The United Launch Alliance has signed contracts with several U.S. companies to move towards creating a next-generation rocket engine, Reuters reported Tuesday. Andrea Shalal writes the joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin will choose one company to investigate next-generation liquid oxygen/ hydrocarbon first stage propulsion concepts to build the rocket engine as an alternative […] More

Lockheed Martin Corp. has completed the installation of the Orion space crew capsule on the service module as part of a series of milestones leading up to the first exploration test flight. Ballast weights were fixed into the crew module in order to comply with requirements for appropriate flight performance before the stacking phase at the […] More

A team of NASA and Lockheed Martin engineers has begun integrating a thermal protection system onto the crew module of the agency’s Orion deep-space exploration vehicle. NASA plans to conduct a maiden test flight for the Orion spacecraft by Dec. 4, Lockheed said Wednesday. The test’s goal is to evaluate if the heat shield will […] More

Aerojet Rocketdyne’s propulsion system, consisting of booster and upper-stage engines and spacecraft attitude control thrusters, has helped launch a military navigation satellite to space from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. its RS-68 booster engine, RL10B-2 upper-stage engine and 12 monopropellant hydrazine thrusters have propelled Boeing’s GPS IIF-5 satellite from United Launch Alliance’s […] More

Boeing has received initial signals from its global positioning system satellite from space following the spacecraft’s Thursday launch. The GPS IIF 5 satellite was launched into space aboard  a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., and transmitted signals after more than three hours, Boeing said Friday. The spacecraft has […] More

Boeing’s tracking and data relay satellite has transmitted its first signals from space after its launch on Jan. 23. The TDRS-L is the fifth satellite that Boeing built for various NASA operations involving the International Space Station, researches on the Earth’s climate and deep space study using the Hubble Telescope, Boeing said Thursday. Craig Cooning, […] More