News Archive / Author: Patrick Attwell
Patrick Attwell is a native of Houston, Texas but he currently resides in Austin, Texas where he studies accounting at Concordia University Texas. Atwell has had a passion for all things pertaining to aerospace, rocketry, and aviation. Atwell has worked to cover these fields for more than a decade. After he attended and watched the launch of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission it gave him what is known in the space community as “rocket fever.” Since that time, Atwell has followed his dreams and has covered events dealing with NASA’s Commercial Crew flight assignments at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and other space-related events in the Lone Star State.
Articles By Patrick Attwell
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AEHF 5 lights up the sky atop ULA Atlas V 551
August 8th, 2019CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- United Launch Alliance completed its third flight of the year on Thursday, Aug. 8. The flight got off the pad and soared into the early morning sky a little later than planned.
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ULA preparing for third launch of 2019
August 7th, 2019CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- United Launch Alliance (ULA) is set to conduct its first Atlas V launch in nearly 10 months with the AEHF-5 mission. The flight marks a rare flight for a venerable rocket.
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SpaceX breaks AMOS jinx with flight of AMOS-17
August 6th, 2019CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — It can be said that SpaceX hasn’t had the best of luck when it comes to AMOS payloads. That unlucky streak was broken today with the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket and its passenger, the AMOS-17 spacecraft.
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Spektr-RG telescope launched atop Proton-M rocket
July 14th, 2019The second Proton launch of 2019 took to the skies above the Baikonur Cosmodrome today with the Spektr-RG telescope for the Russian and German space agencies. It marked the start of a mission some 24 years in the making.
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Report: Major shakeup at NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate
July 10th, 2019NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate has undergone a significant change in leadership. According to a tweet posted by Marcia Smith of Space Policy Online, the changes involved two key personnel either being replaced - or relieved.
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NASA’s IXPE mission marks another win in SpaceX’s contract column
July 9th, 2019KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- SpaceX keeps racking up contractual wins. The most recent to be announced was for a NASA mission, one that serves to demonstrate that the company's 74 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy flights - has not gone unnoticed.
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Blue Origin upgrading NASA test stand
May 13th, 2019Blue Origin and NASA announced an agreement that would allow the company to test two of its new rocket engines in Alabama.
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Stratolaunch aircraft makes 1st flight
April 13th, 2019At 6:58 a.m. PST (13:58 GMT) April 13, 2019, the world’s largest airplane took to the skies for the first time above the Mojave Desert.
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UPDATE: SpaceX’s 2nd Falcon Heavy to launch Arabsat-6A
April 8th, 2019SpaceX is poised to conduct the first commercial launch of its Falcon Heavy rocket with the Arabsat-6A mission as early as this week.
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SpaceX’s Starship toppled, severely damaged during overnight storm
January 23rd, 2019In the overnight hours of Jan. 22 and 23, SpaceX's Starship Hopper test article was severely damaged by strong winds at the SpaceX South Texas launch facility.
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NROL-71 kicks off ULA’s 2019 launch manifest
January 19th, 2019LOMPOC, Calif. — United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully completed its first flight of 2019. Today's launch utilized the largest rocket in the Colorado-based company's arsenal to send a classified payload into space. In doing so the company finally managed to move past a saga of delays.
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SpaceX not alone in 2018’s high launch rate
January 7th, 2019United Launch Alliance (ULA), Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab and Virgin Galactic conducted 14 launches from the United States this past year.
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Shutdown: What’s open at NASA?
December 29th, 2018With no sign that it will be resolved soon, the ongoing partial U.S. government shutdown looks to continue well into the first days or weeks of 2019. As such, it is having wide-reaching effects on NASA's operations.
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Classified: A review of US defense missions launched in 2018
December 5th, 2018LOMPOC, Calif. -- 2018 has seen five payloads launched for the Department of Defense. Two of these missions were classified and one failed. With the upcoming flight of a ULA Delta Heavy with the NROL-71, SpaceFlight Insider takes a look back at the DoD's 2018 launch manifest.
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SpaceX expands range of landing sites with SAOCOM-1 flight
October 8th, 2018SpaceX has just demonstrated its ability to land Falcon 9 first stages from each U.S. coast.
