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72-920: The Space Test Program ( STP ) is the primary provider of spaceflight for the United States Department of Defense (DoD) space science and technology community. STP is managed by a group within the Advanced Systems and Development Directorate , a directorate of the Space and Missile Systems Center of the United States Space Force . STP provides spaceflight via the International Space Station (ISS), piggybacks, secondary payloads and dedicated launch services. STP has actually been in existence for 50 years as of 2019, with several thousand launches it has been responsible for. For example,

144-635: A Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket on 12 June 2023 as part of the Transporter-8 rideshare mission. The mission consisted of two Modular Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (MISR) cubesats to demonstrate two-way communications with ground devices and the XVI cubesat to test the capacity of the Link-16 network to communicate to space. Spaceflight Spaceflights include the launches of Earth observation and telecommunications satellites, interplanetary missions ,

216-421: A spaceport (cosmodrome), which may be equipped with launch complexes and launch pads for vertical rocket launches and runways for takeoff and landing of carrier airplanes and winged spacecraft. Spaceports are situated well away from human habitation for noise and safety reasons. ICBMs have various special launching facilities. A launch is often restricted to certain launch windows . These windows depend upon

288-492: A sub-orbital spaceflight the spacecraft reaches space and then returns to the atmosphere after following a (primarily) ballistic trajectory. This is usually because of insufficient specific orbital energy , in which case a suborbital flight will last only a few minutes, but it is also possible for an object with enough energy for an orbit to have a trajectory that intersects the Earth's atmosphere, sometimes after many hours. Pioneer 1

360-508: A "time buffer" and substantially widened the allowable launch windows . The parking orbit gave the crew and controllers time to thoroughly check out the spacecraft after the stresses of launch before committing it for a long journey to the Moon. Robotic missions do not require an abort capability and require radiation minimalization only for delicate electronics, and because modern launchers routinely meet "instantaneous" launch windows, space probes to

432-443: A counter measure to United States bomber planes in the 1950s. The Tsiolkovsky-influenced Sergey Korolev became the chief rocket designer, and derivatives of his R-7 Semyorka missiles were used to launch the world's first artificial Earth satellite , Sputnik 1 , on October 4, 1957. The U.S., after the launch of Sputnik and two embarrassing failures of Vanguard rockets , launched Explorer 1 on February 1, 1958. Three years later,

504-449: A de-orbit module. As announced on 14 October 2014, the United States Department of Defense awarded Sierra Nevada Corporation 's Space Systems (previously known as SpaceDev ) with a contract to develop and build a next-generation science and technology demonstration satellite, known as STPSat-5, for their Space Test Program. The STP-2 (DoD Space Test Program) payload launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy on 25 June 2019. Included

576-416: A flight that normally lasts over twenty hours , could be traversed in less than one hour. While no company offers this type of transportation today, SpaceX has revealed plans to do so as early as the 2020s using Starship . Suborbital spaceflight over an intercontinental distance requires a vehicle velocity that is only a little lower than the velocity required to reach low Earth orbit. If rockets are used,

648-447: A launch tower and flame trench. It is surrounded by equipment used to erect, fuel, and maintain launch vehicles. Before launch, the rocket can weigh hundreds of tons. The Space Shuttle Columbia , on STS-1 , weighed 2030 metric tons (4,480,000 lb) at takeoff. The most commonly used definition of outer space is everything beyond the Kármán line , which is 100 kilometers (62 mi) above

720-585: A liquid-fueled rocket on March 16, 1926. During World War II , the first guided rocket, the V-2 , was developed and employed as a weapon by Nazi Germany . During a test flight in June 1944, one such rocket reached space at an altitude of 189 kilometers (102 nautical miles), becoming the first human-made object to reach space. At the end of World War II, most of the V-2 rocket team, including its head, Wernher von Braun , surrendered to

