The Orbital Sciences Antares rocket had its maiden flight from Wallops Island space center today on test mission A-ONE.
The NASA mission was designed to last just over 18 minutes and demonstrated Orbital and Wallops ability to launch a spacecraft into low earth orbit with enough mass to provide re-supply flights to the ISS.
Orbital Sciences Corporation successfully launched the first of its Antares rockets today from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Photo Credit: Mark Usciak / AmericaSpace
WALLOPS ISLAND, Va — Orbital Sciences Corp. has successfully launched its Antares rocket on the long-delayed “A-ONE” test flight from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Va. Liftoff of the 133-foot-tall vehicle – the first cryogenically-propelled rocket ever built and flown by Orbital – occurred on time at 5:00:02 p.m. EDT, right at the start of the launch window. Antares’ beautiful ascent into the early evening sky has surely raised an unbearable weight from the shoulders of Orbital, whose next focus after this mission is to conduct a full-up demo of its Cygnus cargo ship to the International Space Station, possibly as soon as June. READ MORE »
The launch countdown was proceeding according to schedule with just a few minutes remaining before launch when the problem cropped up. Photo Credit: Bennett Scarborough
Two days after a disappointing scrub, late in the countdown for its “A-ONE” maiden voyage, the Antares booster stands ready for a second launch attempt from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Va., at the weekend. On Wednesday afternoon, at 4:48 p.m. EDT – a mere 12 minutes ahead of the scheduled liftoff time – Orbital Sciences Corp. flight controllers scrubbed the attempt after a data umbilical linking the Transporter Erector Launcher (TEL) to the rocket’s second stage had prematurely disconnected. Orbital’s Executive Vice President Frank Culbertson, who serves as Mission Director for the A-ONE flight, described the issue as “fairly straightforward” to resolve and engineers are presently pushing towards Saturday 20 April at 5:00 p.m. for the next attempt. READ MORE »
All dressed up and nowhere to go…at least, not yet. Orbital’s Antares booster waits patiently on Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), ahead of its maiden voyage. Today’s launch attempt was scrubbed in the final minutes of the countdown. Photo Credit: Mark Usciak / AmericaSpace
Despite fluctuating worries about cloudy weather conditions, it was the premature separation of a loose second-stage umbilical which ended today’s attempt to get Orbital Sciences’ new Antares rocket into orbit on its “A-ONE” maiden voyage. The countdown to launch from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Va., proceeded normally until less than 30 minutes before the scheduled 5:00 p.m. EDT liftoff time, when “an anomaly” was noted and the long-awaited launch was called off. Early indications are that a delay of perhaps 48 hours will be necessary to ready Antares for another attempt, although this has yet to be officially confirmed. READ MORE »
Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket is raised to the vertical position at Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on 6 April 2013. Photo Credit: Mark Usciak / AmericaSpace
In the early days of space exploration, the frequent term of the week was “A-OK,” but for Orbital Sciences Corp. this week everything will center on “A-ONE,” the maiden voyage of the company’s long-awaited Antares launch vehicle. Liftoff of the 133-foot-tall rocket is scheduled to occur from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Va., at 5 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, 17 April. Final preparations are ongoing and have been highlighted by a 29-second hot-fire test of Antares’ twin AJ-26 engines on 22 February and, most recently, the one-mile rollout of the vehicle from its assembly building to the pad on 6 April. READ MORE »
SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS-1 Launch towards the ISS
The SpaceX launch of the Falcon 9 on the first of the NASA COTS missions code named CRS-1 took place at 8:35pm on Sunday evening. Night launches always create challenging conditions for launch photography, but also some offer some great opportunities as well.
One of the great shots is the long exposure streak shot as the rocket launches and heads off towards the east into the skies. This was enhanced on this launch by some thin clouds that diffused the flames from the rocket engines as it passed through them.
Our launch gallery includes the erection of the Falcon 9 on the pad a few hours before the launch followed by the launch itself. READ MORE »
SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS-1 lifting into place on the Launch Pad
When watching the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch on Sunday there was no mention of any problems during the rockets ascent into orbit, but it was later revealed that the first stage suffered an engine failure in one of the 9 merlin engines lifting the rocket into space.
