Spaceflight Insider

News Archive / Tagged: United States Air Force

  • U.S. Air Force’s secretive X-37B shuttle returns under cover of night

    Cullen DesforgesOctober 28th, 2019

    MERRITT ISLAND, FL – After a record-breaking 780 days on orbit the United States Air Force’s secretive space plane, the X-37B, touched down on Runway 33 at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 27, 2019.

  • Delta IV Medium ends 17-Year run with 100% success

    Jim SiegelAugust 25th, 2019

    ULA's Delta IV Medium rocket, which made its debut flight in 2002, finished its 17-year career by propelling a GPS III satellite into medium Earth orbit.

  • ULA Delta IV with GPS III SV02 launch delayed

    Jason RhianJuly 17th, 2019

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The flight of a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Medium+ (4,2) rocket tasked with sending the GPS III SV02 satellite to orbit has been delayed.

  • Battery failure delays Atlas V launch until July

    Jason RhianJune 23rd, 2019

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 551 rocket with the fifth Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF-5) satellite for the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center will have to wait a little longer before taking flight.

  • USAF provided with software upgrade for GPS III

    Jason RhianJune 15th, 2019

    Five months after being awarded the GPS Control Segment Sustainment II (GCS II) contract, Lockheed Martin has started delivering on that contract.

  • Vulcan clears final review, could fly as early as 2021

    Jason RhianMay 22nd, 2019

    United Launch Alliance, along with the United States Air Force, has cleared the company's new Vulcan rocket to continue its journey toward flight.

  • NROL-71 kicks off ULA’s 2019 launch manifest

    Patrick AttwellJanuary 19th, 2019

    LOMPOC, 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.

  • A day of scrubs: No flights today for SpaceX, Blue Origin, Arianespace or ULA – UPDATE

    Jason RhianDecember 18th, 2018

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Today wasn't the most productive for Arianespace, SpaceX, Blue Origin or ULA. Attempts to launch four missions all ended with the rockets and their payloads safe - but on the ground.

  • Video: Flames, Fury and Flight – ULA sends AEHF-4 into the black

    Jason RhianOctober 22nd, 2018

    It seemed as if the fourth Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF-4) satellite didn't want to waste any time getting off the launch pad - check out the exclusive video captured here!

  • ULA sends AEHF-4 screaming through the atmosphere on powerful Atlas V

    Jason RhianOctober 17th, 2018

    Another star has been placed on orbit with the flight of an Atlas V rocket and its payload of the AEHF-4 satellite.

  • GPS III Satellite shipped to the Cape in preparation for flight

    Jason RhianAugust 28th, 2018

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Lockheed Martin has shipped the first GPS III satellite, touted as being harder-to-jam, to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station located in Florida in preparation for flight. 

  • U.S. Air Force’s X-37B space plane nears one year on orbit

    Curt GodwinAugust 20th, 2018

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The fifth, and latest, mission for the U.S. Air Force's (USAF) X-37B uncrewed space plane nears a milestone that all but one of its predecessors met (and exceeded): one year on orbit.

  • SBIRS GEO Flight-4 beams back first images

    Jason RhianMay 6th, 2018

    The first images from the fourth of the United States Air Force's Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) have been sent back to the ground in what has been dubbed “first light" - marking a milestone for the most-recently launched SBIRS spacecraft.

  • USAF to swap ULA Atlas V for SpaceX Falcon 9 as X-37B launcher

    Jason RhianJune 6th, 2017

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A report, written by Reuters' Irene Klotz and appearing on U.S. News, has stated that Space Exploration Technologies – more commonly known as SpaceX – has won the contract to launch the U.S. Air Force's X-37B. 

  • Inauguration day Atlas V launch sends national security satellite to space

    Paul KnightlyJanuary 20th, 2017

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — United Launch Alliance (ULA) is celebrating the successful launch of an Atlas V rocket with the third Space Based Infrared Satellite Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (SBIRS GEO-3) satellite. It departed from Space Launch Complex 41 at 7:42 p.m. EST Jan. 20 (00:42 GMT Jan. 21).