Tag: Complex 40
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Quick work saved the OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission from nearby explosion
Smoke pours off Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad shortly after a Sept. 1 explosion. Credit: U.S. Air Force Engineers scrambled to keep NASA’s billion-dollar asteroid-bound OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on track for its launch last week in the aftermath of an explosion a mile away at SpaceX’s launch pad at Cape Canaveral. Quick action by safety…
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Musk: No answers so far in ‘difficult’ failure investigation
Credit: US Launch Report SpaceX is more than a week into a company-led probe of a launch pad explosion Sept. 1 that destroyed a Falcon 9 booster and an Israeli communications satellite, but the investigation so far has turned up no smoking gun on the cause of the mishap, Elon Musk said Friday. In a…
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SpaceX may turn to other launch pads when rocket flights resume
Updated on Wednesday with new images of Complex 40 and Pad 39A. SpaceX says launch pad 39A, last used by the space shuttle program in 2011, should be ready for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches in November. Credit: NASA Ground crews could face months of cleanup and repairs to SpaceX’s primary launch pad at Cape…
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Spacecom to recoup value of lost satellite, could ask SpaceX for compensation
File photo of the Amos 6 satellite during ground testing. Credit: Spacecom Ltd. The Israeli company which owned a commercial communications satellite destroyed in an explosion last week at SpaceX’s launch pad in Florida will receive more than $200 million in payouts stemming from the incident, and hopes to purchase a replacement, officials said Monday.…
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SpaceX rocket and Israeli satellite destroyed in launch pad explosion
Updated with quotes and 45th Space Wing release. Credit: US Launch Report A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded in the final minutes of a simulated countdown at Cape Canaveral on Thursday, destroying the booster and an Israeli communications satellite valued at nearly $200 million. The mishap on Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad Thursday will…
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Video: Falcon 9 rocket explodes on the launch pad
Watch as a 23-story Falcon 9 rocket explodes Thursday morning during a countdown before a pre-launch engine hotfire test at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad. The video was captured a few miles from the launch pad by U.S. Launch Report and posted on YouTube. The incident occurred at 9:07 a.m. EDT (1307 GMT), a…
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Tropical storm could be a factor in SpaceX launch Saturday
File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket before a launch in May. Credit: SpaceX Weather forecasters at Cape Canaveral are keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Hermine in the Gulf of Mexico in case winds and thick clouds from the cyclone threaten the scheduled launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket early Saturday. The Falcon…
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SES agrees to launch satellite on ‘flight-proven’ Falcon 9 rocket
File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket launch. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX and SES, an international communications satellite operator based in Luxembourg, have agreed to place the SES 10 television relay craft aboard the first launch of a reused “flight-proven” Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral as soon as October, the companies announced Tuesday. The agreement…
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One of NASA’s cleanest spacecraft ever is ready to fly
A member of the OSIRIS-REx team prepares the spacecraft for launch Sept. 8. The Atlas 5 rocket’s payload fairing is in the background. Credit: Ben Cooper/Launchphotography.com Five years after winning $1 billion from NASA to mount the first U.S. asteroid sample return mission, scientists and engineers will get their last look at the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft…
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Photos: Falcon 9 climbs away from Cape Canaveral with JCSAT 16
The Falcon 9 rocket’s eighth flight of 2016 took off from Cape Canaveral early Sunday with the Japanese JCSAT 16 communications satellite, setting a new mark for the most launches made by SpaceX in a single year. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket blasted off at 1:26 a.m. EDT (0526 GMT) Sunday from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40…