Tag: f9
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Launch Roundup: Sentinel 1C and PROBA 3 among ten planned launches
This week is busy in spaceflight, with 10 orbital launches planned throughout the week. China has, as expected, continued its launch cadence from last week with three more launches this week. SpaceX planned to launch five Falcon 9 missions in five days with the launches of four Starlink missions and one customer payload but has…
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Launch Roundup: Falcon 9 launches continue, Rocket Lab to launch two Electrons, Russia to fly to ISS
Following the sixth flight of SpaceX’s Starship on Tuesday, eight additional orbital launches were planned worldwide. Rocket Lab launched an experimental hypersonic testbed payload using a modified Electron from Wallops. What’s more, a second Electron launched a batch of nanosatellites into low-Earth orbit from New Zealand less than 24 hours later. Meanwhile, SpaceX continued to…
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Launch Roundup: China launch crew to Tiangong Space Station, Russia launches military payload
In another busy week of launches, China launched three taikonauts to the Tiangong Space Station aboard a Chang Zheng rocket this week as part of the Shenzhou 19 mission. Additionally, both Russia and Japan launched military payloads. As usual, SpaceX continues to fly Starlink missions throughout the week. SpaceX’s CRS-31 mission, a Cargo Resupply Services…
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Launch Roundup: Delta IV swan song, Angara test flight from Russia, and three Falcon 9 flights
The second week of April not only has a long-awaited total solar eclipse but also orbital launches from Russia and the United States. Besides the long-awaited NROL-70 Delta IV Heavy finale, there was a test flight of the Russian Angara rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia and a handful of Falcon 9 launches. Delta…
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Launch Roundup: Delta IV Heavy swan song, Falcon 9 and Soyuz launches on tap for last week of March
A trio of Falcon 9 Starlink launches, a Falcon 9 non-Starlink launch involving an Eutelsat communications satellite, a Chinese launch, and a Russian Soyuz launch with a Resurs Earth observation satellite were scheduled for this week. However, the launch that will likely get the most attention is the final launch ever of a Delta family…
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Launch Roundup: two missions to the ISS, including first Dragon 2 from SLC-40
SpaceX is preparing to launch three Falcon 9s, including two Starlink missions. Additionally, launching this week are two Chinese rockets, an Electron, and a crewed Soyuz. SpaceX will continue to strive for a record-breaking year by launching from all three of its Falcon 9 launch pads this week, which will take its launch total to…
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Sierra Space tests upcoming in-space habitat as other commercial space stations continue development
On Jan. 21, Sierra Space performed an “ultimate burst pressure test” on a full-scale model of its Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE) habitat — an inflatable space station module. The launcher-agnostic habitat is designed to be launched encapsulated within any four-meter fairing, docked to a space station in orbit, and then inflated to a 9-meter…
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Launch Roundup: Axiom-3 crew and Tianzhou 7 cargo space station missions this week
A pair of missions to space stations headline the launches for the week of Jan. 10 to Jan. 17. Axiom-3 will be flying four private astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), becoming the first crew launch of 2024. Crew Dragon Freedom will fly from Florida, with a multinational crew, for a mission to the…
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Launch Roundup: Axiom-3 crew and Tianzhou 7 cargo space station missions this week
A pair of missions to space stations headline the launches for the week of Jan. 10 to Jan. 17. Axiom-3 will be flying four private astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), becoming the first crew launch of 2024. Crew Dragon Freedom will fly from Florida, with a multinational crew, for a mission to the…
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Launch Roundup: scrubs deny SpaceX its 100 Falcon launch goal; look to end the year with a 300th mission milestone
This week nearly saw two secret spaceplanes launched within days of each other. After ground systems concerns and then weather delays, the US Department of Defense’s X-37B vehicle had its OTV-7 launch on the Falcon Heavy USSF-52 mission scrubbed from its initial planned attempt on Dec. 11. Starlink Group 6-34 was also scrubbed that same…