792-723: A passive retroreflector. The satellite decayed from orbit on 4 October 2022. (SpaceX had bid a Falcon Heavy in December 2016 for this launch.) The STP-3 mission was originally scheduled to be launched on a ULA Atlas V 551 launch vehicle in 2020. It was launched on 7 December 2021 at 10:19 UTC . STP-3 includes the STPSat-6 satellite with the Space and Atmospheric Burst Reporting System-3 (SABRS-3) for National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) payload for NASA, and seven secondary payloads for

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864-611: A pre-programmed list of operations that will be executed unless otherwise instructed. A robotic spacecraft for scientific measurements is often called a space probe or space observatory . Many space missions are more suited to telerobotic rather than crewed operation, due to lower cost and risk factors. In addition, some planetary destinations such as Venus or the vicinity of Jupiter are too hostile for human survival, given current technology. Outer planets such as Saturn , Uranus , and Neptune are too distant to reach with current crewed spaceflight technology, so telerobotic probes are

936-806: A variety of new space technologies. STP and the Air Force Research Laboratory 's (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate developed a secondary payload adapter ring for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), which can host up to six 180 kg (400 lb) microsatellites . STP also worked closely with NASA and the United States Navy on the Geosynchronous Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer / Indian Ocean Meteorology and Oceanography Imager project. In December 2001, STS-108 hosted

1008-682: Is a copy of the STPSat-2 satellite, adapted to carry six experiments, including a module designed to host various space situational awareness sensors and a pair of space environment sensors. STPSat 3 launched on 19 November 2013, on the ORS-3 Minotaur 1 launch, along with 28 CubeSats. STPSat-3 carries five payloads, including "Integrated Miniaturized Electrostatic Analyzer Reflight (iMESA-R), Joint Component Research (J-CORE), Strip Sensor Unit (SSU), Small Wind and Temperature Spectrometer (SWATS), and TSI Calibration Transfer Experiment (TCTE)". It also carries

1080-577: Is a dual-use commercial and military spaceport for sub-orbital and orbital launch vehicles . The facility is owned and operated by the Alaska Aerospace Corporation , a corporation owned by the Government of Alaska , and is located on Kodiak Island in Alaska. The spaceport opened in 1998 and has supported 31 (up to January 2023) launches, most of those for the U.S. government . The site

1152-514: Is designed for orbital launches, while launch pad 2 is intended for sub-orbital launches. In 2010, Alaska Aerospace Corp. developed a concept plan for a third launch pad, which would allow the facility to support quick launches of satellites: under 24 hours to launch from "go ahead". The first orbital launch from the PSCA was an Athena I rocket which carried out the Kodiak Star mission for NASA and

1224-491: Is done by a set of orbital maneuvers called space rendezvous . After rendezvousing with the space station, the space vehicle then docks or berths with the station. Docking refers to joining of two separate free-flying space vehicles, while berthing refers to mating operations where an inactive vehicle is placed into the mating interface of another space vehicle by using a robotic arm . Vehicles in orbit have large amounts of kinetic energy. This energy must be discarded if

1296-887: Is effective mainly because of its ability to sustain thrust even as the atmosphere thins. Many ways to reach space other than rocket engines have been proposed. Ideas such as the space elevator , and momentum exchange tethers like rotovators or skyhooks require new materials much stronger than any currently known. Electromagnetic launchers such as launch loops might be feasible with current technology. Other ideas include rocket-assisted aircraft/spaceplanes such as Reaction Engines Skylon (currently in early stage development), scramjet powered spaceplanes, and RBCC powered spaceplanes. Gun launch has been proposed for cargo. On some missions beyond LEO (Low Earth Orbit) , spacecraft are inserted into parking orbits, or lower intermediary orbits. The parking orbit approach greatly simplified Apollo mission planning in several important ways. It acted as

1368-586: Is impossible. To date several academics have studied intergalactic travel in a serious manner. Spacecraft are vehicles designed to operate in space. The first 'true spacecraft' is sometimes said to be Apollo Lunar Module , since this was the only crewed vehicle to have been designed for, and operated only in space; and is notable for its non-aerodynamic shape. Spacecraft today predominantly use rockets for propulsion , but other propulsion techniques such as ion drives are becoming more common, particularly for uncrewed vehicles, and this can significantly reduce

