Kwajalein Atoll – Spaceflight Now

NASA likely to relocate delayed Pegasus launch to Florida

July 5, 2018 Stephen Clark

NASA and Northrop Grumman are expected to base the launch of an air-dropped Pegasus rocket with a NASA science satellite from Cape Canaveral later this year, after originally trying to get the mission into space from a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Carrier jet with Pegasus rocket returning to California, postponing NASA satellite launch

June 8, 2018 Stephen Clark

NASA and Northrop Grumman officials decided Friday to return a Pegasus rocket and its carrier aircraft from Hawaii to California, aborting a trip to Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean for next week’s scheduled launch of a NASA research satellite to conduct additional testing.

Mission Reports

Pegasus rocket, NASA satellite head for launch base in Pacific

June 6, 2018 Stephen Clark

Slung under the belly of a specially-equipped carrier airplane, a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket took off Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a two-day trek to a remote U.S. military test site in the Pacific Ocean, where crews will ready the air-dropped booster for launch of a NASA research satellite next week.

NASA gears up for brisk launch pace, starting with weather satellite

February 14, 2018 Stephen Clark

Engineers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center tasked with overseeing launches of scientific satellites and interplanetary probes will be responsible later this year for ensuring six major missions safely get into space over a span of a little more than six months, beginning with the launch of NOAA’s new GOES-S weather observatory on an Atlas 5 rocket March 1.

Launch of NASA ionospheric probe delayed to examine rocket issue

November 10, 2017 Stephen Clark

The launch of a NASA satellite to study the behavior of plasma in Earth’s ionosphere has been delayed to early next year, giving engineers time to resolve concerns with the separation system on its air-launched Pegasus XL booster.