News Headlines

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  Video: Preparing Delta 2 and SMAP for flight

  Narrated flow tapes of the United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket and NASA's SMAP spacecraft for launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
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  Photos: Gantry rollback from Delta 2

  The mobile service tower is retracted from the United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base in preparation for the first launch attempt of NASA's SMAP spacecraft.
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  Japanese rocket launch postponed by poor weather

  A threat of thick clouds kept a Japanese H-2A rocket from launching Thursday with a government-owned radar reconnaissance satellite.
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  SpaceX releases new animation of mighty Falcon Heavy

  A new animation of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket set for a debut flight later this year shows how the powerful launcher will blast off from Kennedy Space Center's famed Apollo-era launch pad 39A, and could eventually fly back to Florida's Space Coast for refurbishment and reuse.
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  NASA expects continued use of Soyuz in era of commercial spaceships

  NASA hopes to begin launching astronauts to the space station aboard Boeing and SpaceX capsules in the 2017 timeframe, but managers expect to still send crews up aboard Russian spacecraft as a hedge against problems that could force some astronauts to make an emergency landing.
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  Live coverage: Delta 2 launch delayed to Saturday

  Liftoff of a Delta 2 rocket with NASA's SMAP environmental satellite has been delayed to Saturday, giving workers time to repair insulation on the booster's first stage that became debonded during Thursday's launch attempt, which was thwarted by unfavorable winds aloft. Launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is set for 6:20:42 a.m. local time (9:20:42 a.m. EST; 1420:42 GMT).
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  Atlas 5 launch pad being prepared for astronaut crews

  Work on Boeing's CST-100 commercial crew capsule will ramp up at the program's new home base in Florida this year, with construction of a crew access tower at the Atlas 5 rocket's launch pad underway and assembly of a spacecraft test article due to begin in a converted space shuttle hangar.
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  Video: Delta 2/SMAP pre-launch news conference

  NASA, United Launch Alliance and Air Force officials hold the pre-launch news conference for the Delta 2 rocket with the agency's SMAP environmental satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Jan. 27.
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  Boeing expected to win first operational space taxi order

  Boeing is poised to win NASA's first order for operational commercial missions to send up astronauts to the International Space Station, a NASA official said Monday.
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  All systems ‘go’ for Delta 2 rocket launch of SMAP

  The SMAP observatory to map soil moisture distribution from 426 miles in space and its workhorse booster have been cleared for launch Thursday morning from California.