Space Florida – Page 2 – Spaceflight Now

Minotaur 4 launch timeline with the ORS-5 satellite

August 25, 2017 Stephen Clark

Track the major events during the Minotaur 4 rocket’s 28-minute climb into a unique equatorial orbit with the ORS-5 space surveillance satellite for the U.S. military’s Operationally Responsive Space office.

Live coverage: Minotaur 4 rocket makes first launch from Cape Canaveral

August 25, 2017 Stephen Clark

An Orbital ATK Minotaur 4 rocket partially powered by modified motors from a Cold War-era nuclear missile lifted off early Saturday from Cape Canaveral with a small U.S. military satellite to help track other objects in space. The solid-fueled launcher took off at 2:04 a.m. EDT (0604 GMT) after a weather delay.

Military satellite ready for launch aboard converted Cold War-era missile

August 25, 2017 Stephen Clark

A U.S. military satellite awaiting launch Friday night from Cape Canaveral is small enough to fit on a coffee table, but it will punch above its weight, scanning a region more than 20,000 miles above Earth to catalog spacecraft movements and space junk.

Assembly complete for Minotaur launcher at Cape Canaveral

August 19, 2017 Stephen Clark

Using industrial cranes at a no-frills launch pad on the eastern tip of Cape Canaveral, a team of Orbital ATK and U.S. Air Force technicians have fully stacked a modified Cold War-era missile set for launch next week with a $49 million satellite built to track other objects in orbit.

Build-up begins for first Minotaur rocket launch from Cape Canaveral

August 4, 2017 Stephen Clark

Ground crews at a long-dormant launch pad at Cape Canaveral are stacking surplus military missile motors for the Aug. 25 launch of a Minotaur 4 rocket with a satellite designed to track orbital traffic thousands of miles above Earth.

Launch of military’s new space-based satellite tracker delayed to August

June 21, 2017 Stephen Clark

The launch from Cape Canaveral of a small U.S. military satellite built to track objects in geosynchronous orbit has been delayed from mid-July until August, an Air Force spokesperson said.

Teams practice for Cape Canaveral’s first launch of Minotaur 4 rocket

February 12, 2017 Justin Ray

Three inert Peacekeeper missile stages have been stacked at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 46 pad, demonstrating the techniques that will be used to assemble a Minotaur 4 rocket to launch an experimental space surveillance satellite this summer.

Florida factory to mass-produce satellites at record pace

April 19, 2016 Stephen Clark

OneWeb officials Tuesday unveiled plans for a factory just outside the gates of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida that will churn out up to 15 satellites per week to populate low Earth orbit and beam broadband Internet signals worldwide.

Bezos to locate commercial rocket base in Florida

September 15, 2015 Stephen Clark

Blue Origin, the burgeoning, often secretive space company led by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, revealed plans Tuesday to build and launch reusable rockets on Florida’s Space Coast, adding another commercial tenant for historic real estate at Cape Canaveral.

Enter the Starliner: Boeing names its commercial spaceship

September 4, 2015 Stephen Clark

Boeing’s commercial human-rated spaceship designed to ferry NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station will be named the CST-100 Starliner, extending the company’s naming theme to the final frontier, officials announced Friday.