Category Archives: Rockets

Amateur/Student Satellite, Rockets, Space business

Videos: Rocket Lab successfully launches Electron rocket with commercial payloads

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Rocket Lab successfully launched an Electron rocket last night (US time) and put 7 small satellites into low earth orbit (see also earlier posting): Rocket Lab reaches orbit again, deploys more satellites | Rocket Lab –

The satellites included:

A clip from the webcast when the satellites were being deployed:

Here is the complete Rocket Lab webcast of the launch through spacecraft deployment:

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Telescopes and Binoculars at Amazon

Events, Rockets, Space Systems

Lots of rocket launches planned for next 10 days

Several rocket launches around the world are scheduled for the next couple of weeks. Most of these will be webcast.

** Rocket Lab Electron – Nov.10/11, 10 p.m.-2 a.m. EST (0300-0700 GMT on 11th) – Rocket Lab is ready to put several commercial smallsats into low earth orbit on the third Electron launch from New Zealand (see earlier posting).

** Northrop Grumman Antares – Nov.15 – Thursday – 4:49 a.m. EST (0949 GMT) Wallops Island, Virginia. The Northrop Grumman Antares rocket will send a Cygnus spacecraft with cargo to the ISS.

** SpaceX Falcon 9 – Nov. 15, 3:46-5:29 p.m. EST (2046-2229 GMT Kennedy Space Center. The F9 will send the Es’hail 2 communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit for Es’hailSat of Qatar.

** Russian Soyuz – Nov.16, 1:14 p.m. EST (1814 GMT) – The Soyuz rocket will send a Progress cargo spacecraft to the ISS.

** SpaceX Falcon 9 – Nov.19, 1:32 p.m. EST; 10:32 a.m. PST (1832 GMT) Vandenberg AFB, California. The F9 will put over 70 satellites from 50+ customers into low earth orbit on the SSO-A mission organized by Spaceflight Services.

Other launches coming up but no times fixed yet:

  • Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk. 3 (GSLV Mk.3-D2) – Nov.14? Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota – India’s biggest rocket is to launch the GSAT 29 communications from .
  • Chinese Long March 3B – Nov.19? Xichang, China – The LM-3B is to put 2 Beidou navigation satellites into medium earth orbit.
  • Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL air launch out of Kennedy Space Center. An attempt to launch the ICON spacecraft to study the Earth’s Ionosphere was scrubbed last week and no new target date is set yet.

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Rockets, Space business

Rocket Lab: Launch window opens Nov.11, Interview with Peter Beck, New Zealand factory tour

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Rocket Lab is scheduled to launch the third Electron rocket from New Zealand on Sunday, November 11th, during a window between 16:00 – 20:00 NZDT (12:00 – 4:00 am EST) [Whoops, miscalculated. Actual time is 10 pm EST Nov.10 – 2:00 am EST Nov.11] . The Rocket Lab website will provide a webcast of the launch. Find updates on the countdown at Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) | Twitter.

The Everyday Astronaut Time Dodd recently posted an interesting interview with Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck:

And here is a tour of the company’s factory:

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Rockets, Space business, Space Settlement

Video: Gwynne Shotwell of SpaceX interviewed by Matt Desch of Iridium

At a symposium held this week by AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) dealing with the organization’s high school STEM initiatives, there was an on-stage interview with SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell by Iridium CEO Matt Desch:

SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell talks about successes and failures in their rocket program, encouraging girls to pursue technical and scientific careers and “build big machines. She tells teachers at the AOPA High School Aviation STEM Symposium about the need for kids with training in science, technology, engineering and math.

[ Nov.9.2018: For some reason, the interview video unfortunately was taken down from Youtube. Will keep a lookout for a re-posting of it.

I did fined this clip taken from the video showing the SpaceX highlights reel presented by Shotwell:

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In a video that she presents early in the interview, there is a brief but interesting clip from a camera on a Falcon 9 fairing as it separates from the upper stage:

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The High Frontier: An Easier Way

Rockets

Videos: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket creates light show over Southern California

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from the Vandenberg AFB on Sunday night with an Argentine radar earth observation satellite. The satellite was successfully placed into a low earth polar orbit. The rocket created a marvelous light show over Southern California, particularly when the upper stage separated from the first stage booster, which flew back to Vandenberg for a successful landing on the ground there. All previous boosters that returned for landings after launches from VAFB set down onto sea platforms.

The launch came just after sunset and created a marvelous light show over Southern California, particularly when the upper stage separated from the booster and the booster began its descent back to VAFB. Here are some videos posted of the event:

In this video, at 1:30 the staging occurs. And around 4:45 the booster fires its engines on its return flight.

Segments of the SpaceX webcast:

More about the launch:

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Einstein’s Monsters: The Life and Times of Black Holes