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A navigation system that helps pilots make safe descents was turned off at San Francisco airport on Saturday when a South Korean airliner crashed and burned after undershooting the runway ... The system, called Glide Path, is meant to help planes land in bad weather. It was clear and sunny, with light winds, when Asiana ... San Francisco International has turned off the system for nearly the entire summer on the runway where the Asiana flight crashed, according to a notice from the airport on the Federal Aviation Administration's Web site

A Russian Proton launch vehicle placed the AMC-15 satellite into orbit this morning, marking the ninth mission of the year for International Launch Services (ILS). The Proton lifted off at 3:23 a.m. today in Baikonur (5:23 p.m. Thursday EDT, 21:23 Thursday GMT), with spacecraft separation from the Breeze M upper stage nearly seven hours later, at 10:18 a.m. (12:18 a.m. EDT, 4:18 GMT). ILS is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [NYSE:LMT] and Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center of Russia. ILS markets and manages the missions on the Proton vehicle and on the American Atlas rocket. “We thank...

International Launch Services (ILS), a Lockheed Martin Corp. joint venture, has been given the green light for what will be the first Atlas V launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The launch will be from Space Launch Complex (SLC) 3-East, which is being refurbished to support a late 2005 launch for this national security mission. The launch is for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), as one of 18 missions assigned to ILS and the Lockheed Martin-built Atlas V rocket under the U.S. Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. This is the formal contract for one of those...

TV Satellite Launched from Cape Canaveral TV Satellite Launched from Cape Canaveral CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - An Atlas 2 rocket carrying a television relay satellite launched successfully from Cape Canaveral on Thursday, the first of the year for International Launch Services. Lift-off came at 6:46 p.m. EST from launch complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Florida's Atlantic seaboard. The launch was delayed briefly by a balky valve during fueling. ILS, a partnership between Lockheed Martin Corp., builder of the Atlas rocket, and the Khrunichev Space Center in Russia, has 15 launches on its books for...

The largest and most powerful Atlas rocket in history rushed off its Cape Canaveral pad on a river of golden flame Thursday evening to expand Lockheed Martin's launcher family. The Atlas 5 rocket blasts off from Complex 41 carrying Rainbow 1. Credit: ILS Sporting new solid-fueled strap-on boosters for added liftoff power and a bulbous nose cone to house bigger satellite cargos, this latest version in the evolving line of Atlas rockets signaled the final qualification for pieces comprising the next-generation Atlas 5. "It is exciting that it puts the final exclamation point on the Atlas 5 family," said Adrian...