1440-541: Is known as Kessler syndrome . There are several terms that refer to a flight into or through outer space . A space mission refers to a spaceflight intended to achieve an objective. Objectives for space missions may include space exploration , space research , and national firsts in spaceflight. Space transport is the use of spacecraft to transport people or cargo into or through outer space. This may include human spaceflight and cargo spacecraft flight. The first theoretical proposal of space travel using rockets

1512-647: Is more fuel-efficient for a craft to burn its fuel as close as possible to its periapsis (lowest point); see Oberth effect . Astrodynamics is the study of spacecraft trajectories, particularly as they relate to gravitational and propulsion effects. Astrodynamics allows for a spacecraft to arrive at its destination at the correct time without excessive propellant use. An orbital maneuvering system may be needed to maintain or change orbits. Non-rocket orbital propulsion methods include solar sails , magnetic sails , plasma-bubble magnetic systems , and using gravitational slingshot effects. The term "transfer energy" means

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1584-451: Is not generally recognized by the public that the increase in potential energy required to pass the Kármán line is only about 3% of the orbital energy (potential plus kinetic energy) required by the lowest possible Earth orbit (a circular orbit just above the Kármán line.) In other words, it is far easier to reach space than to stay there. On May 17, 2004, Civilian Space eXploration Team launched

1656-641: Is the fifth spacecraft put on an escape trajectory leaving the Solar System . Voyager 1 , Voyager 2 , Pioneer 10 , Pioneer 11 are the earlier ones. The one farthest from the Sun is Voyager 1 , which is more than 100 AU distant and is moving at 3.6 AU per year. In comparison, Proxima Centauri , the closest star other than the Sun, is 267,000 AU distant. It will take Voyager 1 over 74,000 years to reach this distance. Vehicle designs using other techniques, such as nuclear pulse propulsion are likely to be able to reach

1728-608: The DSTL and the NRL using 6U platforms provided by Blue Canyon Technologies, and they would've flown in formation to study short-timescale dynamics in the ionosphere. The Prometheus 2A and 2B cubesats have been built by In-Space Missions for the UK Ministry of Defence and the NRO and they would've provided a test platform for monitoring radio signals. The STP-CR2301 mission was successfully launched on

1800-607: The Deep Space Atomic Clock . The STPSat-4 satellite was launched on 2 November 2019 onboard the Cygnus NG-12 mission and was subsequently deployed to orbit from the ISS on 29 January 2020. The satellite hosted a variety of experimental technologies, including: iMESA-R, a USAF mission to measure plasma densities and energies; MATRS, a modular solar array that partially failed to deploy; NISTEx, an inferometric star tracker; NTE,

1872-673: The Kodiak Star mission, in September 2001. On 6 January 2003, STP and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) launched the Coriolis satellite, a risk-reduction effort for NPOESS , aboard a Titan II launch vehicle. On 9 March 2007, six satellites were launched into low Earth Orbit (LEO) on a shared Atlas V launch vehicle on the STP-1 mission. The satellites were: The satellites shared

1944-546: The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) for multiple launches from the PSCA through 2021". The arrangement includes a sole-source contract for two flight tests of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. Two private companies, Rocket Lab and Vector Space Systems , were considering using the spaceport for commercial launches as early as 2019. Another private company, Eclipse Orbital,

2016-478: The Tsiolkovsky rocket equation , can be used to find the total Δ v {\displaystyle \Delta v} , or potential change in velocity. This formula, which is still used by engineers, is a key concept of spaceflight. Spaceflight became a practical possibility with the work of Robert H. Goddard 's publication in 1919 of his paper A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes . His application of

2088-471: The U.S. Air Force . STPSat-6 is destined for an orbit slightly above the geostationary orbit. The STP-27VPD mission was launched on LauncherOne 's first mission from Spaceport Cornwall (and last mission overall) on 9 January 2023. The launch resulted in a failure, with the rocket and all its payloads being destroyed in-flight. The mission consisted of two pairs of cubesats from both British and American agencies. The CIRCE 1 and 2 cubesats were developed by

