Stargazer – Spaceflight Now

Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus rocket selected for responsive launch demo

March 17, 2021 Stephen Clark

The U.S. Space Force is planning for an airborne launch of a solid-fueled Pegasus rocket over the Pacific Ocean by early summer after quietly awarding Northrop Grumman a contract for the mission last year.

Pegasus rocket launch postponed

October 23, 2018 Stephen Clark

Continuing a series of delays keeping NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer on Earth, NASA announced Tuesday that the satellite’s launch aboard an air-dropped Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket will not occur as scheduled Friday.

NASA likely to relocate delayed Pegasus launch to Florida

July 5, 2018 Stephen Clark

NASA and Northrop Grumman are expected to base the launch of an air-dropped Pegasus rocket with a NASA science satellite from Cape Canaveral later this year, after originally trying to get the mission into space from a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Orbital ATK has no plans to phase out seldom-used Pegasus rocket

December 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

The build-up of Orbital ATK’s next air-launched Pegasus XL rocket will start in the coming weeks at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and while its flight in mid-2017 is the last Pegasus launcher on the manifest with a confirmed payload, company officials are confident the unique vehicle has a future beyond next year.

Flock of ‘microsats’ launched to measure winds inside hurricanes

December 15, 2016 Stephen Clark

A winged Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket dropped from the belly of a carrier jet off the east coast of Florida and fired into orbit Thursday with eight research satellites to fly around the tropics and return measurements of winds at the cores of hurricanes.

Hydraulic pump glitch scrubs Pegasus launch

December 12, 2016 Stephen Clark

Trouble with a hydraulic pump needed to release Orbital ATK’s air-launched Pegasus XL rocket from its carrier jet Monday has delayed the deployment of eight NASA hurricane research satellites until at least Wednesday.

Pegasus XL launch timeline with NASA’s CYGNSS microsats

December 12, 2016 Stephen Clark

Orbital ATK’s Pegasus XL rocket will take about eight minutes to reach orbit with NASA’s eight CYGNSS weather research microsatellites, then comes deployment of the spacecraft more than 300 miles above Earth.

Live coverage: Pegasus rocket successfully fires into orbit

December 12, 2016 Stephen Clark

An Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket carrying eight hurricane research satellites for NASA fired into orbit Thursday at 8:37 a.m. EST (1337 GMT) off the east coast of Florida.

Photos: Orbital ATK’s temporary Pegasus home base at Cape Canaveral

December 11, 2016 Stephen Clark

Take a look around the L-1011 jetliner, Pegasus rocket, and ground support gear at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Skid Strip for Monday’s scheduled launch of eight microsatellites to listen for winds inside hurricanes.

Video: Inside the CYGNSS satellite factory and the Pegasus carrier aircraft

December 11, 2016 Stephen Clark

Spaceflight Now visited the CYGNSS production facility at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio and the Pegasus XL rocket’s carrier plane at Cape Canaveral for rare looks at hardware that make NASA’s $157 million hurricane research mission possible.