Two hours to 2:45 p.m. launch of Delta IV Heavy on its historic final flight. Weather remains main concern.
TECH

NRO delays launch of Delta IV Heavy

James Dean
FLORIDA TODAY

Next Saturday's planned launch of a heavy-lift Delta IV rocket from Cape Canaveral has been postponed.

United Launch Alliance on Friday said the mission was delayed at the request of the National Reconnaissance Office, whose classified payload will launch atop the Delta IV Heavy.

No new target date was announced for the mission labeled NROL-37.

"The NROL-37 spacecraft and launch vehicle are secure on Space Launch Complex 37," ULA said in a statement.

ULA simultaneously is preparing for a June 24 launch of an Atlas V rocket and Navy communications satellite from Launch Complex 41.

Falcon booster returning to Port

For the third time, a ship carrying the first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is steaming back to Port Canaveral.

After its 5:39 p.m. Friday launch from Cape Canaveral with the Thaicom 8 communications satellite, the rocket stuck its landing on the modified barge more than 400 miles down range.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said there was a risk the booster could tip over following its relatively high-speed touchdown, but it didn't. Crews boarded the "Of Course I Love You" ship to secure the stage and begin sailing it home.

The journey typically takes three or four days, depending on the distance back to port and weather conditions. At Port Canaveral, a crane will offload the rocket stage so it can be transported horizontally to SpaceX's hangar at the base of pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center.

The stage was the third in a row that SpaceX has landed, and fourth overall. The first, in December, landed on land at Cape Canaveral while the last three have been ocean landings.

SpaceX lands fourth booster after successful Falcon 9 launch

New Shepard to lose a chute

The next time Blue Origin's suborbital New Shepard spacecraft drops from space, one less parachute will slow its fall to the ground.

The crew capsule and its booster are being prepared for a fourth launch — all of the same vehicle, after three successful launches and booster landings at the company's private range in West Texas.

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Blue Origin and Amazon.com, said the upcoming unmanned test flight, whose date was not announced, would perform additional maneuvers to test New Shepard's limits.

They include landing the crew capsule with two parachutes instead of three, "demonstrating our ability to safely handle that failure scenario," Bezos wrote in an update last week. "It promises to be an exciting demonstration."

Blue Origin is working toward suborbital flights of space tourists and science research. A University of Central Florida experiment flew aboard the most recent test flight.

The Kent, Washington, company has longer-term plans to build and launch larger orbital rockets on the Space Coast.

Boeing, SpaceX progressing toward crew launches

Rocket details emerge

Orbital ATK last week released more details about a proposed rocket that could blast off from Kennedy Space Center by 2020.

The three-stage Next-Generation Launcher, as the rocket is currently known, would feature solid rocket booster segments similar to those used by space shuttles and slated to launch NASA's Space Launch System rocket by 2018, but with composite rather than steel casings.

At the 44th Space Congress in Cape Canaveral last week, John Steinmeyer, director of strategy and business development in Orbital ATK's launch vehicle division, said the first stage would be made up of two booster segments, stretching to four in a heavy-lift version of the rocket.

Another segment would form the second stage, topped by a liquid-fueled third stage powered by Blue Origin's BE-3U engine. Strap-on solid motors could add further thrust.

It remains to be seen if the rocket's development advances in partnership with the Air Force beyond a relatively small study contract awarded early this year. The company is still assessing the potential commercial and government demand for a launcher that would compete with United Launch Alliance and SpaceX.

If it flies, the would be assembled in KSC's Vehicle Assembly Building and blast off from pad 39B, NASA's SLS pad.

"We’re optimistic that this will come to fruition," said Steinmeyer.

KSC could launch new Orbital ATK rocket

The Space Between Us

Closing a talk about Mars exploration at the 44th Space Congress last week, former NASA "Mars Czar" Scott Hubbard played the audience a just-released trailer for a new Mars movie on which he served as a consultant.

"The Space Between Us," opening in theaters Aug. 19, is about a mission to colonize the Red Planet. After liftoff, one of the astronauts is discovered to be pregnant and later gives birth to a boy on Mars.

The boy, Gardner Elliot, befriends a girl from Colorado, named Tulsa, online. A trip to Earth puts his life in peril.

"Eager to find his father, Gardner escapes the team of scientists and joins with Tulsa on a race against time to unravel the mysteries of how he came to be, and where he belongs in the universe," says the summary by STX Entertainment.

Watch the trailer here.

Inspired by Ride

A research project about Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, snagged a pair of Hoover Middle School eighth-graders the Outstanding County Award at the 2016 Florida History Fair earlier this month in Tallahassee.

Brevard Public Schools said Sophie Clark and Sidney Fire earned the award for the museum-like exhibit they put together titled, "Sally Ride: Exploring Space and Equality."

Following guidelines from the National History Day program, the fair tasks students to conduct original research on historical topics of their interest and promotes critical thinking, problem-solving, research and communication skills, BPS said. Brevard students contributed 16 of this year's 651 projects.

“Sidney and Sophie created an amazing project, comprised of hard work and strong research,” Hoover media specialist Ana Woodbrey said in a school district press release.

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com. And follow on Twitter at @flatoday_jdean and on Facebook at facebook.com/jamesdeanspace.