Launch Services Program
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Launch Services Program
The NASA Launch Services Program (LSP) is responsible for procurement of launch services for NASA uncrewed missions and oversight of launch integration and launch preparation activity, providing added quality and mission assurance to meet program objectives. LSP operates under the NASA Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD). Since 1990, NASA has purchased expendable launch vehicle launch services directly from commercial providers, whenever possible, for its scientific and applications missions. Expendable launch vehicles can accommodate all types of orbit inclinations and altitudes and are ideal vehicles for launching Earth-orbit and interplanetary missions. The Launch Services Program was established at Kennedy Space Center for NASA's acquisition and program management of expendable launch vehicle missions. A NASA/contractor team is in place to meet the mission of the Launch Services Program, which exists to provide leadership, expertise and cost-effective services in the ...
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Launch Services Program Logo
Launch or launched may refer to: Involving vehicles * Launch (boat), an open motor boat, often auxiliary to a larger vessel ** Motor Launch, a small military vessel used by the Royal Navy * Air launch, the practice of dropping an aircraft, rocket, or missile from a launch aircraft * Rocket launch, first phase of a rocket flight * Ceremonial ship launching, when a vessel is slid into the water from a slipway Arts and media * ''Launched'' (album), a 2000 album by Beatsteaks * "The Launch" (song), 1999 song * Launch (''Dragon Ball''), a character in ''Dragon Ball'' media *''The Launch'', Canadian musical TV show **''The Launch EP'', the debut EP from the show *Launch Media, creators of ''LAUNCH'' magazine and LAUNCH.com *LAUNCHcast (now known as Yahoo! Music Radio), an Internet radio service Other uses * LAUNCH (Innovation Challenge), a program sponsored by NASA, Nike, USAID and US Department of State *Product launch, the introduction of a new product to market *Soft launch A ...
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Atlas V
Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Atlas V is also a major NASA launch vehicle. It is America's longest-serving active rocket. In August 2021, ULA announced that Atlas V would be retired, and all 29 remaining launches had been sold. , 19 launches remain. Each Atlas V launch vehicle consists of two main stages. The first stage (rocketry), first stage is powered by a Russian RD-180 engine manufactured by NPO Energomash, Energomash and burning kerosene and liquid oxygen. The Centaur (rocket stage), Centaur upper stage is powered by one or two American RL10 engine(s) manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne and burns liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The Star 48 upper stage was used on the ''New Horizons'' mission as a third stage. strap-on booster, ...
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Relativity Space
Relativity Space is an American aerospace manufacturing company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 2015 by Tim Ellis and Jordan Noone. Relativity Space is developing manufacturing technologies, launch vehicles and rocket engines for commercial orbital launch services. History Relativity Space was founded in 2015 by CEO Tim Ellis and CTO Jordan Noone on the idea that existing NewSpace companies were not tapping enough into the potential of additive manufacturing (3D printing). Relativity is aiming to be the first company to successfully launch a fully 3D-printed launch vehicle into orbit. In November 2020, Relativity Space announced its US$500 million Series D funding at a calculated US$2.3 billion valuation. In June 2021 Relativity announced another US$650 million funding round led by Fidelity Investments at a valuation of US$4.2 billion, bringing its total funding to US$1.335 billion. The funding will help the development of a fully reusable m ...
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Phantom Space Corporation
Phantom Space Corporation is an American space transportation and rocket manufacturing startup based in Tucson, Arizona and founded by Jim Cantrell and Michael D'Angelo. The company is building a two-stage rocket called Daytona. As designed, the vehicle will be 18.7 meters tall, 1.5 meters in diameter. It will be able to loft 450 kilograms to low Earth orbit, 160 kg to GTO, or 50 kg to the Moon for a claimed launch price of $4 million. It will use nine Hadley engines produced by Ursa Major Technologies on its first stage, and one Hadley Vacuum engine on its second stage. The first launch is projected to take place in 2023. The company is also working on a larger two-stage rocket called Laguna. It will be 20.5 meters high and 2 meters in diameter and will be able to launch 1,200 kilograms to low Earth orbit, 425 kg to GTO, 200 kg to the Moon or 100 kg to Mars. The first stage will be powered by three of Ursa Major's larger Ripley engines and the second stage will again feature a ...
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Astra (American Spaceflight Company)
Astra is an American launch vehicle company based in Alameda, California. Astra was incorporated in October 2016 by Chris Kemp and Adam London. Formerly known in media as "Stealth Space Company", the company formally came out as Astra Space, Inc. in a Bloomberg L.P. article by Ashlee Vance. Investors include BlackRock, Advance, ACME, Airbus Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, and more. History Astra was founded in October 2016 by Chris Kemp and Adam London.The future of Astra with Founder and CEO Chris Kemp
, NasaSpaceFlight.com, 5 June 2021, retrieved 6 June 2021.
Before being reincorporated as Astra Space Inc. in 2016, Ventions, LLC was a small San Francisco based aerospace research and design firm with a 10+ year his ...
