The United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket sits peacefully inside its mobile service gantry on Tuesday afternoon, one day before its scheduled launch of the GPS 2F-9 navigation satellite.
Credit: Justin RayCredit: Justin RayCredit: Tim DoddCredit: Tim DoddCredit: Tim Dodd
Eight more satellites for Europe’s Galileo navigation fleet will be built by Germany’s OHB System AG and Britain’s Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. under a contract worth more than $350 million.
An Ariane 5 rocket will fire into the sky from French Guiana just after sunset Wednesday and deliver nearly 12 tons of payload to an orbit reaching 22,000 miles up less than a half-hour later.
Darting through low clouds, the US Air Force’s reusable X-37B spaceplane rode a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket into orbit Sunday, debuting upgrades to accommodate additional scientific experiments, a dishwasher-sized tech demo satellite, and classified military objectives.