Displaying items by tag: launch

Sharing some amazing historical personal moments in my space career.

In 1984, 37 years ago, I was a new and very young EMC engineer just starting work at Marconi Space System in Portsmouth, UK.  My first experience in those heady days of new pioneering space applications was with the INMARSAT MARECS-B2 (Maritime European Communications satellite).

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. ULA was formed in December 2006 by combining the teams at these companies which provide spacecraft launch services to the government of the United States. U.S. government launch customers include both the Department of Defense and NASA, as well as other organizations.

ULA provides launch services using three expendable launch systems – Delta II, Delta IV andAtlas V. The Atlas and Delta launch system families have been used for more than 50 years to carry a variety of payloads including weather, telecommunications and national security satellites, as well as deep space and interplanetary exploration missions in support of scientific research. ULA has also provided launch services for non-government satellites. 

Virgin Galactic is a company within Richard Branson's Virgin Group which plans to provide sub-orbital spaceflights to space tourists, suborbital launches for space science missions and orbital launches of small satellites.

Further in the future Virgin Galactic hopes to offer orbital human spaceflights as well. Virgin Galactic's spacecraft are launched from a large aeroplane, giving the spacecraft more initial speed and altitude than if it were launched from the ground.

Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC, though commonly referred to as Orbital) is an American company which specializes in the manufacturing and launch of satellites. Its Launch Systems Group is heavily involved with missile defense launch systems. Orbital formerly owned ORBIMAGE (now GeoEye) and the Magellan line of GPS receivers, though they are now divested (the latter toThales).

It has its headquarters in the Dulles area of unincorporated Loudoun County,Virginia, United States.

Orbital Sciences since inception has built 569 launch vehicles with 82 more to be delivered by 2015. 174 satellites have been built by the company since 1982 with 24 more to be delivered by 2015. Orbital has a 40% share of the interceptor market, 55% share of the small communications satellite market, and a 60% share of the small launch vehicles market. The company is expanding into the medium size launch vehicles and satellites market with the development of the Antares rocket and the acquisition of the General Dynamics Advanced Information System Satellite division.