Launch
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VideoDrop test moves Virgin Orbit closer to first satellite launch
A full-scale model of Virgin Orbit's air-dropped small satellite launcher, filled with water and antifreeze instead of rocket fuel, dropped from the wing of a modified Boeing 747 carrier jet Wednesday over a test range at Edwards Air Force Base in California, paving the way for the company's first space mission later this year.
Vega launch timeline with Falcon Eye 1
The Falcon Eye 1 military reconnaissance satellite for the United Arab Emirates is set to ride a Vega launcher into a 379-mile-high (611-kilometer) orbit Wednesday night from French Guiana on a mission that will take less than one hour from liftoff until spacecraft separation.
VideoLive coverage: Vega rocket fails during launch of UAE surveillance satellite
A Vega rocket faltered minutes after liftoff from French Guiana at 9:53 p.m. EDT Wednesday (0153 GMT) and failed to reach orbit with a European-built reconnaissance satellite for the United Arab Emirates. The payload and launcher fell into the Atlantic Ocean, marking the first failure for the solid-fueled Vega launch vehicle.
Firefly to build U.S. version of Israeli Beresheet lunar lander
Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based company which is already developing a small satellite launcher, has signed an agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries to build lunar landers in the United States and carry NASA science instruments to the moon, officials announced Tuesday.
VideoProton rocket and astronomy satellite back on the launch pad after battery replacement
Poised to loft a Russian-German X-ray astronomy observatory into space Friday, a Proton rocket returned to its launch pad Tuesday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan after a three-week delay to replace a drained battery on the vehicle.
India’s first moon lander stacked for launch
India's first lunar lander has been hoisted on top of its GSLV Mk.3 rocket ahead of a liftoff scheduled for Sunday.
Commercial satellite images historic Apollo launch pads
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.
SpaceX wins NASA contract to launch X-ray telescope on reused rocket
NASA has selected a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket -- flying with a reused first stage booster -- to launch the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer mission from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in April 2021, bypassing Northrop Grumman's air-launched Pegasus rocket for the task.
Arianespace delays Vega launch to avoid unfavorable high-altitude winds
The launch from French Guiana of a solid-fueled Vega rocket with a European-built surveillance satellite for the United Arab Emirates has been postponed, Arianespace said, citing unfavorable high-altitude winds over the spaceport. Officials have not set a new target launch date.
Soyuz rocket and Fregat upper stage deliver 33 satellites to three different orbits
A new Russian weather satellite, a CubeSat to test a Silicon Valley startup's water-based propulsion system, and eight more members of Spire's commercial fleet of multipurpose nanosatellites were among 33 spacecraft that rode a Soyuz rocket into orbit Friday from Russia's Far East.