News Archive
Browse every article published on Spaceflight Now, from launch reports and mission previews to spacecraft development coverage. Use the filters to narrow by topic or search by keyword.
Matching Articles
681 articles
Photos: Gantry rolled back to reveal Atlas 5 rocket for launch
The mobile service tower retracts from the Atlas 5 rocket, revealing the 197-foot-tall vehicle for liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, carrying the classified NROL-42 national security payload for the U.S. government.
Video: NROL-42 launch aboard the Atlas 5 rocket
The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, standing 197 feet tall and and weighing 1.2 million pounds, unleashes 2.4 million pounds of thrust from its main engine and four side-mounted solid boosters to launch the secret NROL-42 payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
VideoLive coverage: Atlas 5 countdown and launch journal
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket powered away from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California tonight to place a classified surveillance satellite into space for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. Follow the ascent in our live journal.
Preview: ULA milestone launch for National Reconnaissance Office set
United Launch Alliance, a union of Atlas and Delta rockets formed a decade ago for U.S. government spacelift needs, will conduct its 25th deployment mission for the country's spy satellite agency Thursday night.
Photos: NROL-42 payload joins Atlas 5 booster for launch
This photo gallery shows the classified National Reconnaissance Office payload, already encapsulated in the 18-foot-diameter nose cone, being lifted atop the United Launch Alliance Atlas-Centaur rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base's Space Launch Complex 3-East pad. This milestone was achieved on Aug. 27.
Fact sheet: Atlas 5 rocket to launch the NROL-42 mission from Vandenberg
This is our comprehensive fact sheet previewing the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket deployment of the classified NROL-42 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.
Launch operators expect minimal delays from Hurricane Irma
SpaceX and United Launch Alliance expect to resume launches with little or no delay after Hurricane Irma veered west of Cape Canaveral last weekend, sparing the launch base from the storm's most extreme damage.
VideoNASA data relay craft successfully blossoms in space
NASA's new communications satellite, launched to a preliminary orbit August 18, has ascended to geosynchronous altitude more than 22,000 miles up, deployed its giant antennas and extended twin solar arrays to begin in-space commissioning.
Photos: Atlas sends up new NASA satellite
NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M, a communications router for the space station and dozens of science spacecraft, blasted off from Cape Canaveral at 8:29 a.m. EDT on Friday atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.
Videos: Replays from successful Atlas 5 launch of TDRS-M
Isolated camera views from various locations around Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center show the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifting off with NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M.