Tag: Falcon 9
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‘Big three’ nab commercial launch contracts
File photo of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX announced Monday two new Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rocket missions from Cape Canaveral, Arianespace said it cinched a contract to launch a Japanese TV broadcasting satellite, and International Launch Services revealed a deal to launch a Spanish telecommunications payload,…
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SpaceX conducts additional Falcon 9 improvements ahead of busy schedule
SpaceX engineers are busily processing the Falcon 9 fleet for a salvo of missions that will mark the company’s return from the CRS-7 failure. The replacement of helium bottle support struts – one of which is suspected to have caused the CRS-7 mishap in June – is being conducted alongside additional changes, as SpaceX prepare…
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Falcon 9 rocket to be grounded longer than expected
File photo of a Falcon 9 launch in February 2015. Credit: NASA/KSC The beginning of November will be the earliest SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket can resume launching after a June 28 failure blamed on a deficient structural support brace inside the the vehicle’s second stage, a SpaceX executive said Monday. The next launch will be…
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SpaceX Falcon 9 failure investigation focuses on COPV struts
SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk has updated the status of the investigation into the failure of the Falcon 9 rocket during its ill-fated CRS-7 Dragon mission. The preliminary findings point to a support strut in the Second Stage LOX tank breaking, releasing a helium pressurization bottle (Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel) that began the…
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Support strut probable cause of Falcon 9 failure
Updated at 9 p.m. EDT with SpaceX statement A faulty support strut inside the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage liquid oxygen tank likely broke free during a June 28 space station resupply launch, destroying the booster minutes after liftoff in a cloud of debris over the Atlantic Ocean, SpaceX chief Elon Musk said Monday. While…
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Musk: Falcon 9 rocket failure a “huge blow” to SpaceX
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket broke apart approximately 139 seconds after launch June 28. Credit: Walter Scriptunas II/Scriptunas Images Speaking publicly for the first time since a Falcon 9 rocket failure that destroyed a Dragon cargo capsule for the International Space Station, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Tuesday that engineers are still piecing together what happened…
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SpaceX working toward Falcon 9 diagnosis ahead of treatment
SpaceX is deep into an internal mishap investigation following the loss during First Stage flight of a Falcon 9 rocket with the CRS-7 Dragon. While the Second Stage is considered to be the main culprit for the failure, investigators are currently gathering data to reconstruct the final moments of Falcon 9’s flight as recovery teams attempt to retrieve the rocket’s remains to further aid…
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Air Force stays the course with SpaceX rocket certification
File photo of a previous Falcon 9 launch. Credit: SpaceX Sunday’s Falcon 9 rocket failure may have blemished SpaceX’s success record, but the mishap will not keep the entrepreneurial space company from competing for U.S. military launch contracts with rival United Launch Alliance, according to an Air Force general. SpaceX won certification from the Air…
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Data, not debris, takes spotlight in Falcon 9 failure investigation
Although recovery teams in the Atlantic Ocean have retrieved wreckage from Sunday’s Falcon 9 launch failure, the best clues to the cause of the crash lie in raw data transmitted from the rocket as it disintegrated, SpaceX officials said Wednesday. Officials with the California-based rocket company said there is no breakthrough in the investigation into…
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Photos: Falcon 9 blasts off, then breaks apart in mid-air
Cameras positioned around SpaceX’s launch facility at Cape Canaveral captured stunning photos of the Falcon 9 rocket’s picturesque blastoff into a sun-splashed sky Sunday morning, but the photogenic launch went awry minutes later. Photo credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Scriptunas Images Email the author. Follow Stephen Clark on…