Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket successfully places Cygnus freighter into orbit
Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket tonight successfully launched a Cygnus freighter into orbit to ISS, flying for the last time with a first stage built in the Ukraine with engines from Russia.
Until Firefly can provide Northrop Grumman with a new American-made first stage, for the next three Cygnus cargo missions to ISS the company has purchased SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
This was Northrop Grumman’s first launch in 2023, so there is no change to the leader board in the 2023 launch race:
51 SpaceX
30 China
9 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
6 India
American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches 59 to 30, and the entire world combined 59 to 50, with SpaceX by itself still leading the entire world (excluding American companies) 51 to 50.
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In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket tonight successfully launched a Cygnus freighter into orbit to ISS, flying for the last time with a first stage built in the Ukraine with engines from Russia.
Until Firefly can provide Northrop Grumman with a new American-made first stage, for the next three Cygnus cargo missions to ISS the company has purchased SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
This was Northrop Grumman’s first launch in 2023, so there is no change to the leader board in the 2023 launch race:
51 SpaceX
30 China
9 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
6 India
American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches 59 to 30, and the entire world combined 59 to 50, with SpaceX by itself still leading the entire world (excluding American companies) 51 to 50.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
In some ways, Cygnus is a real accomplishment. It will be launching on 5 different vehicles…
Antares 1xx series
Atlas V
Antares 2xx series
Falcon 9
Antares 3xx series
That is kind of cool Mayb only GPS comes close to that record of different launch vehicles?
Falcon 9, Atlas V, Atlas II what else? I cannot be bothered to look it up.
geoffc kind of asked: “That is kind of cool Mayb only GPS comes close to that record of different launch vehicles?”
Iridium initially launched on a wide variety of launch vehicles, too. Wikipedia says the first generation launched on four vehicles: U.S. Delta II, Russia’s Proton-K/DM2 and /strong>Rokot/Briz-KM, and China’s Long March 2C/SD.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellation#First_generation
The point is a good one, though. Most satellites and probes are designed to be able to handle the conditions and fairing envelopes of three or so launch vehicles, in case a backup is necessary, but not many get to fly on very many different vehicles. Even each generation of GPS may not have flown on five different vehicles. Some of the GPS antennas were sensitive information, so it probably only launched on U.S. vehicles, limiting the number of different vehicles for each generation of satellite.