SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 late in the afternoon from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The payload was Northrop Grumman’s MRV-MEV-1 satellite servicing satellite. Liftoff was at 5:15 pm ET and into partly cloudy summer skies above the Space Coast. Orbit was achieved at T+07:55, and the payloads were successfully deployed at 35:34 elapsed minutes into the mission.
I went on a six-day trip to tour from Albuquerque through northeast Arizona into a bit of Utah before looping back to where we started. Mainly, I wanted to see the place, visit the best parts, and take some photos on the way, but not worry too much about waiting for perfect light. I can go back to Valley of the Gods, for example, but now I have a good idea of what it will take to spend several days there as well as where the “good” places are. Out here, in the lands of the Hiné, they’re all good.
After a two day stand down thanks to weather, SpaceX launched its first Falcon Heavy in 18 months from Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. It was the 12th Falcon Heavy mission overall and the 31st launch overall this year from Florida.
On a day that saw SpaceX scrub a Falcon Heavy launch inside the last minute thanks to a nearbyh shower, United Launch Alliance had far better weather conditions later as the dusk faded into the night. They launched an Atlas V 551 at 8:53:30 PM EDT, sending another 29 broadband satellites toward low Earth orbit for the Amazon Leo constellation. ULA confirmed deployment of all 29 spacecraft shortly after.
Many people have asked what pollutants are added to the atmosphere by a rocket launch. I did some research and made a table estimating the effluence of a launch.
Today’s launch was the first commercial payload for New Glenn, the first time it has reused a booster, and the second time it has successfully landed a booster aboard Blue Origin’s drone ship, Jacklyn. Unfortunately, later in the mission, New Glenn’s second stage failed to deliver the payload into its intended orbit.
While the initial ascent was picture perfect, the end result was not. At roughly T+2h 15m into the mission, Blue Origin reported that the satellite was delivered into an off-nominal orbit.
At L-3, or three days until a planned launch, Artemis II stands at Launch Complex 36-B at Kennedy Space Center in the morning sun.
The launch of Artemis II is coming soon at Kennedy Space Center, and it is going to be unlike anything most people have seen in their lifetimes. The last time a crewed moon rocket launched from this pad at Kennedy was Apollo 17 in December 1972, and the Space Launch System is even more powerful than the Saturn V that carried those astronauts to the Moon. The plumes will be blinding, the sound will rattle your chest and your car windows, and the moment will be etched in your memory forever. If you are a photographer, you have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to document history.
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