SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts-off from Kennedy Space Center with Inmarsat 5 F4

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A high-speed broadband spacecraft designed to increase advanced data services to remote maritime and aviation locations lifted off on Monday from America's Space Coast.

Inmarsat 5 F4 Global Xpress satellite will expand high-speed broadband connectivity across the planet with Ka-Band service. The $240 million spacecraft will soon join a fleet of three fifth-generation telecommunications satellites in geo-stationary orbit.

Built by Boeing in El Segundo, California, the global communications spacecraft has twin solar arrays for a combined 42 meters -- longer than that of a Boeing 737 aircraft. Inmarsat is scheduled to operate on orbit for approximately 15 years.

"It's been a great afternoon and evening out at Kennedy Space Center," stated John Insprucker, SpaceX principal integration engineer, minutes following the craft release into space. "We counted down with excellent weather; launched right on time -- the first stage did great, the second stage went through two burns just as planned. Now, we've topped it off with the separation of Inmarsat 5 F4 for our Inmarsat customer."


A flawless countdown lead the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Falcon 9 to ignite it's nine Merlin engines on time, launching from the Kennedy Space Center's historic pad 39-A at 7:21 p.m. EDT. The white candlestick soared straight up and into the light blue clear skies before it began to veer toward the eastern horizon.

Air Force X-37B Space Shuttle Lands After 718 Days in Space

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The U.S. Air Force unmanned scientific and military research space shuttle safely returned to America's Space Coast on Sunday completing 718 days in orbit.

The fourth flight of the fully automated shuttle began its deorbit early Sunday, and reentered the Earth's atmosphere about 25 minutes prior to the 8:00 a.m. EDT landing at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility.

"The landing of OTV-4 marks another success for the X-37B program and the nation," Lt. Col. Ron Fehlen, X-37B program manager, said. "This mission once again set an on-orbit endurance record and marks the vehicle's first landing in the state of Florida. We are incredibly pleased with the performance of the space vehicle and are excited about the data gathered to support the scientific and space communities."

Sunday's landing marked the X-37B's first return from space to land at the Florida Spaceport, and it will not be the last. The X-37B manufacture Boeing is renting the space center's Orbiter Processing Facility bay 1 to off-load experiments, refurbish the craft, and prepare it for relaunch from the Cape. Bay 1 was used for over three decades to service NASA's fleet of space shuttle's.

Once the command to return to Earth is given by the Air Force, the X-37B automatically descends from low earth orbit, reenters, and flies through the atmosphere to land on a planned runway. There is no one in a control room with a joystick flying it.

The program's fourth test flight into future robotic space planes began with its launch a top a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket in May 2015 from Cape Canaveral AFS. The 29-foot long shuttle resembles NASA's space shuttle orbiters at first glance, however the X-37B is 80% smaller fitted with small wings, twin vertical stableizers, and a windowless avionics cockpit.

“Today marks an incredibly exciting day for the 45th Space Wing as we continue to break barriers,” Brig. Gen. Wayne Monteith, commander of 45th Space Wing said. “Our team has been preparing for this event for several years, and I am extremely proud to see our hard work and dedication culminate in today’s safe and successful landing of the X-37B.”

In 1999, NASA begun the X37 project, however the space agency handed it over to DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in September 2004. DARPA is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

DARPA, originally formed in 1958 as the Advanced Research Projects Agency, is an office designed to prevent technological surprises against the United States, such as the Soviets launch of Sputnik in 1957. The OTV project partnership between the military, DARPA and NASA was announced in October 2006.

This flight was performed by the second mini shuttle of the Air Force's two shuttle fleet. The Air Force office also announced on Sunday the next X-37B will launch in late-2017. That launch will see the reflight of Boeing's first flown shuttle on it's third mission.

(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace and technology. Follow his updates via social media @Military_Flight.)