Mission Reports – Page 134

ULA’s first launch of 2022 to debut unflown variant of Atlas 5 rocket

January 20, 2022 Stephen Clark

United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket has flown in 10 different configurations over 90 missions since 2002, each version optimized to haul satellites of a certain size and mass into space. The only variant of the Atlas 5 rocket yet to fly is set to launch Friday afternoon from Cape Canaveral with a pair of satellites to help the U.S. military keep track of traffic in geosynchronous orbit.

Atlas 5 rocket rolls to launch pad for Space Force mission

January 20, 2022 Stephen Clark

Gearing up for its first mission of the year, United Launch Alliance rolled an Atlas 5 rocket to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Thursday, a day before liftoff with a pair of U.S. Space Force satellites on a flight that will debut a version of the Atlas 5 never used before.

Spacewalking cosmonauts activate space station’s newest Russian module

January 19, 2022 Stephen Clark

Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov completed a 7-hour, 11-minute spacewalk Wednesday outside the International Space Station, preparing Russia’s new Prichal module for the arrival of the next Soyuz crew spacecraft in March.

SpaceX launches 2,000th Starlink satellite

January 19, 2022 Stephen Clark

A package of 49 Starlink satellites that rode a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit Tuesday night from Florida included the 2,000th spacecraft to launch into SpaceX’s broadband internet network.

First Chinese space mission of 2022 rockets into orbit

January 17, 2022 Stephen Clark

China launched a Long March 2D rocket Monday with another classified satellite, deploying the spacecraft into a polar orbit on the first of more than 40 Chinese Long March rocket missions planned in 2022.

Live coverage: SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket with 49 Starlink satellites

January 17, 2022 Stephen Clark

Keeping up a rapid-fire launch cadence to begin 2022, SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday night from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with 49 Starlink internet satellites. Liftoff from pad 39A occurred at 9:02 p.m. EST Tuesday (0202 GMT Wednesday), following a one-day delay to wait for better conditions in the offshore booster recovery zone north of the Bahamas.

Cape Canaveral’s busy January to continue with another Starlink launch

January 15, 2022 Stephen Clark

Forecasters expect brisk winds and chilly temperatures for a prime time, full moon launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with another batch of Starlink internet satellites Monday night from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Virgin Orbit celebrates third successful launch in a row

January 13, 2022 Stephen Clark

Virgin Orbit delivered seven small CubeSats for NASA, the U.S. military, Spire, and the Polish company SatRevolution into orbit Thursday with its air-launched rocket after release from a jumbo jet off the coast of California.

SpaceX launches 105 customer satellites on third Transporter rideshare mission

January 13, 2022 Stephen Clark

SpaceX launched 105 small satellites from Cape Canaveral on the company’s third Transporter rideshare mission Thursday, deploying payloads for commercial remote sensing companies, communications and data relay startups, and foreign governments.

Live coverage: Virgin Orbit’s air-launched rocket deploys seven smallsats in orbit

January 13, 2022 Stephen Clark

Virgin Orbit aims to build on two successful small satellite launches last year with another flight of its air-dropped rocket Thursday off the coast of California, this time carrying seven mini-payloads into low Earth orbit. The company’s Boeing 747 carrier aircraft departed Mojave Air and Space Port and released the LauncherOne rocket to begin its climb into orbit at 2:52 p.m. PST (5:52 p.m. EST; 2252 GMT).