Lockheed Martin – Spaceflight Now

NASA blames recent Hubble woes on aging hardware

March 31, 2021

Hardware problems that cropped up earlier this month on the Hubble Space Telescope, now approaching the 31st anniversary of its launch, are the latest signs the observatory is showing its age.

U.S. Space Force’s next missile warning satellite arrives at Florida launch base

March 26, 2021

A billion-dollar missile warning satellite built by Lockheed Martin for the U.S. Space Force arrived at Cape Canaveral earlier this month to kick off final preparations for launch May 17 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter camera spots Perseverance rover after landing

March 5, 2021

A high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted the Perseverance rover after landing on the Red Planet last month, showing the nuclear-powered robot sitting on the Martian surface with its supersonic parachute and other landing system components scattered nearby.

SpaceX planning launch of two Falcon Heavy missions in summer and fall

February 15, 2021

SpaceX plans two Falcon Heavy launches this year for the U.S. Space Force in July and October, and United Launch Alliance has four national security space missions on its 2021 schedule, according to a military spokesperson.

NASA gives up on salvaging InSight Mars lander’s ‘mole’

January 19, 2021

NASA managers tried for the last time earlier this month to coax the InSight lander’s long-stuck subsurface heat probe into the Martian soil, but after seeing no more progress, ground teams decided to end their efforts and focus on the mission’s other science objectives.

NASA mission extension enables first flybys of Jupiter’s moons in 20 years

January 11, 2021

In a pair of mission extensions, NASA has cleared the way for more seismic observations on Mars with the robotic InSight lander and approved plans for the Juno spacecraft to alter its orbit and perform close flybys of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, Ganymede, and the volcanic moon Io.

Lockheed Martin to buy rocket engine-builder Aerojet Rocketdyne

December 21, 2020

Lockheed Martin, the largest U.S. defense contractor, announced late Sunday that it has reached a deal valued at $4.4 billion to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne, a supplier of engines to NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas, Delta, and Vulcan rockets.

SpaceX launches GPS navigation satellite from Cape Canaveral

November 6, 2020

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Thursday from Cape Canaveral with the U.S. Space Force’s newest third-generation Global Positioning System navigation satellite, helping clear the way for the launch of SpaceX’s first operational Crew Dragon astronaut mission later this month.

Live coverage: SpaceX launches GPS satellite

November 5, 2020

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:24 p.m. EST (2324 GMT) Thursday with the U.S. military’s next GPS navigation satellite. The mission was delayed more than a month after a previous countdown was aborted seconds before liftoff.

ULA scrubs Atlas 5 launch as SpaceX readies repaired rocket for GPS mission

November 4, 2020

United Launch Alliance called off the planned launch of an Atlas 5 rocket Wednesday at Cape Canaveral to resolve a problem with valves at the launch pad, while a SpaceX team a mile-and-a-half to the south readied a Falcon 9 rocket for liftoff Thursday evening with a GPS navigation satellite for the U.S. military.