SpaceX Falcon 9 blasts off from California

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a small science satellite for Canada is seen as it is launched from a newly refurbished launch pad in Vandenberg Air Force Station September 29, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Gene Blevins

By Irene Klotz

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California | Sun Sep 29, 2013 1:15pm EDT

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) - An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Sunday to test upgrades needed for planned commercial launch services.

The 22-story rocket, built and flown by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, soared off a newly refurbished, leased launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Station at noon EDT/1600 GMT.

The Falcon 9 blazed through clear blue skies out over the Pacific Ocean, aiming toward an orbit that flies over Earth's poles. Perched on top of the rocket was a small science and communications satellite called Cassiope, built by MDA Corp of Canada.

The upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 has engines that are 60 percent more powerful than previous versions, longer fuel tanks, new avionics, new software and other features intended to boost lift capacity and simplify operations for commercial service.

Privately owned SpaceX has contracts for more than 50 launches of its new Falcon 9 and planned Falcon Heavy rockets.

Ten of those missions are to fly cargo to the International Space Station for NASA. The other customers are non-U.S. government agencies and commercial satellite operators.

SpaceX also has two contracts for small U.S. Air Force satellites but is looking to break the monopoly United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has on flying big military satellites as well.

SpaceX already has flown three Dragon capsules to the station and made two other successful test flights with its older version Falcons.

The company advertises Falcon 9 launch services for $56.5 million. Company founder and chief executive Elon Musk said he would like to discount that price by recycling and reusing the Falcon's first stage. Currently, the spent boosters splash down into the ocean and cannot be reused.

Toward that goal, SpaceX has been working on related program called Grasshopper to fly a booster back to its launch site. Engineers have not yet tested how the system would work over water but they may get a trial run during Sunday's Falcon 9 flight.

(Editing by Bill Trott)

View the original article here

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from California

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a small science satellite for Canada is seen as it is launched from a newly refurbished launch pad in Vandenberg Air Force Station September 29, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Gene Blevins

By Irene Klotz

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California | Sun Sep 29, 2013 9:22pm EDT

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) - An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Sunday to test upgrades before commercial satellite launch services begin later this year.

The 22-story rocket, built and flown by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, soared off a newly refurbished, leased launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Station at noon (1600 GMT).

The Falcon 9 blazed through clear blue skies out over the Pacific Ocean, its water vapor trail visible even as the rocket left the atmosphere.

"It went better than expected. It was incredibly smooth," SpaceX founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk told Reuters after the launch.

Nestled inside the rocket's new 17-foot (5-meter) diameter nose cone was a small Canadian science satellite called Cassiope that initially was to fly on SpaceX's now-discontinued Falcon 1 launcher in 2008.

"It's certainly a huge relief to have successfully delivered Cassiope to orbit. It's been weighing on me quite heavily," Musk said.

Cassiope, which is designed to monitor the space environment around Earth and serve as a communications satellite, and five secondary payloads were delivered into their intended orbits, Musk told reporters on a conference call.

As an experiment, both of the rocket's two stages were restarted during flight.

Musk is particularly interested in developing the technology to fly the Falcon's first stage back to the launch site or have it gently splash down in the water so its motors can be recovered, refurbished and reflown. Currently, after delivering their payloads into orbit, the boosters tumble back toward Earth and essentially explode mid-air before crashing into the sea.

"The most revolutionary thing about the new Falcon 9 is the potential ability to recover the boost phase, which is almost three-quarters of the cost of the rocket," Musk said.

Neither engine restart test went perfectly, but engineers were able to get enough data to plan on a demonstration flight next year.

"The most important thing is we now believe we have all the pieces of the puzzle," Musk said.

The upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 has engines that are 60 percent more powerful than previous versions, longer fuel tanks, new avionics and software and other features intended to boost lift capacity and simplify operations for commercial service.

Privately-owned SpaceX has contracts for more than 50 launches of its new Falcon 9 and planned Falcon Heavy rockets.

Ten of those missions are to fly cargo to the International Space Station for NASA. The other customers are non-U.S. government agencies and commercial satellite operators.

SpaceX also has two contracts for small U.S. Air Force satellites but is looking to break the monopoly that United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has on flying big military satellites as well.

SpaceX already has flown three Dragon capsules to the station and made two other successful test flights with its older version Falcons.

