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The sixth Advanced Extremely High Frequency Satellite launched today from Cape Canaveral, FL.  Dubbed AEHF-6, this mission again used the might Atlas V 551 rocket to carry on the tradition of putting strategic, reliable and secure communications in place for the U.S. Armed forces. While this was the 134th successful launch for United Launch Alliance (ULA), it was the 1st for Space Force. Now that the payload is off the ground, we only have roughly five hours till deployment. We won't get to see the deployment as ULA will not televise/broadcast that portion of the mission because, lets not forget, it is a National Defense satellite, but it's all still exciting non the less. Lots of rockets take off from the East Coast of Florida but arguable non more exciting than this beautiful powerhouse from ULA. With COVID-19 social distancing efforts ramping up, we're not sure what will become of other launches in April/May but we'll be certain to keep you posted. ULA is to be comme

Cape Canaveral, FL 03/06/20 Friday night at 11:50pm Eastern time, Space-X launched a twice used Dragon Spacecraft to the Space Station. The other times this capsule was used include the CRS-10 mission from February 2017 and the CRS-16 mission back in December 2018. The capsule wasn't the only reused part of this setup - the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission also flew the CRS-19 mission in December of last year. Remote video footage of CRS-20 launch CRS-20 Cargo worth note include: GERO-ISS - which will be installed in the ESA’s Columbus module. It will conduct a climate research experiment that will use navigation satellite signals to precisely determine sea surface height. Bartolomeo - an external payload platform developed by Airbus that will provide power and data transmission for up to 12 payload slots. Once this payload is delivered the ISS, we will get to experience the treat of the 50th booster landing and it will be done at LZ

Amateur radio enthusiasts from Brazil to Thailand should be excited as they will soon have access to 2 “Phase 4” amateur radio transponders operating in the 2400 MHz and 10450 MHz bands. A 250 kHz bandwidth linear transponder intended for conventional analogue operations and an 8 MHz bandwidth transponder for experimental digital modulation schemes and DVB amateur television (as reported by AMSAT-UK).The general public (and launch photographers) also had reason to celebrate as Es'hail 2 broke a long string of night launches at Kennedy Space Center. The Visitors Complex seemed excited about this as well based on the fact that they allowed guests to view the launch from the Saturn V Center without any additional fee above or beyond the cost of daily admission.  Having said that, I really hope they bring back some VIP viewing experiences  as I think those tickets really drive excitement about the process and make the day more special to those will to pay for premium experience.

Having been invited to a special viewing of the newly refurbished 450 ft. long flame trench, we had the opportunity to speak with NASA's Regina Spellman about the progress of LC-39b and what's next. The recent updates, which are near completion, are long overdue but have served the program well for the past 50 years since (Apollo 10 first launched from here on May 18, 1969).  However, once service resumes at 39b, the trench will "never look this beautiful again" which we feel is also kind of exciting. Back in 2007, modifications were started and since then every system has been replaced or updated. Included in this project was the replacement and repair of all the damaged, worn an d displaced bricks which protect the trench. These bricks (over 96,000 were installed on the north wall) are a tongue and groove fire type brick which are high in aluminium oxide content to withstand the intense heat. The blast wall is also extremely robust and is made up of 144 steel p

SPX-15 was scheduled as an "instantaneous launch" which means that if it didn't go off as planned on June 29th at Kennedy Space Center, the NASA Launch would have been delayed until July 1st (no pressure, right?). Well the good news is, the Falcon 9 made it off the pad at exactly 5:42:42 a.m. EDT.   The capsule (known as Dragon) then separated from the rocket nine minutes later and is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) on July 2nd. Dragon is delivering almost 3 tons of supplies, equipment, and the following science investigations for the ISS: Investigation on cellular biology in microgravity ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS), an Earth science instrument studying plants and water availability A physical sciences study on soil and sediment to enable U.S. National Laboratory research Dragon will then return to Earth in about a month, carrying 2 tons of cargo from the ISS. Not only is thi