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217 articles
Early morning launch closes book on Delta 2 legacy spanning nearly 30 years
A United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket fired away from a California military base and disappeared into an overcast cloud deck Saturday on its final flight, carrying a NASA research satellite into orbit and closing the book on a nearly 30-year legacy of launches.
Engineers say goodbye to society-changing Delta 2 rocket
When the first Delta 2 rocket took off on Valentine's Day 1989, ideas like navigating by smartphone and driving robots on Mars were science fiction. More than 150 launches over the last 30 years helped change all that.
VideoLive coverage: Final Delta 2 rocket launches from California
The final flight of a Delta 2 rocket, a mainstay of the U.S. launch industry for nearly 30 years, began at 6:02 a.m. PDT (9:02 a.m. EDT; 1302 GMT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with NASA's ICESat 2 Earth science satellite.
Scientists eager to renew global ice measurements with ICESat 2 mission
The satellite awaiting launch early Saturday from California aboard the final flight of the venerable Delta 2 rocket should allow scientists to more precisely track changes in our planet's ice sheets, using six green laser beams to chart the height and slope of polar ice and glaciers, providing a key input into climate change research.
Two NASA probes catch first glimpses of primordial targets
Two NASA spacecraft -- the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission and the New Horizons probe at the edge of the solar system -- have captured their first looks at their targets as they approach a pair of primordial relics for the first time.
Installation of ice-measuring satellite caps assembly of last Delta 2 rocket
NASA's ICESat 2 satellite has been bolted atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as ground teams prepare for the final liftoff of the workhorse launcher Sept. 15.
Engineers still hopeful Mars rover will wake up after dust storm
Flight controllers have not heard from NASA's Opportunity Mars rover since June 10 when an increasingly severe global dust storm blocked out the sun, preventing its solar arrays from recharging the robot's batteries. But the dust storm is finally abating and engineers are hopeful the long-lived rover will wake up and phone home in the next few weeks.
Photos: Final Delta 2 rocket assembled for launch in California
The step-by-step stacking of United Launch Alliance's final Delta 2 rocket was completed in June at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California for liftoff Sept. 15 with an Earth science satellite for NASA.
Tanking test marks resumption of Delta 2 rocket’s final launch campaign
A team of United Launch Alliance and NASA engineers worked through Delta 2 launch day fueling procedures during a simulated countdown Wednesday for what should be the second-to-last time before the venerable rocket's final liftoff next month from California's Central Coast.
First interplanetary CubeSats already setting records in deep space
Two CubeSats developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory launched May 5 with the InSight mission to Mars have deployed their miniaturized antennas and captured a distant family portrait of the Earth and the moon.