2160-457: The USSR made one orbit around the Earth. In official Soviet documents, there is no mention of the fact that Gagarin parachuted the final seven miles. As of 2020, the only spacecraft regularly used for human spaceflight are Soyuz , Shenzhou , and Crew Dragon . The U.S. Space Shuttle fleet operated from April 1981 until July 2011. SpaceShipOne has conducted three human suborbital space flights. On

2232-452: The de Laval nozzle to liquid-fuel rockets improved efficiency enough for interplanetary travel to become possible. After further research, Goddard attempted to secure an Army contract for a rocket-propelled weapon in the first World War but his plans were foiled by the November 11, 1918 armistice with Germany . After choosing to work with private financial support, he was the first to launch

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2304-403: The Earth's surface. (The United States defines outer space as everything beyond 50 miles (80 km) in altitude.) Rocket engines remain the only currently practical means of reaching space, with planes and high-altitude balloons failing due to lack of atmosphere and alternatives such as space elevators not yet being built. Chemical propulsion, or the acceleration of gases at high velocities,

2376-679: The Gemini program ended just before the Apollo 1 tragedy. Following multiple uncrewed test flights of the Saturn 1B and the Saturn V , the U.S. launched the crewed Apollo 7 mission into low earth orbit . Shortly after its successful completion, the U.S. launched Apollo 8 (first mission to orbit the moon), Apollo 9 (first Apollo mission to launch with both the CSM and the LEM ) and Apollo 10 (first mission to nearly land on

2448-455: The GoFast rocket on a suborbital flight, the first amateur spaceflight. On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne was used for the first privately funded human spaceflight . Point-to-point, or Earth to Earth transportation, is a category of sub-orbital spaceflight in which a spacecraft provides rapid transport between two terrestrial locations. A conventional airline route between London and Sydney ,

2520-455: The Moon and developed continuous crewed human presence in space with a series of space stations , ranging from the Salyut program to the International Space Station . Rockets are the only means currently capable of reaching orbit or beyond. Other non-rocket spacelaunch technologies have yet to be built, or remain short of orbital speeds. A rocket launch for a spaceflight usually starts from

2592-423: The Moon and other planets generally use direct injection to maximize performance by limiting the boil off of cryogenic propellants . Although some might coast briefly during the launch sequence, they do not complete one or more full parking orbits before the burn that injects them onto an Earth escape trajectory. The escape velocity from a celestial body decreases as the distance from the body increases. However, it

2664-495: The Pacific Spaceport Complex. The Kodiak spaceport has two launch pads with a mission control center that includes 64 workstations with high-speed communications and data links. There is a clean room for preparing satellites for launch, a fully enclosed 17-story-tall rocket assembly building and two independent range and telemetry systems. The complex sits on 3,700 acres (15 km ) of state-owned land. Launch pad 1

2736-658: The Shuttle Ionospheric Modification with Pulsed Localized Exhaust (SIMPLEX) experiment. SIMPLEX observed ionospheric disturbances created by the Space Shuttle engine burns via ground radar sites and supported plume technology, plume signature, and space weather modeling. SIMPLEX flew again on STS-110 in April 2002. STP also worked to obtain a 1-year radio frequency license extension for the Picosat experiment launched on

2808-506: The USA on the 20th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin 's flight, on 12 April 1981. During the Shuttle era, six orbiters were built, all of which flown in the atmosphere and five of which flown in space. The Enterprise was used only for approach and landing tests, launching from the back of a Boeing 747 and gliding to deadstick landings at Edwards AFB, California . The first Space Shuttle to fly into space

2880-529: The USSR launched Vostok 1, carrying cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into orbit. The US responded with the suborbital launch of Alan Shepard on May 5, 1961, and the orbital launch of John Glenn on February 20, 1962. These events were followed by a pledge from U.S. President John F. Kennedy to go to the moon and the creation of the Gemini and Apollo programs. After successfully performing a rendezvous and docking and an EVA ,

