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.
A Delta 2 rocket has lifted off from California’s Central Coast on Saturday with a NASA environmental satellite designed to improve flood and drought forecasts, map moisture in Earth’s soils, and track the planet’s water cycle.
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.
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.
The weather outlook is 80 percent favorable for launch of the Delta 2 rocket early Thursday morning from California, with cloud thickness posing the only worry, meteorologists report.
From weather forecasting to agricultural benefits, a new NASA mission launching this week will provide unprecedented resolution, accuracy and coverage of soil moisture on a world-wide basis every three days for the next three years.
The CATS payload launched to the International Space Station aboard the most recent SpaceX Dragon cargo craft was installed onto the exterior of the lab complex this week.
A final batch of launch photos from the successful AV-052 mission of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket carrying the U.S. Navy’s MUOS 3 communications satellite.
The Delta 2 rocket and the SMAP spacecraft passed the Flight Readiness Review today that assessed the progress of work and granted approval to proceed with loading the storable hypergolics into the second stage.
Cameras mounted aboard the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket provided remarkable views of the nighttime ascent Tuesday, from liftoff through deployment of the U.S. Navy’s MUOS No. 3 mobile communications satellite.