched as kids. Unfortunately for the Air Force and the much beleaguered Operationally Responsive Space Launch Office that oversaw yesterday’s launch from Hawaii, the results were pretty much the same. Liftoff of […]

SpaceX, ULA and the Delta IV

SpaceX, ULA and the Delta IV

Delta Heavy / Image Credit United Launch Alliance An Innerspace Editorial: In what seems to be becoming something of an annual affair, it was SpaceX versus United Launch Alliance Round earlier this week in Washington D.C. Last year, SpaceX’s Elon Musk and ULA’s Michael Gass squared off against each other in a highly contentious Senate […]

SpaceX Set for First Ever Deep Space Launch on Sunday Evening

SpaceX Set for First Ever Deep Space Launch on Sunday Evening

With the successful completion of a static test fire, the stage is now set for a SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) spacecraft on the evening of Sunday, February 8th. Liftoff must take place in an instantaneous window occurring at 6:10 PM EST. If needed, a backup date is reserved […]

Posted in: SpaceX
X-37B Lands at Vandenberg

X-37B Lands at Vandenberg

Image Credit USAF Concluding its longest mission to date, the U.S. Air Force X-37B space plane returned to Earth on Friday, Here is the full Air Force Press Release: Release Number: 041014 10/17/2014 – VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle mission 3 (OTV-3), the Air Force’s unmanned, reusable space plane, […]

Posted in: Space Planes
Air Force New Engine RFI Ignores Reusability

Air Force New Engine RFI Ignores Reusability

Image Credit: SpaceX Innerspace Commentary: On Wednesday, United Launch Alliance took delivery of two more Russian built RD-180 rocket engines destined for the Atlas V. They were delivered to Huntsville, Al. aboard an Antonov cargo plane in a depressingly routine procedure. Curiously, even though Congress is in recess, none of the Alabama delegation; Mo Brooks, […]

Posted in: Editorials, EELV
Air Force Certifies Three SpaceX Launches

Air Force Certifies Three SpaceX Launches

Image Credit SpaceX Coming three days before a Monday, July 14 attempt to launch six small Orbcomm OG-2 satellites out of Cape Canaveral, SpaceX announced today that the Air Force has certified the Falcon 9 launch system “as having conducted three successful flights, a prerequisite for companies seeking to win business from the Air Force’s […]

Posted in: SpaceX
Falcon 9 Delivers Thaicom 6 in Flawless Second Mission to GTO

Falcon 9 Delivers Thaicom 6 in Flawless Second Mission to GTO

After the various trials of the ultimately successful SES-8 mission on December 3rd,  SpaceX’s New Year’s resolutions almost certainly included a trouble free flight for its second GTO launch in 34 days, and the first of a busy 2014.  And that is exactly what they got.  This evening’s liftoff took place on time at the […]

Posted in: SpaceX
SpaceX Nears EELV Certification Plan

SpaceX Nears EELV Certification Plan

  Aviation Week is reporting that SpaceX and the U.S. Air Force are “days away” from finalizing details for a certification plan which would allow the company to compete for national security launches aboard its Falcon 9 V1.1 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles.  Having already won two launch orders under the Air Force’s separate Orbital/Suborbital-3  (OPS-3)  program, which […]

X-37B : Putting the Cart Under the Horse

X-37B : Putting the Cart Under the Horse

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 […]

USAF Shelves Reusable Booster Program

USAF Shelves Reusable Booster Program

Spacenews is reporting that in the wake of a critical report by the National Research Council, the United States Air Force is cancelling its Reusable Booster Program, citing budget concerns. The program sought to develop a horizontally launched, partially reusable booster which would be powered by a staged combustion kerosene/oxygen engine.  The winged booster would have carried an […]

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