The engine failure occurred one minute 19 seconds into the flight, almost half way through the burn of the first stage. This turned out not to be an issue as the Falcon 9 has been designed to achieve orbit on just 7 of the 9 engines. The Dragon capsule was inserted into orbit at the precise position that was planned, enabling it to chase down the International Space Station for the docking that took place today.
This was the second time in two launches that there has been an engine failure. The Delta IV with the GPS IIF-3 satellite had a partial engine failure just 3 days before the SpaceX Falcon launch. Fortunately neither problem was terminal and both missions were successful.
Continue reading for the official announcement from SpaceX READ MORE »
SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS-1 Launches from Cape Canaveral Florida
With an instantaneous launch window SpaceX only had one shot at getting the Falcon 9 off the ground tonight and they managed it perfectly. With a by the book countdown everything went exactly as planned until T-3 seconds when the 9 Merlin engines roared into life. Three seconds later the Falcon 9 Rocket was on its way into space.
The first stage hauled the capsule with 882 lbs of supplies into the skies on a nominal flight path. When the propellant was depleted the engines shut down, the first and second stages separated and the second stage ignited.
The second stage powered the Dragon capsule into orbit with a six minute burn. After achieving an orbit of between 192 and just over 200 miles the second stage separated from the Dragon spacecraft and the capsule was then in successful orbit.
A few minutes after the separation the Dragon deployed its solar panels once again everything went exactly to plan. The entire launch was a 100% total success.
The Dragon will rendezvous with the International Space Station on Wednesday 10th October at 7:22am EDT (11:22 GMT).
Well done SpaceX. NASA now has a proven supply spacecraft to transport supplies and experiments to and from the ISS once again.
Continue reading for the SpaceX press release: READ MORE »
NASA SpaceX CRS-1 Mission Patch
Today sees the launch of the first commercial cargo mission for NASA to resupply the International Space Station when a SpaceX Falcon 9 will launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:35pm EDT. The mission code named CRS-1 will see the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster launch the Dragon cargo capsule up to chase down, rendezvous and dock with the ISS.
Due to the orbital requirements the Falcon 9 must launch exactly as the ISS is passing overhead to allow it to be inserted into orbit at precisely the right point to make the rendezvous. This means that there is no launch window for this mission and the rocket must launch at exactly 8:35pm EDT (0:35 GMT). If the launch goes to plan then the Dragon capsule is scheduled to dock with the ISS on October 10th and to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and splash down in the Pacific Ocean on October 28th.
Continue reading about the NASA and SpaceX CRS-1 mission, and view the launch pad image gallery: READ MORE »
Freedom-7 Alan Shepard ready to blast into space
50 years ago today saw the first USA spaceman. Alan Shepard was boosted out of this world atop a Redstone Rocket in the Mercury capsule. The mission code named Freedom 7 was also know as MR3 (Mercury-Redstone 3) despite the fact that it was actually the 5th Mercury-Redstone launch from the Cape, and the second ‘manned’ flight. The first being MR2 carrying the chimpanzee Ham.
Preparations had been underway at launch pad 5 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for the launch of America’s first man in space. The Redstone booster was built at the Marshal Space Flight facility and transported to site where it was erected prior to being enshrouded with the launch gantry.
Some time later the capsule built by the McDonnell corporation was delivered to the pad and winched into place on top of the Redstone Booster. The rocket went through countless test and inspections before finally being declared fit for flight.
12th April 1961 Vostok 1 launches carrying Yuri Gargarin into Space
April the 12th is one of those days that is famous in the history of Space Exploration. It was on the 12th April 1961 that Yuri Gargarin made his one and only flight in a rocket to become the first man to ever leave earth to travel in outer space. The rocket, Vostok 1, was also the first spaceship to orbit the earth.
At 6:07 GMT the Baikonur Cosmodrome witnessed the roar of the rocket engines as the Vostok 1 spacecraft launched from the Russian space centre. Ten minutes at 6:17 later the main engine shuts down and Vostok 1 with Yuri Gargarin on board achieves earth orbit.