Falcon 9's next mission is to put a communications satellite into orbit for SES World Skies. The launch is targeted for next month from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

"We accomplished a lot today," Musk said. "We have a little bit of work to do obviously, but all-in-all I think it's been a great day."

(Editing by Paul Simao)

View the original article here

SpaceX Falcon 9 blasts off from California

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a small science satellite for Canada is seen as it is launched from a newly refurbished launch pad in Vandenberg Air Force Station September 29, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Gene Blevins

By Irene Klotz

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California | Sun Sep 29, 2013 1:15pm EDT

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) - An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Sunday to test upgrades needed for planned commercial launch services.

The 22-story rocket, built and flown by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, soared off a newly refurbished, leased launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Station at noon EDT/1600 GMT.

The Falcon 9 blazed through clear blue skies out over the Pacific Ocean, aiming toward an orbit that flies over Earth's poles. Perched on top of the rocket was a small science and communications satellite called Cassiope, built by MDA Corp of Canada.

The upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 has engines that are 60 percent more powerful than previous versions, longer fuel tanks, new avionics, new software and other features intended to boost lift capacity and simplify operations for commercial service.

Privately owned SpaceX has contracts for more than 50 launches of its new Falcon 9 and planned Falcon Heavy rockets.

Ten of those missions are to fly cargo to the International Space Station for NASA. The other customers are non-U.S. government agencies and commercial satellite operators.

SpaceX also has two contracts for small U.S. Air Force satellites but is looking to break the monopoly United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has on flying big military satellites as well.

SpaceX already has flown three Dragon capsules to the station and made two other successful test flights with its older version Falcons.

The company advertises Falcon 9 launch services for $56.5 million. Company founder and chief executive Elon Musk said he would like to discount that price by recycling and reusing the Falcon's first stage. Currently, the spent boosters splash down into the ocean and cannot be reused.

Toward that goal, SpaceX has been working on related program called Grasshopper to fly a booster back to its launch site. Engineers have not yet tested how the system would work over water but they may get a trial run during Sunday's Falcon 9 flight.

(Editing by Bill Trott)

View the original article here

Joint Russian-U.S. crew blasts off for space station

By Irene Klotz

Wed Sep 25, 2013 5:51pm EDT

n">(Reuters) - A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday to deliver three new crew members to the International Space Station.

The Soyuz rocket and capsule lifted off at 4:58 p.m. EDT on an express route to the station, which orbits about 250 miles above Earth.

Veteran Russian commander Oleg Kotov and rookies Sergey Ryazanskiy of Russia and Michael Hopkins of the United States were expected to reach the outpost less than six hours after liftoff. Only two other crews have made the journey as quickly. Previous Soyuz capsules took two days of orbital maneuvers to reach the station.

The arrival of Kotov, Ryazanskiy and Hopkins will return the station to its full, six-member live-aboard crew. Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano have been running the station on their own since September 10.

The skeleton crew was to have overseen the arrival of a commercial cargo ship on a test flight to the station this week.

But a software problem left the unmanned Cygnus freighter unable to receive navigation data properly from the station, delaying its arrival until no earlier than Saturday to avoid conflicting with the Soyuz's berthing. Typically, at least 48 hours are needed between spacecraft dockings.

The cargo ship, built and launched by Orbital Sciences with backing from NASA, blasted off aboard an Antares rocket on September 18 from a new launch pad on the Virginia coast.

"As a crew we're very excited to be up there when Cygnus rendezvous and docks and (we're) looking forward to opening that hatch," Hopkins said on Tuesday during a prelaunch press conference.

Hopkins and Ryazanskiy are making their first flights. Kotov, who will take over command of the station when Yurchikhin leaves in November, has made two previous long-duration missions on the station.

During their five-month stay, Kotov and Ryazanskiy are scheduled to make three spacewalks, the first of which will include taking an unlighted Olympic torch outside the airlock to promote the Sochi Olympic Games in Russia, which open in February 2014.

"Our goal here is to make it look spectacular," Kotov, speaking through a translator, told reporters.

"We'd like to showcase our Olympic torch in space. We will try to do it in a beautiful manner. Millions of people will see it live on TV and they will see the station and see how we work," Kotov said.

The torch is scheduled to be delivered to the station on November 6 by the next crew launching to the outpost. Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano will then bring it back to Earth when they return home four days later so the traditional torch relay can continue.

