Astronomy
- Indian Rocket Launches Israeli-built Spy Satellite
India launched a closely-guarded Israeli-built radar spy satellite Monday to begin gathering valuable intelligence data from a 342-mile-high perch above the planet, regardless of lighting and weather conditions. The country's 15th Polar Satellite...
- North Korean Launch Fails To Put Anything Into Orbit
Sunday's failure of an improved version of the North Korean Taepo-Dong-2 has deprived U.S. intelligence agencies from assessing performance of the vehicle's third stage. This is deemed critical to determining the precise threat the vehicle poses...
- Atlas 5 Rocket Successfully Launches Military Satellite
It was a perfect Friday night , April 3,2009 flight for the Atlas 5 rocket, completing a military mission that put an advanced communications spacecraft into the sky to serve U.S. forces deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Technical challenges had held...
- Nasa's Ares I-x Rocket Launches For Flight Test
NASA's 327-foot (100 m) tall ARes I-X rocket launched at 11:30 a.m. from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday. The powered flight lasted for two minutes, at the end of which, the rocket's first stage, a four-segment solid rocket booster,...
- India Successfully Launched Gslv Mark-iii
India took a giant leap forward toward its ambitious goal of sending humans into space by launching an unmanned crew capsule with a powerful rocket. ISRO [Indian Space Research Organization] launched the 630-ton rocket from its facility at Sriharikota...
Astronomy
Multi-tasking satellite deployed by 50th ILS Proton
A Proton rocket blasted off from Kazakhstan 3 April ,2009 and deposited a versatile European communications satellite into orbit, beginning a 15-year mission that will introduce a state-of-the-art service to beam live television to cell phones, iPods and cars across Europe.
The 191-foot-tall rocket left the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 1624 GMT (12:24 p.m. EDT), turning northeast from the launch pad and tearing through the night sky on the power of six first stage RD-276 engines.
Eutelsat's 13,000-pound W2A spacecraft was bolted atop the rocket for the nine-hour mission.
The Proton's three core stages thrust W2A on a high-speed suborbital trajectory 10 minutes after liftoff.
The Breeze M upper stage, fueled by an explosive mix of hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, took over the flight and ignited for its first burn to place the payload into a low-altitude parking orbit.
The W2A satellite was deployed at about 0134 GMT Saturday (9:34 p.m. EDT Friday).
ILS markets the Proton rocket to international customers and manages commercial launches of the venerable booster.
After Friday's launch, the ILS backlog now stands at 22 missions. The next commercial Proton will launch the ProtoStar 2 direct-to-home broadcasting satellite that will cover India and Southeast Asia. That flight is scheduled for the middle of May, according to an ILS spokesperson
- Indian Rocket Launches Israeli-built Spy Satellite
India launched a closely-guarded Israeli-built radar spy satellite Monday to begin gathering valuable intelligence data from a 342-mile-high perch above the planet, regardless of lighting and weather conditions. The country's 15th Polar Satellite...
- North Korean Launch Fails To Put Anything Into Orbit
Sunday's failure of an improved version of the North Korean Taepo-Dong-2 has deprived U.S. intelligence agencies from assessing performance of the vehicle's third stage. This is deemed critical to determining the precise threat the vehicle poses...
- Atlas 5 Rocket Successfully Launches Military Satellite
It was a perfect Friday night , April 3,2009 flight for the Atlas 5 rocket, completing a military mission that put an advanced communications spacecraft into the sky to serve U.S. forces deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Technical challenges had held...
- Nasa's Ares I-x Rocket Launches For Flight Test
NASA's 327-foot (100 m) tall ARes I-X rocket launched at 11:30 a.m. from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday. The powered flight lasted for two minutes, at the end of which, the rocket's first stage, a four-segment solid rocket booster,...
- India Successfully Launched Gslv Mark-iii
India took a giant leap forward toward its ambitious goal of sending humans into space by launching an unmanned crew capsule with a powerful rocket. ISRO [Indian Space Research Organization] launched the 630-ton rocket from its facility at Sriharikota...