Launch Pad 39B – Spaceflight Now

Northrop Grumman ends OmegA rocket program

September 14, 2020 Stephen Clark

Northrop Grumman says it will not continue development of the OmegA rocket after the U.S. Space Force last month picked United Launch Alliance and SpaceX as the military’s two top launch contractors over the next seven years.

Commercial satellite images historic Apollo launch pads

July 9, 2019 Stephen Clark

Maxar’s eagle-eyed WorldView 3 satellite captured high-resolution views Monday of NASA’s twin Apollo-era launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, both now home to new launch vehicles 50 years after humans took their first steps on the moon.

SLS mobile launcher moves to pad 39B for final exams

June 28, 2019 Stephen Clark

A towering mobile platform for the agency’s Space Launch System arrived at launch pad 39B Friday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a sequence of water and propellant flow tests, swing arm checkouts and other rehearsals that should conclude with managers declaring the spaceport’s ground systems ready to support the first SLS launch campaign by the end of the year.

Photos: SLS mobile launch platform rolls to pad 39B

September 1, 2018 Stephen Clark

The towering structure to be used for liftoffs of NASA’s Space Launch System rolled from a construction site to launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this week, arriving at the seaside complex Friday for a week of fit checks.

SLS mobile launch platform to go on the move this week

August 27, 2018 Stephen Clark

The mobile platform intended to carry NASA’s Space Launch System will trek to the mega-rocket’s launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as Thursday, before heading inside the spaceport’s huge Vehicle Assembly Building for the first time next month.

Orbital ATK confident new rocket will win Air Force support

April 12, 2018 Stephen Clark

Orbital ATK’s bid to join the U.S. military’s roster of rockets to haul the most critical national security satellites into orbit faces stiff competition from entrenched launch providers and billionaire entrepreneurs, but the company is confident its Next Generation Launch system will win one of three funding agreements the Air Force is expected to award this summer.

Q&A with Mike Laidley, vice president of Orbital ATK’s Next Generation Launch program (members only)

April 10, 2018 Stephen Clark

Mike Laidley leads development of Orbital ATK’s Next Generation Launch system, a rocket the commercial space company hopes will provide a foothold in the lucrative market to launch U.S. military satellites, a business currently dominated by SpaceX and United Launch Alliance.

NASA making steady progress on SLS mobile launch platform

October 29, 2017 Stephen Clark

Construction crews at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center are making steady progress outfitting the Space Launch System’s mobile platform with umbilical connections and access arms, and the walkway for astronauts to board the rocket is the most recent arrival at the Florida spaceport.

Details of Orbital ATK’s proposed heavy launcher revealed

May 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

The launch vehicle Orbital ATK wants to face off against SpaceX and United Launch Alliance for lucrative U.S. military contracts would be made of two internally-built solid rocket motors and an upper stage engine supplied by Blue Origin, the entrepreneurial space firm led by Jeff Bezos, an Orbital ATK official said this week.

Orbital ATK eyes Kennedy Space Center as home of potential new launcher

April 21, 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA announced Thursday that Orbital ATK has begun negotiations to lease a disused section of Kennedy Space Center’s iconic Vehicle Assembly Building and an Apollo-era launch platform for the company’s proposed next-generation rocket.