Celestis: Enterprise Flight Remains On Course

January 9, 2024Posted inAviation and Space News, Space News, United Launch Alliance, Vulcan
ULA’s Vulcan lifting off in the early hours of January 8, 2024.
Photo: Charles Boyer, FMN

Celestis, the Texas company that provides space-based memorial services for the families of loved ones is reporting that its Enterprise Flight payload launched on ULA’s Vulcan rocket Monday morning is successful and traveling 85 million miles (297 mil km) from Earth into deep space.

ULA’s Vulcan lifting off in the early hours of January 8, 2024.
Photo: Charles Boyer, FMN

Celestis, the Texas company that provides space-based memorial services for the families of loved ones is reporting that its Enterprise Flight payload launched on ULA’s Vulcan rocket Monday morning is successful and traveling 85 million miles (297 mil km) from Earth into deep space.

ULA: Most Vulcan Systems Have Atlas or Delta Heritage

January 5, 2024Posted inAviation and Space News, United Launch Alliance, Vulcan
Graphic showing components of ULA Vulcan Centaur
Graphic: United Launch Alliance

In a press conference today leading up to the maiden launch of the ULA Vulcan in the early hours of Monday morning, ULA Vice President of Government and Commercial Programs Gary Wentz stated that the vast majority of the new rocket is either flight-proven or a variant of flight-proven hardware. He said that “the only hardware that hasn’t flown prior to this flight is the BE-4 engine. All the other or variants thereof have flown on Atlas or Delta flights, missions for other customers.”

Vulcan Rolled Out To Launch Pad, Set To Go Early Monday

January 5, 2024Posted inAviation and Space News, Space News, United Launch Alliance, Vulcan
ULA Vulcan on the pad
Vulcan on the launch pad at SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on January 8, 2023
Photo by TJ Waller / Florida Media Now

United Launch Alliance moved its new Vulcan rocket to the launch pad at SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force station this afternoon. Vulcan will make its maiden launch at 2:18 am EST Monday January 8. The latest forecasts call for an 85% chance of acceptable launch conditions weather-wise, leaving only a 15% Probability of Violation of weather criteria. That forecast will likely be updated by the 45th Weather Wing of the US Space Force as soon as tomorrow and is subject to change.

ULA’s Vulcan Passes Launch Readiness Review, Cleared for Flight

January 4, 2024Posted inSpace News, United Launch Alliance, US Space Force, Vulcan
ULA Centaur stacked atop Vulcan Booster
United Launch Alliance (ULA) hoists the Certification-1 (Cert-1) payloads atop the Vulcan rocket in the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) adjacent to Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Photo courtesy of United Launch Alliance.

United Launch Alliance announced today that they have concluded their Launch Readiness Review for the maiden launch of their Vulcan rocket and that the mission has been cleared to proceed to its planned liftoff at 2:18 am EST on Monday, January 8th. They also added that the weather at liftoff time currently has only a 15% Probability of Violation at launch time, meaning that forecasters are calling for an 85% chance of acceptable launch conditions. The new rocket will carry the Astrobiotics Peregrine lunar lander built under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program and a secondary payload of memorials for Celestis.

SpaceX Launches Ovzon 3 From Cape Canaveral

January 4, 2024Posted inFalcon 9, Space News, SpaceX
SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 4, 2024. Photo: Charles Boyer
SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 4, 2024. The missio n is carrying a powerful telecommunications satellite for the Swedish company Ovzon
Photo: Charles Boyer / FMN

A SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying a telecommunications satellite for Swedish-American company Ovzon lifted off from Pad SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Station at 6:04pm EST this evening. After carrying its part of the mission, the booster used for the mission returned for a successful landing at Space-X’s Landing Zone 1 only a short distance away.

A True Space Jellyfish Is Rare …But You Might See One Tomorrow

January 2, 2024Posted inSpace News
A space jellyfish as seen in May 2022.
A space jellyfish as seen from 110 miles away in the predawn sky. It appears as an expanding tear in the fabric of the night sky. Photo: Mark Stone/FMN

Cape Canaveral, FL– January 2, 2024 .There’s a pretty good chance that tomorrow night’s Falcon 9 launch will produce a beautiful phenomenon known as a “space jellyfish”. Many observers, who believe they have frequently seen the phenomenon called a jellyfish before, actually saw something else instead….

What’s In Store for the First Launch of 2024? Only the most powerful GEO satellite ever…..

January 2, 2024Posted inAviation and Space News, Falcon 9, Space News, SpaceX
A Falcon 9 Launches from LC 40
A SpaceX Falcon9 rocket lifts off from pad LC40. Image by Richard P. Gallagher/FMN
Next Up: The Ovzon-3 mission is scheduled to launch on 1-3-2024 at 6:04pm from LC40  

The Ovzon-3 mission involves the launch of the first privately funded and developed Swedish geostationary satellite. As you can imagine, it’s quite a big deal for Sweden, as the country joins the international community of commercial spaceflight.