Category: Launches

  • AsiaSat-6 launched successfully

    Following an 12 day delay for SpaceX to triple-check that the Falcon 9 was okay after the Falcon 9 Reusable explosion the rocket and payload successfully lifted off this morning to complete another mission for SpaceX and AsiaSat, during the countdown this evening the weather conditions were not ideal including a lightning strike on the…

  • My Views on Commercial Space

    Today during a twitter conversation about the new SpaceX Texas Spaceport one of the people in the discussion send the following tweet. @ChrisDMarshall you seem to be determined to downplay commercial space potential and options. — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) August 30, 2014 This got me thinking as personally I fully believe in Commercial Space as…

  • The true cost of getting the US back to manned flight

    To date we have seen a lot of talk about the cost of the SLS program, however that isn’t the only cost that has been incurred by the US tax payer since the announcement that the Space Shuttle was to be retired. This article will look at everything that has happened since then and how…

  • SLS Launch Date slips but not really

    Today NASA announced they had completed the Key Decision Point C (KDP-C) review of the new Space Launch System their heavy launch rocket.  With this milestone meet they can now proceed with the manufacturing of the actual flight hardware, while also performing reviews of the Ground Support systems and the Orion payload. As a result of…

  • AsiaSat-6 launch scrubbed

    SpaceX announced this afternoon that this evening’s AsiaSat-6 launch has been scrubbed. This follows last Friday’s F9R test failure and almost certainly is to allow the team more time to review the data from that test and ensure that the problem won’t happen to the F9 launcher. While this is yet another delay for SpaceX…

  • Galileo Satellite’s launched to wrong orbit

    Update to our previous story regarding the Soyuz Launch of two Galileo satellites. At the end of the webcast yesterday ArianeSpace believed the satellites had been deployed to the planned orbits, however U.S. military orbital tracking data indicated the satellites were flying in a lower orbit than planned. Officials confirmed a launch anomaly in a…

  • ArianeSpace launches two Galileo satellites

    This morning a Soyuz rocket lifted off from the French Guiana Space Center carrying the first two fully operation Galileo satellites.  Galileo is the European’s version of the Global Positioning System, there are currently four satellites which were used to prove the system worked as needed, now that phase has completed the rest of the satellite…

  • ULA completes second launch in a week from Cape Canaveral

    This evening a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying a GPS IIF satellite.  This was the second launch this week for ULA making it the fastest turn around for launches at the cape. At the time of writing the spacecraft was still in it’s coast phase, once complete…

  • Last ATV begins journey to the station

    This evening the second of three planned launches this week lifted off carrying the final European Automated Transfer Vehicle to orbit. The Ariane 5 rocket lifted off at 7:47:38 p.m. EDT from French Guiana carrying the ATV spacecraft, 64 minutes after liftoff the vehicle is scheduled to separate from the upper stage to begin it’s two…

  • Delta 4 launches on 5th Attempt

    Following one delay due to a technical issue and three due to bad weather a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket finally lifted off this evening carrying Twin inspector spacecraft and a micro-satellite test-bed.  The launch was delayed several times this evening also due to weather but finally a window opened and they were able…