NASA’s InSight Mars lander successfully launched this morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. As expected, the weather was quite a mess – very foggy – and once the Atlas V RD-180 engine ignited there wasn’t too much more than steam and an orange glow to be seen in the launch video. Of course, […]
It’s been a good long while since I’ve covered a recent rocket launch, but what better of a launch to come back with than the next Mars mission by NASA – InSight, a probe which will land on and study the interior surface of Mars! It’s going to be an amazing mission, to be sure, […]
Here we have, as always, the launch highlights from last weeks Atlas V SBIRS launch. It was an early evening launch with spectacular views, as is usually the case for an Atlas V launch. This particular clip is interesting to me in that this being Launch Complex 41, it’s the same one that Cassini, and […]
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V lifted off yesterday from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the 4th Geostationary Satellite in the Space-Based Infrared System, a collection of specialty satellites operated by the United States Air Force designed to assist the United States military in situational awareness in the battlefield, especially […]
After several delays, a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying the NROL-47 satellite into a polar orbit. Just what is NROL-47? No one outside of the National Reconnaissance Office really knows for sure. Of course, we know it was inserted into a polar orbit of some type, given […]
Here’s one I should have gotten to back in December but couldn’t get to for, well, reasons. This is a launch highlights compilation for year 2017 produced by United Launch Alliance, showing of the past years launches of 1 Delta IV booster, 6 Atlas V boosters, and the second to last Delta II launch ever. […]
Last week marked the penultimate launch of the Delta II rocket, carrying the JPSS-1 satellite into a polar orbit to help with weather research and forecasting here in the United States. Today I bring you a pair of videos – the first is the launch highlights clip, produced by United Launch Alliance, showing clips of […]
I’m glad I stayed up for this one – early this morning, 1:47 Pacific Time (3:47 Central Time for me) marked the launch of the NASA / NOAA Joint Polar Satellite System 1, or JPSS-1, weather satellite. As the name implies, JPSS-1 is the first of a new set of polar orbiting weather satellites which […]
On October 15th, 2017 a United Launch Alliance Atlas V booster launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 40 carrying a “Satellite Data System” communications satellite into orbit for the United States Department of Defense. This launch was interesting in that it was originally planned earlier in the month, but was repeatedly delayed […]
As always, United Launch Alliance has produced a launch highlights clip for their most recent launch, NROL-42. This classified military payload was launched via an Atlas V booster from Vandeberg Air Force Base in California. The launch highlights clip follows the traditional format of showing the preparation of the booster, rollback of the service towers, […]
Another United States military payload launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base this morning – NROL-42. What is it? A classified reconnaissance satellite. What launched it? An Atlas V booster – in this case, the Atlas 541 configuration using 4 solid rocket motors. Why am I typing this post like this? Because there isn’t much to […]
Now for something actually somewhat exciting to me, the onboard footage of the Atlas V TDRS-M launch from a few days ago. This is exactly what it sounds like, the view from the booster of the launch, including staging, ignition of the Centaur stage RL-10 engine, and the payload deployment. It’s straightforward, just the way […]
I’m almost a week late on this one, but it’s still worth covering: The third, and final of the 3 Third-Generation Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, known as TDRS, was successfully launched on Friday, August 18th, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 41. The TDRS satellite system is used for high-bandwith data and […]
Let’s deviate away from SpaceX for a moment – let’s talk about United Launch Alliance. United Launch Alliance, or ULA, is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. Lockheed and Boeing have been involved in rocketry since the the 1950’s, having combined between them over a century of […]
As I mentioned in the previous articles about the Cygnus CRS-7 launch, this launch was one of the recent ones recorded using 360 degree cameras. One of the few “trendy” things I actually like, these allow you a somewhat “like you’re really there” experience without requiring expensive virtual reality gear, and without ruining the video […]