2017 – Page 21 – Spaceflight Now

Preview: Atlas 5 to execute another space-lift mission for U.S. spy satellite agency

October 2, 2017 Justin Ray

An early bird rocket launch from the Florida spaceport will take to the skies before dawn Thursday when an Atlas 5 lofts a classified U.S. government satellite.

Photos: NROL-52 payload mounted atop Atlas 5 booster

October 2, 2017 Justin Ray

his photo gallery shows the classified National Reconnaissance Office payload, already encapsulated in the 14-foot-diameter nose cone, being lifted atop the United Launch Alliance Atlas-Centaur rocket at Cape Canaveral’s Vertical Integration Facility.

Video: SpaceX conducts hotfire test for next Falcon 9 launch

October 2, 2017 Stephen Clark

SpaceX ran a Falcon 9 rocket through a series of pre-flight checks Monday, culminating in a hold-down engine firing ahead of a planned launch Saturday with a communications satellite for SES and EchoStar.

Previously-flown Falcon 9 booster test-fired for weekend launch

October 2, 2017 Stephen Clark

SpaceX test-fired a reused Falcon 9 booster Monday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, checking the rocket’s readiness for a planned liftoff Saturday with an Airbus-built commercial communications satellite.

Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket test-fired in Florida

October 2, 2017 Stephen Clark

A previously-flown SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster conducted a test-firing Monday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ahead of a planned launch Oct. 7 with an Airbus-built communications satellite made for SES and EchoStar.

Fact sheet: Atlas 5 rocket to launch the NROL-52 mission from Cape Canaveral

October 1, 2017 Justin Ray

This is our comprehensive fact sheet previewing the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket deployment of the classified NROL-52 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.

Ariane 5 rocket deploys satellites for Intelsat and B-SAT

September 29, 2017 Stephen Clark

Recovering from a last-second launch abort earlier this month, an Ariane 5 rocket climbed into space Friday night from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana to place two U.S.-built communications satellites in orbit for Intelsat and Broadcasting Satellite System Corp. of Japan.

Q&A with Eric Smith, JWST program director

September 29, 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA’s senior manager in charge of the development of the James Webb Space Telescope, Eric Smith, recently spoke with Spaceflight Now about the decision to reschedule its launch from October 2018 to the spring of 2019.

Live coverage: Ariane 5 rocket fires into space with two commercial satellites

September 29, 2017 Stephen Clark

More than three weeks after a faulty electrical component halted a countdown moments before liftoff, an Ariane 5 rocket lifted off from French Guiana on Friday with two commercial communications satellites. Launch occurred at 2156 GMT (5:56 p.m. EDT).

Elon Musk revises Mars plan, hopes for boots on ground in 2024

September 29, 2017 William Harwood

SpaceX plans to begin construction of a new rocket and spacecraft next year that could lead to human landings on Mars as early as 2024, scaling up technologies currently being perfected with the company’s Falcon 9 family of boosters to ensure reliability, reusability and, as a result, realistically low costs, founder Elon Musk said Friday.