Ball Aerospace – Page 5 – Spaceflight Now

Photos: Delta 2 rocket revealed after mobile gantry rollback

November 14, 2017 Stephen Clark

Ground crews at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California retracted a mobile gantry away from the Delta 2 rocket Monday afternoon, revealing the 128-foot-tall (39-meter) booster on its launch pad awaiting liftoff with a new polar-orbiting weather observatory.

Live coverage: Delta 2 launches from California on third try

November 13, 2017 Stephen Clark

A Delta 2 rocket lifted off from California’s Central Coast Saturday after back-to-back scrubbed launch attempts earlier this week. The Delta 2 delivered the JPSS 1 weather satellite to orbit for NOAA.

Battery changeout delays weather satellite launch from California

November 6, 2017 Stephen Clark

The launch of a new U.S. weather satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California has been delayed at least four days to Nov. 14, allowing time for technicians to remove and replace a faulty battery on the payload’s Delta 2 rocket, United Launch Alliance said Monday.

Polar-orbiting weather satellite joined up with Delta 2 rocket in California

October 27, 2017 Stephen Clark

The first in NOAA’s new series of polar-orbiting weather satellites has been lifted atop United Launch Alliance’s second-to-last Delta 2 rocket on a launch pad in California, ready for encapsulation and final checkouts ahead of a predawn launch set for Nov. 10.

Observers spot top secret satellite launched by SpaceX earlier this month

May 24, 2017 Stephen Clark

A network of amateur skywatchers and satellite observers have located a classified spacecraft owned by the National Reconnaissance Office, a U.S. government intelligence agency, in low Earth orbit after its launch May 1 from Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

SpaceX successfully boosts top secret U.S. government satellite into space

May 1, 2017 Stephen Clark

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket fired into space from Florida’s Atlantic coastline Monday with a clandestine payload for a U.S. government spy agency, then returned to Cape Canaveral for a pinpoint landing.

Video: Liftoff of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket viewed from KSC press site

May 1, 2017 Stephen Clark

Check out a view of the Falcon 9 launch Monday from our camera at the Kennedy Space Center press site about three miles from pad 39A.

Watch spectacular video of Monday’s Falcon 9 blastoff and landing

May 1, 2017 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took off from the historic seaside launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Monday, powered a classified NRO spy satellite into space, then the launcher’s first stage descended to a vertical landing at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

SpaceX launch scrubbed in final minute of countdown

April 30, 2017 Stephen Clark

SpaceX scrubbed an attempt to launch a commercial Falcon 9 rocket Sunday less than a minute before liftoff, blaming a sensor issue on the vehicle’s first stage and pushing back the company’s first national security mission for the U.S. government at least 24 hours.

Environmental testing underway for JPSS 1 launching in January

April 23, 2016 Justin Ray

The next American polar-orbiting weather satellite that will feed long-range forecasts and track environmental trends has slipped into space-like testing ahead of launch.