2952-625: The United States, and were expatriated to work on American missiles at what became the Army Ballistic Missile Agency , producing missiles such as Juno I and Atlas . The Soviet Union , in turn, captured several V2 production facilities and built several replicas, with 5 of their 11 rockets successfully reaching their targets. (This was relatively consistent with Nazi Germany's success rate.) The Soviet Union developed intercontinental ballistic missiles to carry nuclear weapons as

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3024-432: The ability to deorbit themselves. This becomes a major issue when large numbers of uncontrollable spacecraft exist in frequently used orbits, increasing the risk of debris colliding with functional satellites. This problem is exacerbated when large objects, often upper stages, break up in orbit or collide with other objects, creating often hundreds of small, hard to find pieces of debris. This problem of continuous collisions

3096-487: The facility were funded by state insurance at a cost of US$ 26–29 million. During efforts to repair the facilities, the spaceport was formally renamed to "Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska" in an announcement made on 14 April 2015. The facility was formally re-dedicated on 13 August 2016, to celebrate the completion of repairs. In mid-2016, the Alaska Aerospace Corporation "signed a multi-year contract with

3168-484: The first launch took place in August 1998 from temporary accommodations at the site. After a launch failure in August 2014 damaged the launch tower, payload processing facility and integrated processing facility, Alaska Aerospace made plans to repair and upgrade the facilities to support larger rockets, but Governor Bill Walker stopped work in December 2014 as part of an order to address a state budget shortfall. Repairs to

3240-603: The initial experiments that led to the modern Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite constellation were STP-launched projects. During August 2001, STP conducted two successful activities using the Space Shuttle and ISS. STS-105 delivered and successfully deployed the Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) externally on the ISS. MISSE was a passive materials exposure experiment,

3312-529: The launcher through use of an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapter ( ESPA ). United Launch Alliance provided a video feed of the launch. The C/NOFS (Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System) satellite, which was launched on 16 April 2008, was operated by the Space Test Program. The third Minotaur IV , known as STP-S26 , was successfully launched in November 2010. This

3384-409: The moon). These events culminated with the first crewed moon landing, Apollo 11 , and six subsequent missions, five of which successfully landed on the moon. Spaceflight has been widely employed by numerous government and commercial entities for placing satellites into orbit around Earth for a broad range of purposes. Certain government agencies have also sent uncrewed spacecraft exploring space beyond

3456-406: The nearest star significantly faster. Another possibility that could allow for human interstellar spaceflight is to make use of time dilation , as this would make it possible for passengers in a fast-moving vehicle to travel further into the future while aging very little, in that their great speed slows down the rate of passage of on-board time. However, attaining such high speeds would still require

3528-402: The only way to explore them. Telerobotics also allows exploration of regions that are vulnerable to contamination by Earth micro-organisms since spacecraft can be sterilized. Humans can not be sterilized in the same way as a spaceship, as they coexist with numerous micro-organisms, and these micro-organisms are also hard to contain within a spaceship or spacesuit. The first uncrewed space mission

3600-399: The position of celestial bodies and orbits relative to the launch site. The biggest influence is often the rotation of the Earth. Once launched, orbits are normally located within relatively constant flat planes at a fixed angle to the axis of the Earth, and the Earth rotates within this orbit. A launch pad is a fixed structure designed to dispatch airborne vehicles. It generally consists of

3672-402: The remainder heats the atmosphere. The Mercury , Gemini , and Apollo capsules splashed down in the sea. These capsules were designed to land at relatively low speeds with the help of a parachute. Soviet/Russian capsules for Soyuz make use of a big parachute and braking rockets to touch down on land. Spaceplanes like the Space Shuttle land like a glider . After a successful landing,

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3744-426: The rendezvouses and dockings with space stations , and crewed spaceflights on scientific or tourist missions. Spaceflight can be achieved conventionally via multistage rockets , which provide the thrust to overcome the force of gravity and propel spacecraft onto suborbital trajectories . If the mission is orbital , the spacecraft usually separates the first stage and ignites the second stage , which propels

