SRIHARIKOTA, India (ISRO PR) — ISRO carried out a major technology demonstration today (July 05, 2018), the first in a series of tests to qualify a Crew Escape System, which is a critical technology relevant for human spaceflight. The Crew Escape System is an emergency escape measure designed to quickly pull the crew module along with the astronauts to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of […]
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The schedule is subject to change. Please check with our friends at Spaceflight Now for updates. April 11 Launch Vehicle: PSLV Payload: IRNSS 1I navigation satellite Launch Time: TBA Launch Site: Satish Dhawan Space Center, India April 14/15 Launch Vehicle: Atlas V Payload: AFSPC 11 mission Launch Window: 6:00-10:00 p.m. EDT on 12th (2200-0200 GMT on 12th/13th) Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida The U.S. Air Force’s EAGLE […]
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy begins its first flight. (Credit: NASA)
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
The world’s launch providers have been extremely busy in the first quarter of 2018, with 31 orbital launches thus far. This is more than one third of the 90 launches conducted last year.
China leads the pack with 10 successful launches. The United States is close behind with a total of nine launches with one failure. The tenth American launch is scheduled for Monday afternoon from Florida.
Falcon 9 lifts off with Iridium Next 41-50 satellites. (Credit: SpaceX webcast)
SpaceX successfully launched 10 Iridium Next satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Friday morning.
Iridium-NEXT satellites 41-50 were successfully deployed from the booster’s second stage about an hour after the launch at 7:13 a.m. PDT. It was the fifth batch of 10 Iridium-NEXT satellites that SpaceX has orbited using three different first stage boosters.
Expedition 55 crew members Ricky Arnold, Drew Feustel and cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev. (Credit: NASA)
Below is the updated launch schedule through the end of April. The 17 scheduled launches include:
- 7 USA (6 Falcon 9, 1 Atlas V)
- 4 Russia (1 Soyuz, 1 Soyuz-2.1, 1 Proton, 1 Rockot)
- 3 India (2 GSLV Mk.2, 1 PSLV)
- 2 China (2 Long March 3B)
- 1 Europe (1 Ariane 5).
Soyuz rocket takes off from French Guiana on March 9, 2018. (Credit: Arianespace)
It was a successful week for launches around the world.
On Tuesday, SpaceX conducted its 50th launch of the Falcon 9 rocket. The booster orbited the 30W-6 communications satellite for Hispsat of Spain from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida. At 6 metric tons, it was the heaviest geosynchronous satellite ever launched by SpaceX.
On Friday, a Soyuz booster roared off the pad in French Guiana to deliver four O3b F4 communications satellites for SES. It was the third successful launch of Russia’s workhorse Soyuz rocket this year.
Below is the current launch schedule for March. In total, there are 8 launches planned for the month with 16 communications satellites, one meteorological satellite, and one crew mission to the International Space Station. The launches include: United States: 3 (2 Falcon 9, 1 Atlas V) Russia: 2 (Soyuz from Baikonur & French Guiana) Europe: 1 (Ariane 5) China: 1 (Long March 3B) India: 1 (GSLV Mk. 2) This schedule […]
China launched a satellite that will search for signals that could help scientists to predict earthquakes on Thursday. The China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite will study electromagnetic signals in Earth’s atmosphere and ionosphere to determine if they can be used to predict earthquakes. The Chinese-led mission is being conducted in cooperation with Italy. The spacecraft was launched aboard a Long March 2D booster from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. It was the […]
A busy day in space, so let’s get right to it: SpaceShipTwo Flies: Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Unity performed its seven glide flight this morning in Mojave. The flight appeared to go as planned based on what I could see from the ground and Virgin Galactic’s tweets; the space plane landed and rolled to a stop on runway 30. The pilots were Mark Stucky and Michael Masucci. This is the seventh […]
Falcon 9 carries the Dragon cargo ship into orbit. (Credit: NASA TV)
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
SpaceX had a banner year in 2017, launching a record 18 times and helping to propel the United States to the top of the global launch table with a perfect 29-0 record. The U.S. total made up 32.2 percent of 90 orbital launches worldwide, which was an increase over the 85 flights conducted in 2016.
The 29 American launches were a leap of seven over the 22 flights conducted the previous year. This is the highest number of American orbital launches since the 31 flights undertaken in 1999. However, that year the nation’s launch providers suffered four failures whereas they were perfect in 2017.