Page 24 - Space Test Program News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

If you would like to see more articles like this please support our coverage of the space program by becoming a Spaceflight Now Member. If everyone who enjoys our website helps fund it, we can expand and improve our coverage further. A technician at Rocket Lab’s launch base in New Zealand works with an Electron booster. Credit: Rocket Lab Rocket Lab is set to launch a small U.S. military technology demonstration satellite from New Zealand Thursday on the company’s first flight since a second stage failure doomed a commercial mission in May. The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Monolith ...

The company's Electron rocket launched a small satellite for the U.S. military early this morning (July 29), acing its first mission since suffering a failure in mid-May. The two-stage Electron rose off a pad at Rocket Lab's New Zealand launch site, on the North Island's Mahia Peninsula, at 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT; 6 p.m. local New Zealand time), carrying a demonstration satellite called Monolith for the U.S. Space Force. "We are off the pad and on our way to space once again, with successful liftoff from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1," Rocket Lab senior communication advisor Murielle Baker said...

Virgin Orbit has kicked off commercial service with a successful LauncherOne mission on Wednesday, June 30.  As part of Virgin Orbit’s air-launch system, carrier aircraft Cosmic Girl took off from a flight runway at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California at 6:50 a.m. PDT. Cosmic Girl, a modified Boeing 747, dropped the rocket at 7:47 a.m. PDT, when it had reached about 45,000 feet in altitude.  LauncherOne separated cleanly and ignited its first stage engine, then completed stage separation. Satellites for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), SatRevolution and the Royal Netherla...

Virgin Orbit is getting ready to launch its next mission by the end of June. This is the first time that Virgin Orbit is flying after its first orbital launch in January.

We're heading into a quiet week for rocket launches but some long-delayed missions could finally get the break they need and get into orbit. One of the missions will see Virgin Orbit do an air launch.