Tag Archives: ULA

Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft has passed the launch readiness review phase, clearing the way for the company to launch its second uncrewed test flight as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Starliner is scheduled to liftoff on Friday at 2:53 p.m. Eastern time at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida aboard United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket, the agency said Tuesday.

NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey will jointly launch a new land monitoring satellite on Sept. 16 to support natural resource management. The Landsat 9 spacecraft will operate alongside Landsat 8 to capture images of the land and help stakeholders manage water, crops, forests and other natural resources, the space agency said Tuesday.

The U.S. Space Force, Lockheed Martin and United Launch Alliance have finished encapsulation of the service branch's next missile detection and early warning satellite into a launch vehicle fairing platform and integrated the spacecraft with a ULA-built rocket. The fifth Space Based Infrared System is scheduled to lift off Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida aboard an Atlas V rocket, marking the first National Security Space Launch mission this year at the military facility.

Boeing has completed its formal requalification of the CST-100 Starliner’s flight software. With the qualification, Boeing will prepare for its next test flight.  Boeing’s starliner will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) during Orbital Flight Test-2, a second uncrewed flight test, in March 2021. “The work this team put into exhaustively wringing out our software is a defining moment for the program,” said John Vollmer.

NASA has completed the final design review of an Earth observation satellite designed to fly for the U.S. Space Force, Space Ref reported Monday. The space agency assessed multiple safety aspects of the Landsat-9 Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapter or ESPA Flight System and concluded the final design review on Dec. 15.

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has successfully completed its final launch of 2020, NROL-108. During the launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NRO used a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to transport NROL-108. “We are excited to partner with SpaceX again,” NRO principal deputy director Troy Meink said. 

The U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center handed control authority of the sixth Lockheed Martin-built Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite to Space Operations Command in late October. Space Vehicle 6 completes the AEHF satellite constellation designed to provide military leaders and warfighters jam-resistant communications and command and control capabilities during a nuclear war.

Brig. Gen. D. Jason Cothern, vice commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), said the U.S. Space Force will continue working with launch providers after selecting two contractors for a national security mission. The Space Force previously awarded contracts to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) to utilize the former’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) has announced that its Delta IV Heavy rocket has reached final preparations to launch the NROL-44 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to support national security. 

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 501 rocket carrying the USSF-7 mission for the U.S. Space Force launched on May 17, 9:14 a.m. EDT, from Space Launch Complex-41, the agency reported on Monday.