3816-463: The size of the rocket relative to the payload is similar to an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Any intercontinental spaceflight has to surmount problems of heating during atmospheric re-entry that are nearly as large as those faced by orbital spaceflight. A minimal orbital spaceflight requires much higher velocities than a minimal sub-orbital flight, and so it is technologically much more challenging to achieve. To achieve orbital spaceflight,

3888-431: The spacecraft to high enough speeds that it reaches orbit. Once in orbit, spacecraft are at high enough speeds that they fall around the Earth rather than fall back to the surface. Most spacecraft, and all crewed spacecraft, are designed to deorbit themselves or, in the case of uncrewed spacecraft in high-energy orbits, to boost themselves into graveyard orbits . Used upper stages or failed spacecraft, however, often lack

3960-636: The spacecraft, its occupants, and cargo can be recovered. In some cases, recovery has occurred before landing: while a spacecraft is still descending on its parachute, it can be snagged by a specially designed aircraft. This mid-air retrieval technique was used to recover the film canisters from the Corona spy satellites. Uncrewed spacecraft or robotic spacecraft are spacecraft without people on board. Uncrewed spacecraft may have varying levels of autonomy from human input, such as remote control , or remote guidance. They may also be autonomous , in which they have

4032-610: The tangential velocity around the Earth is as important as altitude. In order to perform a stable and lasting flight in space, the spacecraft must reach the minimal orbital speed required for a closed orbit . Interplanetary spaceflight is flight between planets within a single planetary system . In practice, the use of the term is confined to travel between the planets of our Solar System . Plans for future crewed interplanetary spaceflight missions often include final vehicle assembly in Earth orbit, such as NASA's Constellation program and Russia's Kliper / Parom tandem. New Horizons

4104-411: The total amount of energy imparted by a rocket stage to its payload. This can be the energy imparted by a first stage of a launch vehicle to an upper stage plus payload, or by an upper stage or spacecraft kick motor to a spacecraft . In order to reach a space station , a spacecraft would have to arrive at the same orbit and approach to a very close distance (e.g. within visual contact). This

4176-460: The use of some new, advanced method of propulsion . Dynamic soaring as a way to travel across interstellar space has been proposed as well. Intergalactic travel involves spaceflight between galaxies, and is considered much more technologically demanding than even interstellar travel and, by current engineering terms, is considered science fiction . However, theoretically speaking, there is nothing to conclusively indicate that intergalactic travel

4248-413: The vehicle is to land safely without vaporizing in the atmosphere. Typically this process requires special methods to protect against aerodynamic heating . The theory behind reentry was developed by Harry Julian Allen . Based on this theory, reentry vehicles present blunt shapes to the atmosphere for reentry. Blunt shapes mean that less than 1% of the kinetic energy ends up as heat reaching the vehicle, and

4320-456: The vehicle's mass and increase its delta-v . Launch systems are used to carry a payload from Earth's surface into outer space. Most current spaceflight uses multi-stage expendable launch systems to reach space. The first reusable spacecraft, the X-15 , was air-launched on a suborbital trajectory on 19 July 1963. The first partially reusable orbital spacecraft, the Space Shuttle , was launched by

4392-453: Was Sputnik , launched October 4, 1957 to orbit the Earth. Nearly all satellites , landers and rovers are robotic spacecraft. Not every uncrewed spacecraft is a robotic spacecraft; for example, a reflector ball is a non-robotic uncrewed spacecraft. Space missions where other animals but no humans are on-board are called uncrewed missions. The first human spaceflight was Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961, on which cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin of

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4464-483: Was COSMIC-2 , a cluster of six satellites, with a mass of 277.8 kg (612 lb) each. The primary role of the COSMIC-2 satellite constellation is to provide radio occultation data with an average latency of 45 minutes. The six satellites were placed on an orbit with an inclination of 24° to 28.5° with plans for them to move eventually to six separate orbital planes with 60° separation between them. The payload stack

4536-480: Was NASA's first space probe intended to reach the Moon. A partial failure caused it to instead follow a suborbital trajectory to an altitude of 113,854 kilometers (70,746 mi) before reentering the Earth's atmosphere 43 hours after launch. The most generally recognized boundary of space is the Kármán line 100 km (62 mi) above sea level. (NASA alternatively defines an astronaut as someone who has flown more than 80 km (50 mi) above sea level.) It

