Atlas-V Flies NROL-55's Twin Ocean Surveillance Satellites as Air Force Declares Situational Awareness Spacecraft Operational

By Craig Covault, on October 8th, 2015

A successful pre-dawn launch for NRO-55 atop ULA’s 58th Atlas-V rocket from Vandenberg AFB, CA this morning at 5:48 a.m. PDT. A pair of 4-ton NRO ocean surveillance satellites are onboard, along with several NRO and NASA Cubesats. Photo Credit: Robert Fisher / AmericaSpace

Critical U.S. military situational awareness in space and on […]

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PHOTOS: Delta-II Ready for SMAP Launch Attempt #2 From California Saturday Morning

By Mike Killian, on January 30th, 2015

The ULA Delta-II tasked with launching NASA’s SMAP Earth Science satellite / mission. Photo Credit: Mike Killian / AmericaSpace

Mother Nature and a relatively minor technical issue forced ULA to keep their Delta-II rocket, and NASA’s SMAP satellite, grounded at Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California the last few days, but as […]

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Returning Human Spaceflight Capability to the United States, Introducing the SpaceX Dragon V2

By Mike Killian, on May 30th, 2014

Introducing the SpaceX Dragon Version 2, the company’s vehicle of choice for returning human spaceflight capability to the United States. Image Credits: Robert Fisher / AmericaSpace / SpaceX

On Thursday, May 29, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) founder and CEO Elon Musk unveiled his Hawthorne, Calif.-based company’s new Dragon spacecraft, the Dragon V2, for […]

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Meet NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator, the Next Step in Landing on Mars

By Mike Killian, on April 21st, 2014

The LDSD test article in the clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, preparing for shipment to Hawaii for its first test launch this summer. LDSD will help land bigger space payloads on Mars or return them back to Earth. Photo Credit: AmericaSpace / Robert Fisher

Anyone even remotely familiar with landing spacecraft […]

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