The mission lasted 108 minutes with the capsule landing about 10 minutes ahead of Yuri as the first man in space had ejected at 23,000 feet and returned to Earth by parachute.
12th April 1981 Space Shuttle Columbia STS-1 launches (Credit NASA)
Fast forward 20 years to April 12 1981 and sitting atop the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39 is the first ever Space Shuttle waiting to launch. Commander John Young and Pilot Richard Truly took off from LC-39A for the first flight of the revolutionary Space Shuttle, a space vehicle that took off like a rocket, but returned to earth like a plane.
Space Shuttle Columbia (code named OV-102) was the orbiter for this test flight which lasted 2 days 6 hours and 20 minutes. During the flight the Columbia orbited the Earth 37 times, before finally landing on runway 23 at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
SpaceX Falcon9 lift off from Cape Canaveral LC-40 with Dragon capsule on COTS 1 mission
Yesterday saw the successful and historic launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket boosting the Dragon cargo capsule into orbit. After orbiting the Earth and performing several manoeuvring tests the Dragon capsule executed a de-orbit burn and successfully re-entered the atmosphere and splashed down into the Pacific Ocean. The whole flight from launch to splashdown took just under 3 hours 20 minutes.
This was an incredible mission which managed to perform 100% of it’s milestones and targets, despite an expectation of 60-70% prior to launch. There were a number of firsts on this launch, the most notable was the fact that this was the first (Commercial Orbital Transport Services) COTS mission, and the first commercial spacecraft to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and land.
Youtube: Our launch day video
SLC-3 Cape Canaveral AFS site of the first Florida Space Coast rocket launch.
Here was where it all started for Florida’s Space Coast. On July 24th 1950 a Bumper 8 rocket was successfully launched from SLC-3 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This monumentous event was the first step towards putting a man on the Moon and our current Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs with men living in space for long periods of time.
Launch Pad 3 was built in the early 1950s alongside pads 1,2 and 4. Originally these were designated for the Snark Missile program, but Snarks were never launched from LC-3. The inaugural launch was july 24th 1950 and the missions were flown out in January 1958.
44 missions were flown from SLC-3 and included Bumper, Bomarc, Matador,X-17, and Polaris rockets and missiles.
After the launch pad was decommissioned it was used as a medical facility supporting the Project Mercury Missions. All that remains of this historic site are some scorch marks on the concrete and some bolt heads used to mount the rocket launch structure.
GF01 Glide Flight- 1st test flight of SpaceShip2 (credit Mark Greenberg)
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic VSS Enterprise flawlessly completed a test flight to become the World’s first manned commercial spaceflight on 10/10/10, a memorable date for a memorable event.
When fully operational Virgin Galactic will take tourists to the edge of space and then return back to earth. The experience will start out with the space ship mounted beneath the wings of the mothership WhiteKinghtTwo code named Eve. WhiteKinghtTwo will lift the space ship to a height of around 50,000 feet.
On attaining maximum altitude the space ship will separate from the mothership and, with the assistance of a hybrid rocket motor, will boost the ship into space. Once in orbit passengers will experience true zero gravity.
This does not come cheaply, of course, at $200,000 it is the price of a small house, but on the other hand you will join the elite ranks of astronauts who have shrugged off the effects of Earth’s gravitational pull…
The Virgin Galactic press release follows:
Cape Canaveral's first launch a Bumper 8 Rocket
July 24 1950 saw the inaugural rocket launch of a Bumper 8 rocket from Launch Pad 3 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida, USA. This heralded the switch from White Sands, New Mexico to Florida’s Space Coast and was the first of hundreds of missions culminating in Apollo putting men on the Moon, and the Space Shuttle opening new frontiers to humanity.
Along the way there have been many other programmes improving our understanding of both ourselves, our own environment, and of course exploring the boundaries of Space itself. Without the investment, experimentation and exploration operations of NASA and other bodies we would not have everyday items such as teflon on non-stick pans, or tin foil for cooking. Pushing back the barriers of Space has led to literally thousands of inventions that today we take for granted.
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