Launch Site News

The Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) represented by BMW Oracle Racing and the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), the Americas Cup defending champion, represented by Team Alinghi were entwined in a 2.5-year legal battle over multiple court cases, including hearings in the New York Supreme Court and the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, prior to the 33rd edition of the race, due to take place in 2010.The parties disagreed about the location, format, and restrictions on boat design, all of which were changed by the courts prior to the race.

Iridium Communications announced the second launch for the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation has been moved earlier, and is now targeted for June 25, 2017 at 1:24:59 p.m. PDT with an instantaneous launch window. SpaceX informed Iridium that range availability had opened up at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California, where SpaceX’s west coast launch facility is located, and planned to target Iridium’s launch four days earlier than originally scheduled. This launch will deliver the second payload of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites to orbit, bringing the total to 20 Iridium NEXT satellites in space. “We’re excited for this next launch,” said Matt Desch, chief executive officer, Iridium.

Storm's eye nears Cape Canaveral. The first major hurricane threatening a direct hit on the United States in more than 10 years lashed Florida on Friday with heavy rains and winds after killing at least 339 people in Haiti on its destructive march north through the Caribbean. Hurricane Matthew packed gusts of 100 miles per hour (160 kph) as it tracked north-northwest along Florida's east coast, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. The storm's eye was 25 miles (40 km) east of Cape Canaveral, home to the nation's chief space launch site. "We are seriously ground zero here in Cape Canaveral -- hunkered down, lights flickering, winds are crazy," said resident Sandy Wilk on Twitter.

Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) informed it has expanded its competencies in certifying containers for dangerous goods. In 2014 RS certified a new specific type of containers for upper stage rockets by request of Lavochkin Research and Production Association, and in the beginning of December 2014, containers used for shipping space objects to the Kourou launch site in French Guiana were successfully returned to the port of St. Petersburg. Containers of this type are a unique high-tech product designed to protect expensive space equipment from external exposure while shipping it to the launch site in the Pacific Ocean and are currently in use for international outer space exploration programs.

The first Inmarsat-5 (I-5) satellite has now passed two major test stages in preparation for the launch of Global Xpress. One of three in Inmarsat’s new Ka-band broadband network – the satellite has been subjected to extensive mechanical and thermal tests at manufacturer Boeing’s Satellite Space Systems International (BSSI) in El-Segundo, California, US. The tests were designed to prove its ability to survive being blasted into space and to cope with the harsh thermal environment of geosynchronous orbit. “The satellite has now passed the mechanical and thermal testing with flying colours and is on schedule to be completed in early November – ready for shipment to the launch site,” said Franco Carnevale, Inmarsat's Vice-President for Satellite and Launch Vehicles.

'Europa 2' has been christened in the Port of Hamburg during the German port's 824th anniversary celebrations. The new cruise ship sailed to the launch site near the riverside district of Blankenese, where Godmother Dana Schweiger officially gave the new ship her name: “I christen you the Europa 2 and wish you and your crew good voyages and safe returns, and may there always be enough water beneath your keel,” she said. Dr Wolfgang Flägel, Managing Director of Hapag-Lloyd Cruises…

1897-The Overland Expedition, consisting of three officers from the Revenue Cutter Service, departed from the cutter Bear off Nunivak Island to rescue 300 whalers trapped in the ice at Point Barrow, Alaska. The rescuers were First Lieutenant D. H. Jarvis, Second Lieutenant E. P. Bertholf (later a commandant), and Surgeon S. J. Call. The rescuers had to travel over 1,000 miles overland to reach the whalers. 1903-Life-Saving Service personnel from Kill Devil Hills Life-Saving Station helped carry materials to the launch site for the first successful heavier-than-air aircraft flight by the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and then assisted the brothers in their flights that day. The life-savers were John T. Daniels, W.S. Dough and A.D. Etheridge.

1897-The Overland Expedition, consisting of three officers from the Revenue Cutter Service, departed from the cutter Bear off Nunivak Island to rescue 300 whalers trapped in the ice at Point Barrow, Alaska. The rescuers were First Lieutenant D. H. Jarvis, Second Lieutenant E. P. Bertholf (later a commandant), and Surgeon S. J. Call. The rescuers had to travel over 1,000 miles overland to reach the whalers. 1903-Life-Saving Service personnel from Kill Devil Hills Life-Saving Station helped carry materials to the launch site for the first successful heavier-than-air aircraft flight by the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and then assisted the brothers in their flights that day. The life-savers were John T. Daniels, W.S. Dough and A.D. Etheridge.

1897-The Overland Expedition, consisting of three officers from the Revenue Cutter Service, departed from the cutter Bear off Nunivak Island to rescue 300 whalers trapped in the ice at Point Barrow, Alaska. The rescuers were First Lieutenant D. H. Jarvis, Second Lieutenant E. P. Bertholf (later a commandant), and Surgeon S. J. Call. The rescuers had to travel over 1,000 miles overland to reach the whalers. 1903-Life-Saving Service personnel from Kill Devil Hills Life-Saving Station helped carry materials to the launch site for the first successful heavier-than-air aircraft flight by the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and then assisted the brothers in their flights that day. The life-savers were John T. Daniels, W.S. Dough and A.D. Etheridge.