A NASA space science mission grounded for nearly two years by problems with its Pegasus rocket is now set to launch in October amid questions about the future of that rocket.
NASA awarded a launch contract to SpaceX July 8 for the launch of a small astrophysics mission as the company offered a Falcon 9 at a lower price than a much smaller rocket.
A persistent problem with a Pegasus rocket will keep a long-delayed NASA space science mission on the ground until at least this spring.
NASA hopes to get two long-delayed space science missions launched in the first few months of 2019, one of which will go on one of two back-to-back Falcon Heavy missions.
Faced with growing competition from startups entering the field, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems is looking to reduce costs on its existing Pegasus and Minotaur rockets.
Stratolaunch expects to conduct the first flight of its giant aircraft this summer as it develops a broad spectrum of launch services that will make use of it, the company said April 16.
An agreement to do engine testing at a NASA center is the latest sign that Stratolaunch is considering developing its own launch vehicle for its giant aircraft.
Orbital ATK has no plans to phase out its Pegasus rocket despite limited demand for the small launch vehicle.
In its first flight in nearly three and a half years, an Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket successfully launched eight satellites for NASA Dec. 15 that will be used to improve hurricane forecasts.
Orbital Sciences will launch a small NASA heliophysics mission aboard the venerable Pegasus XL air-launched rocket in 2017 under a $56.3 million contract award.
Orbital Sciences will launch eight Earth observing nanosatellites for NASA in October 2016 aboard its air-launched Pegasus rocket.
A solar observatory built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems’ Advanced Technology Center arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., for integration with an Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL.
WASHINGTON — The cancellation of NASA’s Gravity and Extreme Magnetism Small Explorer (GEMS) X-ray telescope mission could cost up to 150 Orbital Sciences Corp. employees their jobs and may force the Dulles, Va.-based satellite and launch vehicle manufacturer to retire its reliable but underbooked Pegasus XL rocket.
NASA has postponed the launch of its Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission for an unspecified number of weeks because of suspected problems with its Pegasus launch vehicle’s flight software, the agency said March 16.
I recently read your editorial “Don’t Shortchange ALASA” [Nov. 21, page 18], with which I generally agree. However, I was dismayed by your description of our Pegasus program as the “one qualified success” of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in space launch vehicles and by the inattention to the historical facts of its development and operations. Contrary to your interpretation, the Pegasus program, as measured against virtually any common space industry benchmark, has been an “unqualified” success for more than two decades.
Dulles, Va.-based Orbital Sciences Corp. said July 1 that it has booked an order to launch NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft in 2012 aboard a Pegasus XL rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
