2015 – Page 14 – Spaceflight Now

Air Force declares failure on Super Strypi test launch

November 4, 2015 Stephen Clark

The first flight of an experimental U.S. military rocket designed for low-cost, quick-reaction satellite launches ended in failure over Hawaii on Tuesday, the Air Force said, destroying 13 small research spacecraft clustered on the mission for NASA researchers and university students.

Video clips show rocket anomaly high above Hawaii

November 4, 2015 Stephen Clark

Videos of Tuesday’s sunset liftoff of the U.S. military’s Super Strypi launcher show the low-cost fin-guided rocket streaking into the skies over Hawaii and arcing downrange toward the south with 13 satellites before apparently losing control and breaking up.

Giant antenna deploys successfully aboard Morelos 3

November 4, 2015 Justin Ray

Mexico’s advanced mobile communications satellite launched last month for humanitarian and national security uses has successfully blossomed in space.

Military communications craft likely aboard Chinese launch

November 3, 2015 Stephen Clark

A Chinese Long March 3B rocket lifted off Tuesday from the country’s Xichang space base, heading into orbit with a secretive payload believed by Western observers to be a military communications satellite.

Hawaii’s first satellite launch set for Tuesday

November 3, 2015 Stephen Clark

U.S. military authorities have granted approval for liftoff Tuesday of a simplified satellite launcher from Hawaii on a test flight officials say will help drive down the costs of sending small spacecraft into orbit.

Meet the the Super Strypi launch vehicle

November 3, 2015 Stephen Clark

The U.S. Air Force has released the first-ever photos of the Super Strypi launch vehicle, a souped-up version of a Cold War-era sounding rocket about to be shot into orbit on a unique demonstration flight with 13 small satellites.

Live coverage: Maiden flight of Super Strypi launcher fails

November 3, 2015 Stephen Clark

The U.S. Air Force fired a new rail-launched rocket into space from Hawaii at 10:45 p.m. EST Tuesday (0345 GMT Wednesday), but the Super Strypi vehicle failed about a minute after liftoff with 13 satellites on-board.

NASA marks 15 years of space station occupation

November 2, 2015 William Harwood

The International Space Station’s first three-man crew moved in on Nov. 2, 2000, 15 years ago Monday, the first of 45 expeditions to date that have logged a decade and a half of continuous human presence in low-Earth orbit.

Virgin Galactic in transition one year after fatal accident

November 2, 2015 Stephen Clark

Last year’s fatal crash of Virgin Galactic’s suborbital rocket plane has delayed the start of the company’s commercial operations at least a year, prompting a change in mindset from a “period of euphoria to a period of real, measurable, but tough progress” as the enterprise backed by Richard Branson enters the second decade since its founding.

Q&A with George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic

November 1, 2015 Stephen Clark

Spaceflight Now recently sat down with George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, to discuss the company’s recovery from a fatal crash of its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane on a test flight last year and get an update on its air-launched rocket designed to carry small satellites into orbit.