NOAA weather satellite ready for launch after repairs to main camera

Artist’s concept of the GOES-T satellite in orbit. Credit: Lockheed Martin A new NOAA weather satellite destined to track cyclones, wildfires, and solar flares from a perch high above the Western United States and Pacific Ocean is set for liftoff Tuesday from Cape Canaveral on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. The GOES-T satellite will launch with modifications to its main imaging camera, changes designed to avoid a minor cooling system...

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NASA official says U.S.-Russian partnership continues on space station

An astronaut on a departing Crew Dragon spacecraft captured this image of the International Space Station in November. The U.S. segment is situated in the upper left of this view, and the Russian segment is on the lower right. Credit: NASA Kathy Lueders, head of NASA’s human spaceflight operations division, said Monday that joint activities on the International Space Station are continuing amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, including preparations...

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Live coverage: Rocket Lab to launch from new pad in New Zealand today

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1B on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand carrying the StriX β synthetic aperture radar satellite for Synspective, a Japanese Earth-imaging company. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Rocket Lab’s live video webcast begins approximately 20 minutes prior to launch, and will be available on this page. from Spaceflight Now https://ift.tt/qsaiUcz via World Space In...

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Watch live: Atlas 5 rocket rolling to launch pad with weather satellite

 United Launch Alliance plans to roll out an Atlas 5 rocket to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral on Monday, moving the launcher into position for liftoff Tuesday afternoon with a NOAA weather satellite destined to cover the Western United States and the Pacific Ocean. The move is expected to begin shortly after 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) with the emergence of the Atlas 5 from its Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The 196-foot-tall (59.7-meter) Atlas 5 will make the trip on top of a mobile launch platform pushed...

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SpaceX deploys another batch of Starlink satellites

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches with 50 Starlink internet satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Credit: William G. Hartenstein SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with a batch of 50 more Starlink internet satellites Friday from the Central Coast of California, the company’s second Starlink mission in four days. Two more Starlink launches are scheduled from Florida in the first half of March. The 50 new Starlink satellites took...

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ULA: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine won’t impact remaining Atlas 5 missions

File photo of an Atlas 5 rocket on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now United Launch Alliance said Friday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will have no impact on the company’s Atlas 5 rocket program, which has 25 missions left to fly with Russian-made main engines before retirement. The launch provider said it has all the Russian engines it needs before transitioning to a replacement rocket,...

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ULA says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine won’t impact remaining Atlas 5 missions

Email the author. Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1. from Spaceflight Now https://ift.tt/YId4Jry via World Space In...

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Russia suspends Soyuz launch operations in French Guiana

A Soyuz ST-B rocket takes off from the Guiana Space Center on Feb. 10 with 34 new OneWeb internet satellites. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/P. Piron Blaming European sanctions enacted after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Russian space agency said Saturday it is recalling dozens of engineers and technicians from French Guiana and suspending Soyuz rocket operations there, grounding a pair of European navigation satellites previously set for launch...

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Comment on SpaceX Launches DART Mission on Ten-Month Impact Trek to Binary Asteroid by SpaceX Wraps Up Second Four-Launch Month, Looks Ahead to Crewed Missions – AmericaSpace

[…] over a hundred Starlinks and a fleet of Earth-imaging, oceanography and scientific payloads, including NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) to the Didymos/Dimorphos binary asteroid …. Seven Falcon 9 cores have flown twice out of Vandenberg, including B1063 which on Friday became […] from Comments for AmericaSpace https://ift.tt/vzwMjg1 via World Space In...

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Comment on Crew-2 Returns Home, Wraps Up Longest Single Mission by U.S. Crewed Spacecraft by SpaceX Wraps Up Second Four-Launch Month, Looks Ahead to Crewed Missions – AmericaSpace

[…] Space Station (ISS). Originally targeted for February, additional work to prepare Endeavour—which is set to become the first SpaceX Crew Dragon to fly a third crewed mission—pushed this date back to 30 […] from Comments for AmericaSpace https://ift.tt/VgHF3BQ via World Space In...

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Comment on SpaceX Launches Short-Notice CSG-2, Readies for Starlink, Classified Missions Next by SpaceX Wraps Up Second Four-Launch Month, Looks Ahead to Crewed Missions – AmericaSpace

[…] has completed its second back-to-back month to see as many as four Falcon 9 missions, following Friday’s successful launch of another batch of Starlink low-orbiting internet […] from Comments for AmericaSpace https://ift.tt/IurvYxf via World Space In...

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SpaceX Wraps Up Second Four-Launch Month, Looks Ahead to Crewed Missions

@SpaceX has wrapped up its second 4-launch month of 2022, as it looks ahead to crewed #Falcon9 flights later this spring. from AmericaSpace https://ift.tt/lp0RctJ via World Space In...

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Live coverage: SpaceX counting down to launch from California today

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with 50 Starlink internet satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter. SpaceX Webcast from Spaceflight Now https://ift.tt/rYxgh2T via World Space In...

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Fifty more Starlink satellites ready for launch Friday

In this file photo from 2019, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands vertical at Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX will launch another 50 Starlink internet satellites Friday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, continuing what’s expected to be a cadence of nearly one Falcon 9 launch per month this year at the West Coast spaceport. Officials said last year that SpaceX would start launching...

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Biden announces sanctions targeting Russia’s space program

President Biden announced new sanctions against Russia on Thursday afternoon. Credit: White House President Biden said Thursday the United States is imposing new sanctions against Russia, including measures that will “degrade” the country’s space program, in response to Russian military attacks on Ukraine. So far, operations and training for future missions on the International Space Station are proceeding without interruption, according to NASA....

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Rocket Lab to debut new launch pad on next launch

 Rocket Lab’s next mission, targeted for no earlier than Feb. 28, will be the first from a new launch pad at the company’s private spaceport in New Zealand, an addition officials said could double the flight rate of Electron launchers. The new launch pad, named Launch Complex 1B, lies 383 feet (117 meters) from Launch Complex 1A, the pad Rocket Lab has used for all 23 of its Electron rocket missions to date, according to a company spokesperson. “With...

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Landsat 9 declared operational, IXPE returns first science imagery

This image of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A combines some of the first X-ray data collected by NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, shown in magenta, with high-energy X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, in blue. Credits: NASA/CXC/SAO/IXPE Two NASA satellites launched late last year are operational and returning imagery — one looking back at planet Earth and another peering into the cosmos in search of new insights...

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NASA says engine controller failure not a roadblock to first SLS test flight

Four RS-25 main engines at the bottom of the Space Launch System’s core stage. Credit: NASA/Cory Huston NASA says a faulty memory chip was the cause of a problem that forced technicians to swap out an engine control computer on the first Space Launch System rocket late last year, but the issue is not a constraint for an upcoming SLS fueling test or launch later this spring. The engine controller failed to reliably power up during testing in November,...

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