4608-614: Was closed for two years following a launch failure that caused significant damage to parts of the spaceport. It reopened in August 2016. Following the incorporation of the Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation in 1991 by the Alaska state legislature, plans were begun for the spaceport, known during development as the Alaska Orbital Launch Complex . Construction on the site began in January 1998, and

4680-440: Was demonstrated by deploying two ballast payloads into a 1,200 km (750 mi) orbit. The payload included the STPSat-2 spacecraft. STPSat-2 had 3 three experimental payloads: SPEX (Space Phenomenology Experiment) consisting of two payloads to evaluate sensor compatibility for the space environment, and ODTML (Ocean Data Telemetry MicroSatLink) a two-way data relay from terrestrial (ocean or land) sensors to users. STPSat 3

4752-659: Was expected to take place from 2022 onwards. Under the agreement, Alaska Aerospace and AgniKul will work together to secure several regulatory approvals including US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launch licensing, US export control, and will comply with export laws & regulations in India to receive necessary clearances from the Indian authorities as well. The aim is to define launch vehicle-spaceport interfaces, related procedures and conduct at least one test launch from PSCA. On 19 November 2021, Astra's LV0007 rocket achieved orbit from

4824-535: Was integrated using an ESPA ring . Two ESPA Grande rings were used to mount the six COSMIC-2 satellites beneath the upper payload adapter hosting the DSX payload and avionics modules. STP-2 also deployed a number of CubeSats as secondary payloads , including E-TBEx, PSAT, TEPCE, and ELaNa 15 CubeSats. LightSail 2 is carried by the Prox-1 nanosatellite. Other satellites and payloads included Oculus-ASR nanosatellite, GPIM , and

4896-657: Was published by Scottish astronomer and mathematician William Leitch , in an 1861 essay "A Journey Through Space". More well-known is Konstantin Tsiolkovsky 's work, " Исследование мировых пространств реактивными приборами " ( The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices ), published in 1903. In his work, Tsiolkovsky describes the fundamental rocket equation: Δ v = v e ln ⁡ m 0 m f {\displaystyle \Delta v=v_{e}\ln {\frac {m_{0}}{m_{f}}}} Where: This equation, known as

4968-678: Was the Columbia , followed by the Challenger , Discovery , Atlantis , and Endeavour . The Endeavour was built to replace the Challenger , which was lost in January 1986. The Columbia broke up during reentry in February 2003. Pacific Spaceport Complex %E2%80%93 Alaska The Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska ( PSCA ), formerly known as the Kodiak Launch Complex ( KLC ),

5040-556: Was the 26th small launch vehicle mission in STP's 40-year history of flying DoD space experiments, STP-S26 launched at 01:45 UTC on 20 November 2010 from the Kodiak Launch Complex . The launch facility contractor was Alaska Aerospace Corporation (AAC). The payloads were released in a 650 km (400 mi) orbit, before the Hydrazine Auxiliary Propulsion System ( HAPS ) upper stage, by Orbital Sciences Corporation ,

5112-520: Was the first external experiment on ISS. In addition, STS-105 retrieved and returned MACE II (Middeck Active Control Experiment II) from the ISS. MACE II was the first internal experiment on ISS and was operated for nearly a year. On 30 September 2001, STP and NASA launched the Kodiak Star mission on an Athena I launch vehicle . This was the first orbital launch out of Kodiak Island , Alaska . In addition to NASA's Starshine III spacecraft, this mission included three small DoD spacecraft which tested

5184-418: Was working with the Alaska Aerospace Corporation to prepare for flight operations of their "Corona" launch vehicle in 2020. As of 2022, however, none of these companies have launched anything from Alaska. Indian private space company Agnikul Cosmos signed a memorandum of agreement with Alaska Aerospace Corporation to test launch their Agnibaan rocket from the Pacific Spaceport Complex. The launch from Alaska

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