Tag: f9
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SpaceX evolving fairing recovery plans, taking advantage of Octagrabber in pursuit of rapid reusability
SpaceX set a company record with 25 orbital launches in 2020. All but five of these missions utilized flight proven boosters, and 14 payload fairing halves were re-flown. As the company aims to almost double that cadence in 2021, they’ll continue to rely on their recovery fleet to bring boosters and fairings back to dry…
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SpaceX successfully launches long-delayed Starlink L-17 mission
SpaceX launched the Starlink v1.0 L17 mission with a new batch of Starlink satellites from historic LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center aboard a flight proven Falcon 9 booster Thursday morning. The previous launch attempt on Sunday, February 28 ended in a scrub at T-1 minute 24 seconds. Falcon 9 launched at 03:24 EST (08:24…
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DART delayed to November launch as environmental testing begins
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft has been moved to its secondary launch window as it begins thermal and environmental testing. The new launch date of November 24, 2021 is a delay from an original target of July 21. DART is NASA’s first planetary defense demonstration, planned to change an asteroid’s orbit by a…
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After month-long stand down, SpaceX launches fourth GPS III launch
SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 mission with the fourth GPSII satellite at 18:24 EST (23:24 UTC) on Thursday, 5 November. The launch followed a scrub on 2 October, when Falcon 9 aborted two seconds before liftoff. The resulting investigation identified an issue within the gas generators on some first stage engines and prompted several…
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SpaceX Falcon 9 launches latest Starlink mission
SpaceX continued deploying its Starlink constellation with the launch of another sixty satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday. Liftoff from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center occurred at 08:25 Eastern Time (12:25 UTC). Sunday’s launch was the thirteenth Falcon 9 mission to deploy operational Starlink satellites, designated Starlink v1.0 L13. This continues the first phase…
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SpaceX Manifest Takes Shape as Falcon Heavy Hardware Arrives at McGregor
A new Falcon booster has been installed on the test stand at SpaceX’s Rocket Development and Test Facility in McGregor, Texas. Based on the logos and hardware on the exterior of the booster, the stage has been identified as a Falcon Heavy side booster, slated to support the next flight of SpaceX’s heavy lift rocket…