NASA’s Human Architecture Team (HAT) is actively working on a roadmap towards evolvable demonstrations of Propellant Depots – with a potential goal of setting up an “interplanetary highway” to enable low cost exploration. With proposals being sought, industry sources point to a small, 30 metric ton capacity, Centaur derived depot as an initial leading candidate.

The Voyager spacecraft - NASA’s longest operational interplanetary probes – are about to enter their 34th year of operation, as they continue their sail out of the confines of our solar system toward the ever-present void of interstellar space. And as controllers on Earth manage the gradual and progressive power-down of the two spacecraft, the Voyagers [...]

United Launch Alliance (ULA) have launched their Atlas V carrying NASA’s Juno probe on its way to Jupiter on Friday. The liftoff of the flagship mission was delayed by 51 minutes, due to a ground leak and a boat in the range box, prior to launching at 12:25 local time. Juno will become the first spacecraft [...]

Preparations for the launch of the NASA Juno mission to Jupiter are proceeding well, as the mission passed through its Flight Readiness Review (FRR). Juno will be riding on the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V, a vehicle which arrived on an Antonov An-124 for the final time, as Atlas’ began sharing a ride on the [...]

International Launch Services (ILS) have launched their Proton-M rocket again on Friday, as the workhorse lofted the SES-3 and KazSat-2 telecommunications satellites – the first “shared” ILS Proton launch – into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan was on schedule at 23:16pm UTC, ahead of over nine hours of flight [...]

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) have launched their Delta IV rocket from Cape Canaveral on Saturday morning, carrying the second in a series of next-generation Global Positioning Satellites - GPS IIF-2. Launch occurred at the start of nineteen minute window which opened at 06:45 UTC (02:45 EDT).

Orbital Sciences Corporation have launched the ORS-1 spacecraft for the United States’ Operationally Responsive Space Office via the tenth flight of a Minotaur I rocket, from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island. The successful launch – at 11:09pm Eastern – came after a weather related scrub on Tuesday and two delays during Wednesday’s countdown [...]

With the US Segment of the International Space Station (ISS) now complete, NASA managers are turning their attention away from the era of construction and maintenance of the station and toward the new era of utilization, which includes advanced technology demos ranging from beam energy transfer to robotic servicing.

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) have launched their Delta II rocket to loft the SAC-D spacecraft into orbit for the Argentine space agency, CONAE, on Friday. Launch occurred at the start of a five minute window opening at 14:20:13 UTC (07:20 local time), lifting off from Space Launch Complex 2W at the Vandenberg Air Force [...]

International Launch Services (ILS) are in action on Friday, as the countdown clocks ticked down to the launch of their Proton-M rocket. The workhorse launch vehicle lofted the Telstar 14R telecommunications satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is scheduled for 19:15 GMT, ahead of over nine hours of [...]

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) have successfully made a second attempt to launch their Atlas V 401 – from Cape Canaveral on Saturday at 2:10pm EDT – following several failed attempts to find a gap in unacceptable weather during the 40 minute launch window on Friday – resulting in a 24 hour scrub turnaround. The [...]

The United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket has performed its twenty-fifth launch, delivering into orbit the classified NROL-34 payload for the US National Reconnaissance Office. The launch took place from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 04:24 UTC Friday (21:24 local time Thursday).

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) head Elon Musk revealed their latest launch vehicle on Tuesday, the Falcon Heavy. Effectively three Falcon 9 core stages strapped together, the new vehicle – set to debut as soon as 2013 – will be the most powerful US rocket to have launched since the Saturn V was built for the [...]

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) H-II Transfer Vehicle-2 (HTV-2) “Kounotori” (White Stork) is departing from the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, after a 60 day visit to the orbital outpost. Launched to the ISS on 22nd January, HTV-2 arrived at the space station on 27th January after a five day free flight, whereupon it was [...]

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) have launched their Delta IV rocket carrying a classified spacecraft for the United States National Reconnaissance Office on Friday. The mission, designated NRO Launch 27, lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 37 at 6:38pm Eastern (23:38 UTC) – following a delayed T-0 due to unacceptable upper level wind data [...]

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) have launched their Atlas V 501 carrying the X-37B OTV-2 spacecraft on Saturday, the second attempt following Friday’s scrub due to unacceptable weather at Cape Canaveral. The launch came at the start of the second available launch window, which opened at 5:46pm, due to work to to replace a valve on [...]

Orbital’s Taurus launch vehicle finally lifted off with NASA’a Glory spacecraft – at 10:09am GMT Friday morning - after being rescheduled due to a scrub during  its original February launch attempt.  However, the vehicle’s aim to deploy the Glory environmental satellite for NASA, plus three university CubeSats, via a launch from Launch Complex 576E at the Vandenberg Air [...]

After an eight-day (8 day) orbital chase, Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle-2 (ATV-2) has conducted a picture perfect automated docking to the aft end of the International Space Station’s (ISS’s) “Zvezda” Service Module (SM). ATV-2 was launched atop an Ariane V booster from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana last Wednesday (16th February) evening, and [...]

Orbital Sciences Corporation have launched a Minotaur I from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Sunday, carrying a classified technology development satellite for the United States National Reconnaissance Office. The mission, designated NRO Launch 66, was re-scheduled from Saturday due to technical issues. The second attempt – despite a media blackout - appeared to be successful, [...]