The inaugural flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket is slipping to 2022 to allow more time for its customer, Astrobotic, to prepare its Peregrine lunar lander for launch.
The U.S. Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office on March 9 awarded task orders worth a total of $385 million to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) for four upcoming launches, Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) said in a statement.
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 8:09 p.m. EST on a mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), dubbed NROL-44.
The 235-ft. tall, triple-core booster was 7 sec. away from liftoff at 11:54 p.m. on Sept. 30 when the rocket’s Terminal Countdown Sequencer Rack, which controls the final 10 sec. of the countdown, identified “an unexpected condition,” and stopped the launch.
The U.S. national security space agencies will remain with incumbents United Launch Alliance and SpaceX for medium and heavy-lift launch services over the next five years
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral AFS on July 30, sending the $2.4-billion NASA Perseverance rover on its way to Mars to search for signs of past life and cache promising rock and soil samples for a future return to Earth.
The House Armed Services Committee proposes investing $150 million in space technology development in the chairman’s mark of the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill.
Boeing and NASA were working to preserve as many test objectives as possible for the unmanned orbital debut of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner after a timer issue scuttled the capsule’s engine firing needed to reach the ISS.
