The International Space Station (ISS) has now entered what will be a challenging new year, which will see access to the station for both crews and cargo tested, in wake of last year’s retirement of the Space Shuttle, the start of new commercial resupply flights, and recent failures of Russian launch vehicles.
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Orbital Sciences Corporation’s new launch vehicle – currently being developed as a simple solution to continue to support the medium class satellite market, as well as to loft much-needed cargo to the International Space Station via the company’s Cygnus spacecraft – has changed its name from Taurus II to the Antares.
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Negotiations between the numerous International Space Station (ISS) partners are starting to result in an exciting 2012 manifest, as Agency vehicles play tag team with new commercial resupply craft. From a Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) standpoint, three – or four, if the C2/C3 demo slips to 2012 – SpaceX Dragon flights are set to head [...]
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An Orbital Minotaur IV+ rocket has launched from Kodiak Island, Alaska, on Tuesday, carrying an experimental communications satellite for the United States Navy and Operationally Responsive Space Office. Liftoff was on schedule at 15:49 UTC (07:49 local time).
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Arianespace have returned to action on Wednesday, as their Ariane 5 ECA launched two more telecommunication satellites into orbit – namely Arabsat-5C and SES-2. Launch from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, was on schedule, at the start of a 40 minute launch window, which opened at 9:38pm UTC.
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While Russian engineers continue to investigate the failure of their Progress M-12M, which crashed in Eastern Russia on Wednesday, half a world away Orbital welcomed their first pressurized cargo module (PCM) for its Cygnus cargo logistics spacecraft at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, in preparation for leading the charge of America’s own commercial cargo [...]
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International Space Station (ISS) program managers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) have completed the Flight Readiness Review (FRR) for the upcoming ISS Expedition 29 on Wednesday. The FRR included a thorough review of all aspects of the Expedition 29 increment, the conclusion of which resulted in all groups issuing a Certification of Flight Readiness (CoFR) [...]
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Orbital Sciences Corporation launched a Minotaur IV rocket carrying an experimental hypersonic prototype for the United States Air Force and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency into space on a suborbital trajectory. The rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base’s Space Launch Complex 8 at 14:45 UTC (07:45 local time) on Thursday. However, the HTV-2b [...]
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Adding to the long list that is her legacy, Atlantis’ successful final test of Neptec’s TriDAR rendezvous and docking system has resulted in Orbital completing a deal to use high tech sensors on their Cygnus spacecraft. With the orbiter’s also testing DragonEye for SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, the two commercial vehicles will “Tally Ho” the ISS [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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Orbital Sciences Corporation used their Minotaur IV launch vehicle to loft eight satellites for the United States Government and university research programmes on Friday night. The mission, designated STP S-26, launched from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska one minute into a 90-minute window, with a lift-off time of 20:25 pm Eastern (01:25 UTC).
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The International Space Station Increment 25 are ending their first full week on the orbital outpost, as specialists on the ground continue their investigation into the events leading up to the failure of the GPRVs (Gas Pressure Regulation Valves) in April and Pump Module (PM) in July. Engineers are also evaluating the ISS’s long-term module [...]
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An Orbital Minotaur IV has made its first orbital launch during the early hours of Sunday morning, carrying the first Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) satellite for the US Air Force and Missile Defense Agency. The launch - from Vandenberg Air Force Base – was on schedule, at the start of a 14 minute window, whiched opened [...]
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The Teal Group – a defense and aerospace consulting firm that provides intelligence to government and industry – estimates 2,229 space payloads will be launched to Earth, Lunar and deep space trajectories from 2010-2029. The Virginia-based group is also predicting a bright future for SpaceX’s Dragon, and Orbital’s Cygnus capsules, as they prepare to come [...]
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Sea Launch have successfully launched their Zenit-3SLB launch vehicle, carrying the MEASAT-3a telecommunication satellite. The Land Launch branch of the multi-national company lofted the Orbital Sciences built satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
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An Orbital Minotaur 1 has finally launched from the Wallops Island Flight Facility with the Tactical Satellite-3 (TacSat-3) satellite. The launch was heavily postponed, with several scrubs relating from the weather to the launch vehicle and facility.
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Orbital Science’s Taurus XL rocket lifted-off from Space Launch Complex 576-E at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, carrying the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) this morning. However, the mission was deemed as a failure during or slightly after third stage flight, after it was noted the fairing failed to separate as required.
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PlanetSpace Inc – which lost out on NASA’s 3.5 billion dollar Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract – have filed an official protest. Last month, SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp) and Orbital were awarded the contract to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) during the transition between Shuttle and Orion.
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SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation have been awarded the lucrative Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract, with SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.) earning 12 missions, and Orbital winning another eight missions. The details of the award – worth up to 3.5 billion dollars - equates to Orbital winning 54 percent of the funding. PlanetSpace Inc lose out on the award.
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