CubeSats

SpaceX launches Transporter 7 rideshare mission from California

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with 51 small satellites and payloads. Credit: SpaceX After several delays to wait for improved weather, SpaceX sent a Falcon 9 rocket into space late Friday night from California’s Central Coast with 51 small satellites, payloads, and orbital transfer vehicles from customers …

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Photos: ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral

Carrying a sophisticated billion-dollar missile detection satellite for the U.S. military, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday with 1.6 million pounds of thrust from a Russian RD-180 main engine and twin solid rocket boosters. The 194-foot-tall (59-meter) Atlas 5 rocket lifted off at 1:37 p.m. EDT (1737 …

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Atlas 5 rocket launches infrared missile detection satellite for U.S. Space Force

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasts off with the U.S. military’s SBIRS GEO 5 satellite. Credit: Alex Polimeni / Spaceflight Now An upgraded, cyber-hardened $1 billion satellite to support the U.S. military’s missile defense systems rode into orbit from Cape Canaveral Tuesday at the tip of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. …

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Problem during fueling preps forces Atlas 5 launch delay

The payload shroud of ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket, containing the SBIRS GEO 5 missile warning satellite. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now United Launch Alliance called off a launch attempt Monday after hitting a snag during preparations to fill an Atlas 5 rocket with cryogenic propellants at Cape Canaveral, delaying the liftoff of a new U.S. Space …

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Photos: Atlas 5 ready for liftoff with SBIRS GEO 5

These photos show a 194-foot-tall (59-meter) United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket standing on pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in advance of a planned launch with the U.S. Space Force’s fifth SBIRS missile warning satellite. The Atlas 5 rocket is set for launch during a 40-minute window opening at 1:35 p.m. EDT …

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U.S. military warning sentinel attached to Atlas 5 rocket at Cape Canaveral

The U.S. Space Force’s fifth SBIRS GEO early warning satellite — encapsulated inside the Atlas 5 rocket’s payload shroud — arrives at the Vertical Integration Facility on May 7. Credit: United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance crews at Cape Canaveral have topped off an Atlas 5 rocket for liftoff Monday with the U.S. military’s next …

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Arianespace announces competition for free nanosatellite launch

Spectators in Kourou, French Guiana, watch as an Ariane 5 rocket launches three commercial satellites from the Guiana Space Center in August 2020. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – S. Martin Arianespace announced this week it is organizing a contest open to startups, labs, and universities for a free launch of a …

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Privately-funded mission takes off to begin space debris cleanup trials

The ELSA-d mission’s servicer and chaser satellites (bottom and top) during ground testing last year. Credit: Astroscale A commercial mission developed by the Japanese company Astroscale rocketed into space on a Russian Soyuz launcher Monday with 37 other payloads, ready to kick off an orbital “dance” with two small spacecraft demonstrating how satellite sweepers might …

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Launch of asteroid deflection demonstrator slips to November

NASA’s DART spacecraft is prepared for thermal testing in February. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman The launch of a NASA spacecraft designed to smash into an asteroid to try out a technique that could protect Earth from threatening space rocks has slipped from July until November, at the earliest, after development delays partially caused by …

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