Posted: Sat, Oct 5 10:06 AM ET (1406 GMT)
ULA's Vulcan Centaur completed its second flight Friday morning but appeared to suffer a problem with one of its solid rocket boosters (SRBs). The Vulcan lifted off from Cape Canaveral on the Cert-2 mission at 7:25 am EDT (1125 GMT). About 35 seconds after liftoff, material came off one of the two SRBs and its plume changed appearance. The vehicle, though, remained on its trajectory and reached orbit, completing the second Centaur burn on schedule 35 minutes after liftoff. ULA CEO Tory Bruno said after the second Centaur burn that there was an "observation" with the SRB but that the rest of the flight was nominal. Cert-2 is the second of two launches needed by ULA to win Space Force certification for national security launches.

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
•  CBS News article
•  Aviation Week article
•  Bloomberg News article
•  ULA press release

Posted: Sat, Oct 5 10:00 AM ET (1400 GMT)
NASA has selected two concepts for far-infrared and X-ray space telescopes for study. The agency announced Thursday it will award $5 million contracts to teams working on the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite and Probe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics missions for one-year studies. NASA will select one of the proposals in 2026 for development, with launch planned in 2032. The selected mission will be the first in a new line of "probe-class" astrophysics missions with a budget, excluding launch, of $1 billion. Such missions are intended to fill a gap between smaller Explorer-class astrophysics missions and more expensive flagship missions like the James Webb Space Telescope.

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
•  NASA press release

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