"Unfortunately we cannot light it in space so we will simply take it to space and take pictures and some video with the station and the Earth in the background," Ryazanskiy said in a prelaunch NASA interview.

An Olympic torch previously flew aboard NASA's now-retired space shuttle Atlantis prior to the 1996 Olympics.

(Reporting by Irene Klotz, Editing by Jane Sutton and Cynthia Osterman)

View the original article here

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from California

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a small science satellite for Canada is seen as it is launched from a newly refurbished launch pad in Vandenberg Air Force Station September 29, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Gene Blevins

By Irene Klotz

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California | Sun Sep 29, 2013 9:22pm EDT

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) - An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Sunday to test upgrades before commercial satellite launch services begin later this year.

The 22-story rocket, built and flown by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, soared off a newly refurbished, leased launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Station at noon (1600 GMT).

The Falcon 9 blazed through clear blue skies out over the Pacific Ocean, its water vapor trail visible even as the rocket left the atmosphere.

"It went better than expected. It was incredibly smooth," SpaceX founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk told Reuters after the launch.

Nestled inside the rocket's new 17-foot (5-meter) diameter nose cone was a small Canadian science satellite called Cassiope that initially was to fly on SpaceX's now-discontinued Falcon 1 launcher in 2008.

"It's certainly a huge relief to have successfully delivered Cassiope to orbit. It's been weighing on me quite heavily," Musk said.

Cassiope, which is designed to monitor the space environment around Earth and serve as a communications satellite, and five secondary payloads were delivered into their intended orbits, Musk told reporters on a conference call.

As an experiment, both of the rocket's two stages were restarted during flight.

Musk is particularly interested in developing the technology to fly the Falcon's first stage back to the launch site or have it gently splash down in the water so its motors can be recovered, refurbished and reflown. Currently, after delivering their payloads into orbit, the boosters tumble back toward Earth and essentially explode mid-air before crashing into the sea.

"The most revolutionary thing about the new Falcon 9 is the potential ability to recover the boost phase, which is almost three-quarters of the cost of the rocket," Musk said.

Neither engine restart test went perfectly, but engineers were able to get enough data to plan on a demonstration flight next year.

"The most important thing is we now believe we have all the pieces of the puzzle," Musk said.

The upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 has engines that are 60 percent more powerful than previous versions, longer fuel tanks, new avionics and software and other features intended to boost lift capacity and simplify operations for commercial service.

Privately-owned SpaceX has contracts for more than 50 launches of its new Falcon 9 and planned Falcon Heavy rockets.

Ten of those missions are to fly cargo to the International Space Station for NASA. The other customers are non-U.S. government agencies and commercial satellite operators.

SpaceX also has two contracts for small U.S. Air Force satellites but is looking to break the monopoly that United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has on flying big military satellites as well.

SpaceX already has flown three Dragon capsules to the station and made two other successful test flights with its older version Falcons.

Falcon 9's next mission is to put a communications satellite into orbit for SES World Skies. The launch is targeted for next month from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

"We accomplished a lot today," Musk said. "We have a little bit of work to do obviously, but all-in-all I think it's been a great day."

(Editing by Paul Simao)

View the original article here

Biggest U.S. rocket blasts off with spy satellite

1 of 7. An unmanned Delta 4 Heavy rocket, the largest booster in in the U.S. fleet, lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California August 28, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Gene Blevins

LOS ANGELES | Wed Aug 28, 2013 9:09pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An unmanned Delta 4-Heavy rocket, the largest in the U.S. fleet, blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Wednesday to put a classified spy satellite into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office, officials said Wednesday.

The 23-story-tall rocket lifted off at 11:03 a.m. local time/1803 GMT from a launch pad originally built for, but never used by, NASA's now-retired space shuttles.

No details about the rocket's spy-satellite payload were released.

With three main booster-rocket cores, the Delta 4-Heavy is capable of putting a satellite the size of school bus into an orbit around Earth's poles.

Wednesday's launch was the second Delta 4-Heavy to fly from California. The rocket, built by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., also has flown five times from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

"We are truly honored to deliver this critical asset to orbit," United Launch Alliance vice president Jim Sponnick said in a statement, praising the groups involved in the launch effort.

(Reporting by Irene Klotz from Cape Canaveral, Florida; Editing by Steve Gorman and Ken Wills)

View the original article here