Mission Reports

Photos: Delta 4-Heavy rocket awaits liftoff from historic SLC-6 launch pad

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A United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket is awaiting liftoff with a classified U.S. government spy satellite at Vandenberg Air Force Base’s historic Space Launch Complex-6, a picturesque rocket facility that was once intended to support launches of military astronauts and space shuttles. These photos show the triple-body rocket, clad in orange thermal insulation, standing …

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OneWeb adds 36 more satellites to internet network

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A Soyuz rocket lifted off Sunday from Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East with 36 internet satellites built on Florida’s Space Coast for OneWeb, bringing the company’s fleet to 182 spacecraft, more than a quarter of the way to building out a constellation of nearly 650 orbiting relay nodes. The 151-foot-tall (46-meter) Soyuz rocket climbed …

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NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter aces first longer-range flight on Mars

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NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter flew farther and faster Sunday than the rotorcraft’s first two test flights in the Martian atmosphere, traveling the length of a football field while exceeding distances and speeds achieved during testing on Earth, officials said. On Sunday’s test flight, the diminutive rotor-driven drone flew a distance of some 164 feet (50 meters) …

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One of ULA’s four remaining Delta 4 rockets set to launch from California

Aerojet Rocketdyne, Delta 386, Delta 4, Delta 4 Heavy, Earth Observation, Launch, Military Space, Mission Reports, National Reconnaissance Office, News, NROL-82, RL10, RS-68A, Space Launch Complex 6, United Launch Alliance, Vandenberg Air Force Base, X Home Page Highlight / By

A Delta 4-Heavy rocket stands on Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Credit: United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance ground crews on California’s Central Coast are gearing up to send a classified U.S. government spy satellite into orbit as soon as Monday — weather permitting — aboard one of the company’s …

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Soyuz rocket set to launch more OneWeb internet satellites

Airbus, Arianespace, Bharti Global, Broadband, Commercial Space, Fregat, Launch, Mission Reports, News, OneWeb, OneWeb Satellites, Roscosmos, Russia, Soyuz, Soyuz 2-1b, ST31, Starsem, Telecom, United Kingdom, Vostochny Cosmodrome, X Sidebar / By

A Soyuz rocket is standing on a launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East for liftoff Sunday with the next 36 satellites for OneWeb’s internet network, the sixth Soyuz mission dedicated to the commercial broadband constellation. The 36 satellites, built on Florida’s Space Coast by a joint venturer between between OneWeb and …

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With SpaceX crew docking, it’s a full house on the International Space Station

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NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, commander of the Crew-1 mission, tweeted this picture of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft approaching the International Space Station on Saturday. Credit: NASA/Mike Hopkins A refurbished SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship linked up with the International Space Station early Saturday more than 260 miles above Earth, delivering four veteran astronauts to the …

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NASA’s Mars helicopter completes second, higher flight

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This is the first color image of the Martian surface taken by an aerial vehicle while it was aloft. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter captured it with its color camera during its second successful flight test on April 22, 2021. At the time this image, Ingenuity was 17 feet (5.2 meters) above the surface and pitching …

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SpaceX launches astronauts on recycled capsule and ‘flight-proven’ rocket

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A Falcon 9 rocket takes off from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with four astronauts heading for the International Space Station. Credit: SpaceX A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ferried a multinational crew into orbit at the break of dawn Friday with a spectacular sky-lighting launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in …

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In another first, NASA’s Perseverance rover generates oxygen on Mars

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This view from the Perseverance rover’s navigation cameras shows the “Mars 2020” and “Perseverance” name plates on the vehicle’s robotic arm. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech In another first, an instrument inside NASA’s Perseverance rover has made oxygen out of carbon dioxide sucked in from the atmosphere of Mars, officials said Wednesday. The technology could help future astronauts …

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SLS core ready for shipment to Florida; NASA still hopes for late 2021 launch

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Teams at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi hoist the Space Launch System core stage out of the B-2 test stand April 19 after a hot fire test March 18. Credit: NASA Teams at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi removed the core of NASA’s first Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket from a test stand earlier …

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