By Ben Evans, on November 6th, 2018
The Pegasus-XL booster sits beneath the fuselage of the L-1011 Stargazer on the Skid Strip, ahead of the ICON mission. Photo Credit: Jeff Seibert/AmericaSpace
Five months later than intended, a Pegasus-XL winged booster—flying, for the first time, under the auspices of Northrop Grumman Corp., following the latter’s recent acquisition of Orbital ATK—will deliver […]
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By Mike Killian, on December 15th, 2016
The view of Orbital ATK’s L-1011 Stargazer and Pegasus XL rocket (underneath), as seen from the F/A-18B jet used to provide live coverage of the launch carrying NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS). Flying the F-18 was NASA Test Pilot Troy Asher, with NASA Videographer Lori Losey backseat. Photo Credit: NASA / […]
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By Craig Covault, on February 3rd, 2016
Propelled by its three “cores,” the Falcon Heavy is expected to make its maiden voyage in fall 2016. This behemoth will cement its credentials as the most powerful rocket in current operational status, overtaking the Delta IV Heavy. Image Credit: SpaceX
The planned Feb. 5 launch of a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas-V […]
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By Mike Killian, on November 21st, 2014 Artist’s concept of the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) satellite. Orbital Sciences will launch ICON aboard a Pegasus XL launch vehicle from their “Stargazer” L-1011 aircraft in June, 2017. Image Credit: Orbital Sciences Corporation
Orbital Sciences Corporation this week secured a $56.3 million firm-fixed price launch services contract to deliver the Ionospheric Connection Explorer […]
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By Mike Killian, on March 31st, 2014 The CYGNSS mission is comprised of eight Low-Earth Orbiting (LEO) spacecraft (S/C) that receive both direct (white lines) and reflected (blue lines) signals from GPS satellites. The direct signals pinpoint LEO S/C positions, while the reflected signals respond to ocean surface roughness, from which wind speed is retrieved. GPS bi-static scatterometry measures ocean […]
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By David Darling, on July 12th, 2013 NASA’s IBEX spacecraft has detected the four-leaf-clover-shaped pattern of our Solar System’s “tail.” Image Credit: NASA
Three years of observations by NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) have shown that the Solar System has a tail shaped like a four-leaf clover. The stream of particles that blows away from the Sun, known […]
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By Ben Evans, on June 28th, 2013
The Lockheed L-1011 aircraft departs Runway 12/30 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 6:27 p.m. PDT (9:27 p.m. EDT) on 27 June 2013. Almost an hour later, after reaching its required deployment position, Pegasus-XL was air-launched to begin its mission of deploying NASA’s IRIS solar observatory. Photo Credit: Robert C. Fisher […]
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By Jason Rhian, on June 25th, 2013 The planned launch of an Orbital Pegasus XL rocket has been delayed a day due to range power issues. Photo Credit: Randy Beaudoin, VAFB / NASA
The launch of an Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus XL rocket with NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) will have to wait a little longer. The launch is […]
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By Ben Evans, on June 25th, 2013 Deployed from beneath the L-1011 aircraft, Pegasus-XL utilizes three solid-fuelled stages to deliver payloads weighing up to 980 pounds into low-Earth orbit. Wednesday’s flight will be the 42nd Pegasus mission since April 1990. Photo Credit: NASA / Orbital Sciences Corp.
Orbital Sciences Corp. is ready to boost its 42nd Pegasus air-launched rocket aloft […]
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By Ben Evans, on April 8th, 2013 Investigators believe that the TESS mission, which earlier failed to be accepted for further study in 2009, has a 98-percent probability of finding potentially-habitable transiting exoplanets, orbiting red dwarfs within 50 parsecs of Earth. Image Credit: European Southern Observatory
NASA’s Astrophysics Explorer Program has selected two missions to be launched in 2017. The […]
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