Rocket Science

As explosive and disastrous as this might look, this attempt is extremely close to a success, and on the first try. That's pretty incredible

An American Atlas V 401 rocket successfully launched today, October 29th 2014, at 17:21 UTC carrying the GPS IIF-8 satellite into orbit for the US Air Force. The Atlas V 401 rocket was the 50th launch of an Atlas V vehicle. This is ULA's 12th launch in 2014, and the 89th successful launch since the company was formed in December 2006.

SpaceX has been launching rockets in Florida or California for quite some time, but Texas will likely see most of the action once the company finishes building its new spaceport in Cameron County. While SpaceX CEO Elon Musk hasn't made an official announcement yet, a Florida official (who's understandably disappointed by the development) confirmed that the Lone Star State has indeed landed the contract. In fact, the Federal Aviation Administration already gave SpaceX its blessing to do 12 launches per year (mostly of its Falcon 9 and upcoming Falcon Heavy rockets) from the 56.5 acre site.

NASA's Orion spacecraft, which could one day send astronauts to Mars, is stuck on terra firma for at least another day after the space agency's mission control was unable to satisfactorily resolve a number of issues before a 9:45 a.m. ET launch window closed.

The unmanned vehicle is awaiting its first test in Earth orbit. But after multiple delays for high winds and a stuck liquid-oxygen drain valve on one or more of the Delta IV Heavy rocket's booster engines, NASA didn't have time to get the rocket off the pad. It will try again Friday morning.