NASA has finished a critical design review of a heavy-lift rocket designed to carry the Orion crew capsule to deep space destinations such as Mars. The assessment was for Space Launch System Block 1 configuration and marked the first time that NASA has completed a rocket CDR since it launched the …

United Launch Alliance has launched a National Reconnaissance Office payload and 13 CubeSats for the Government Rideshare Advanced Concepts Experiment aboard an Atlas V rocket as part of the NROL-55 mission. The Boeing–Lockheed Martin joint venture said Thursday the mission is in support of national defense and is the company’s 10th launch since the …

Ball Aerospace & Technologies has completed the integration of an Aerojet Rocketdyne-built propulsion subsystem into a small satellite Ball is building for NASA‘s Green Propellant Infusion Mission. NASA aims to launch the Ball Commercial Platform-100 spacecraft equipped with Aerojet Rocketdyne’s Green Propellant Propulsion System into orbit next year, Ball Aerospace …

United Launch Alliance has selected Orbital ATK as the sole provider of solid boosters for the Atlas V and Vulcan launch vehicles as part of a long-term strategic partnership between both businesses that takes effect in 2019. Orbital ATK said Tuesday it will design and develop two new motors for the Boeing–Lockheed Martin joint venture to …

Warren Boley Jr., formerly president of Aerojet Rocketdyne, has been appointed to succeed Jon Andre Lokke as president and CEO of Norsk Titanium. Boley is also a member of NTi’s board of directors and will oversee the Norwegian company’s efforts to establish a U.S.-based three-dimensional printing facility to manufacture titanium …

The U.S. Air Force has launched a Boeing-built Wideband Global SATCOM 7 military communications satellite into space. Boeing said Thursday the satellite onboard a United Launch Alliance-made Delta IV rocket lifted off from a launch complex at Florida-based Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Wednesday. The company said the WGS-7 satellite has a digital …

United Launch Alliance Chairman Craig Cooning and CEO Tory Bruno believe the congressional ban on RD-180 engines hurts the business case for further Boeing and Lockheed Martin investment on rocket development, SpaceNews reported Friday. Warren Ferster writes that the ULA executives have indicated the need for 14 of the Russia-made engines to participate in …

Boeing Co. has received the first signals of its ninth global positioning system IIF satellite from space. Boeing said the GPS IIF took off Wednesday aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and reached the orbit after more than three hours. Aerojet …

The U.S. Air Force‘s Space and Missile Systems Center may open competition this spring for 28 commercial launches of military and intelligence satellites to bolster the use of U.S.-made rocket engines, Reuters reported Saturday. Andrea Shalal writes that both the government and private sector will fund the potential program, which aims to launch the first …

United Launch Alliance helped the National Reconnaissance Office launch a classified national defense satellite aboard an ULA-built rocket on Friday. The company’s Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle 541 lifted off Friday at 7:19 p.m Pacific Time from Space Launch Complex-3 in California to deliver the NROL-35 payload into orbit, …

NASA took the first step Friday in what it hopes to be a new era for human space exploration as the agency sent the Orion capsule into a nearly four-hour orbit to evaluate its potential for future missions via Boeing‘s Space Launch System. Engineers for NASA and Orion constructor Lockheed Martin …

Ball Aerospace & Technologies and NASA will fly a set of experimental Defense Department scientific payloads on the planned Green Propellant Infusion Mission for 2016 under a $3.4 million payload integration contract. The company said Wednesday the DoD Space Experiments Review Board selected the Integrated Miniaturized Electrostatic Analyzer Reflight, Small Wind and Temperature Spectrometer and Space Object Self-tracker payloads to …

United Launch Alliance has launched the AFSPC-4 mission aboard a Delta IV rocket as part of the U.S. Air Force‘s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program to deliver military and government payloads to space. ULA said Tuesday that the launch, its 85th since December 2006, was supported by an Aerojet Rocketdyne engine and …

NASA is poised to test an engine for the Space Launch System, a rocket the agency and Boeing are building to send the Orion manned spacecraft into deep space. Engineers at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi positioned the RS-25 rocket engine on a testing platform Thursday for developmental and …

The Delta 2 rocket built by United Launch Alliance has carried a NASA carbon-monitoring satellite into space Wednesday, marking the rocket’s 51st launch mission for the space agency. “It is our honor to launch this important mission that will gather the scientific data to better understand planet earth,” Jim Sponnick, …