Lockheed Martin – Spaceflight Now

Scotland site selected as launch base for Lockheed Martin, Orbex

July 16, 2018

Two companies — U.S. aerospace giant Lockheed Martin and British start-up Orbex — seeking to carve out a share of the burgeoning small satellite launch market plan to fly their rockets from a remote site on the northern shore of Scotland, British government and industry officials announced Monday.

NASA approves three-year extension for Juno mission orbiting Jupiter

June 8, 2018

NASA’s robotic Juno spacecraft wil spend another three years probing the inside of Jupiter, giving the mission more time to meet its primary science objectives after concerns over the health of the probe’s engine prevented it from dropping into a lower, shorter orbit around the solar system’s biggest planet.

NOAA’s new GOES-17 weather satellite has degraded vision at night

May 23, 2018

Engineers are studying a malfunction with the main imaging instrument on NOAA’s GOES-17 weather satellite, launched March 1, that could limit the observatory’s ability to monitor storms, winds and other weather phenomena at night, officials said Wednesday.

Rocketcam replay of InSight’s launch to Mars

May 11, 2018

United Launch Alliance has released a replay of the May 5 liftoff of NASA’s InSight mission to Mars aboard an Atlas 5 rocket, as viewed by aft- and forward-facing cameras on the two-stage launch vehicle.

Photos: Shrouded in fog, Atlas 5 takes flight from Vandenberg

May 9, 2018

A layer of fog intruding on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California kept nearby observers from seeing any sign of Saturday’s predawn launch of an Atlas 5 rocket carrying a robotic NASA probe to Mars. The only images of the Atlas 5’s fiery takeoff came from remote cameras placed at the launch pad, or from distant viewing points away from the poor visibility.

After foggy departure, it’s clear sailing to Mars for InSight lander

May 5, 2018

Making a fiery climb into a foggy sky Saturday over California’s Central Coast, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket dispatched NASA’s InSight lander on a 301-million-mile voyage to Mars with a package of European-built instruments to probe the inside of the Red Planet.

Video: InSight blasts off through the fog

May 5, 2018

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket took off Saturday from California with the InSight spacecraft heading for Mars.

Photos: Mobile gantry retracted for launch of Atlas 5 rocket at Vandenberg

May 5, 2018

Towering more than 20 stories tall, the 8-million-pound mobile gantry at the Atlas 5 rocket’s launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, was retracted into position late Friday for liftoff of NASA’s InSight mission to Mars.

Launch timeline for Atlas 5’s mission with InSight

May 4, 2018

A United Launch Atlas 5 rocket is set to dispatch NASA’s InSight lander toward Mars, kicking off an interplanetary journey from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

All systems go for launch of InSight, a mission to reveal the inside of Mars

May 4, 2018

Scientists eager for answers to long-standing questions about the geology of Mars will get a lift Saturday with the blastoff from California of an Atlas 5 rocket with NASA’s InSight mission, a robotic landing craft that will take the pulse and temperature of the red planet.