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ABL Space Systems
ABL Space Systems is an American private company, based in El Segundo, California, undertaking launch vehicle and launch systems technology development using CNC and 3D printing and minimized launch operations. The company manufactures its components in the United States. Harry O'Hanley is the chief executive officer (CEO) and Dan Piemont is the chief financial officer (CFO) of ABL Space Systems. History ABL Space Systems was founded in 2017 by Harry O'Hanley and Dan Piemont, former SpaceX and Morgan Stanley employees. Their RS-1 rocket has two stages. It offers a maximum capacity of to low Earth orbit (LEO). In 2018, ABL Space Systems signed a lease with Camden County, Georgia, for future operations in Spaceport Camden. In 2019, the company signed with Spaceport America in New Mexico to locate some ABL testing operations and facilities there. As of October 2022, the company makes no mention of this location on their facility list. Testing In 2019, ABL Space condu ...
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New Glenn
New Glenn is a heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle in development by Blue Origin. Named after NASA astronaut John Glenn, design work on the vehicle began in 2012. Illustrations of the vehicle, and the high-level specifications, were initially publicly unveiled in September 2016. New Glenn is a two-stage rocket with a diameter of . Its first stage will be powered by seven BE-4 engines that are also being designed and manufactured by Blue Origin. Like the New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle that preceded it, the New Glenn's first stage has been designed to be reusable since its inception in 2016. In 2021, the company initiated conceptual design work on approaches to potentially make the second stage reusable as well, with the project codenamed Project Jarvis. Originally aiming for first launch of New Glenn in 2020, Blue Origin has publicly announced delays on three occasions: to 2021 in late 2018, to fourth quarter of 2022 in early 2021, and to no earlier than Q4 2023 in ...
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Blue Origin
Blue Origin, LLC is an American private spaceflight, privately funded aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chairman of Amazon (company), Amazon, the company is led by CEO Bob Smith and aims to make access to space cheaper and more reliable through reusable launch vehicles. Rob Meyerson led Blue Origin from 2003 to 2017 and served as its first president. Blue Origin is employing an incremental approach from suborbital to orbital flight, with each developmental step building on its prior work. The company's name refers to the blue planet, Earth, as the point of origin. Blue Origin develops orbital technology, rocket-powered VTVL, vertical takeoff and vertical landing (VTVL) vehicles for access to sub-orbital spaceflight, suborbital and orbital spaceflight, orbital outer space, space. Initially focused on suborbital spaceflight, the company has designed, built ...
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Vulcan Centaur
Vulcan Centaur is a two-stage-to-orbit, heavy-lift launch vehicle that is under development by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) since 2014 with an initial flight expected in early 2023. It is principally designed to meet launch demands for the U.S. government's National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program for use by the United States Space Force and U.S. intelligence agencies for national security satellite launches. The maiden flight is slated to launch Astrobotic Technology's ''Peregrine'' lunar lander for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program and Kuiper Systems' Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2, no earlier than 2023, after multiple delays from the initially planned first flight in 2019. Description Vulcan is ULA's first new launch vehicle design; it adapts and evolves technologies that were developed for the Atlas V and Delta IV rockets of the USAF's EELV program. The first-stage propellant tanks have the same diameter as the Delta IV Common Booster Core ...
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Minotaur-C
Minotaur-C (''Minotaur Commercial''), formerly known as Taurus or Taurus XL, is a four stage solid fueled launch vehicle built in the United States by Orbital Sciences (now Northrop Grumman) and launched from SLC-576E at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. It is based on the air-launched Pegasus rocket from the same manufacturer, utilizing a "zeroth stage" in place of an airplane. The Minotaur-C is able to carry a maximum payload of around 1458 kg into a low Earth orbit (LEO). First launched in 1994, it has successfully completed seven out of a total of ten military and commercial missions. Three of four launches between 2001 and 2011 ended in failure, including the 24 February 2009 launch of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory mission and the 4 March 2011 launch of the Glory mission, which resulted in losses totalling US$700 million for NASA (excluding the cost of the rockets themselves). The Taurus launch vehicle was subsequently rebranded in 2014 as Minotaur-C, which incorp ...
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Pegasus XL
Pegasus is an air-launched launch vehicle developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) and now built and launched by Northrop Grumman. Capable of carrying small payloads of up to into low Earth orbit, Pegasus first flew in 1990 and remains active . The vehicle consists of three solid propellant stages and an optional monopropellant fourth stage. Pegasus is released from its carrier aircraft at approximately , and its first stage has a wing and a tail to provide lift and attitude control while in the atmosphere. Notably, the first stage does not have a thrust vector control (TVC) system. History Pegasus was designed by a team led by Antonio Elias. The Pegasus's three Orion solid motors were developed by Hercules Aerospace (later Alliant Techsystems) specifically for the Pegasus launcher but using advanced carbon fiber, propellant formulation and case insulation technologies originally developed for the terminated USAF Small ICBM program. The wing and fins' structures we ...
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Falcon Heavy
Falcon Heavy is a partially reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle that is produced by SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer. The rocket consists of two strap-on boosters made from Falcon 9 first stages, a center core also made from a Falcon 9 first stage, and a second stage on top. Falcon Heavy has the second highest payload capacity of any currently operational launch vehicle behind NASA's Space Launch System and the fourth-highest capacity of any rocket to reach orbit, trailing the Saturn V, Energia and Space Launch System. SpaceX conducted Falcon Heavy's maiden launch on 6 February 2018, at 20:45 UTC. The rocket carried Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster belonging to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, with a dummy dubbed "Starman" in the driver's seat, as a dummy payload. The second Falcon Heavy launch occurred on 11 April 2019, and all three booster rockets successfully returned to Earth. The third Falcon Heavy launch successfully occurred on 25 June 2019. Since then, Falcon Heavy ...
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