Tag: Falcon
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SpaceX achieves record-breaking 2024, looks ahead to 2025
SpaceX is gearing up for another record-breaking year in 2025 after surpassing all previous record-breaking years in 2024. The company launched 138 times in 2024, 134 of which were with its Falcon family of rockets. While SpaceX suffered three mishaps during the third quarter of the year, the company was able to fix these issues…
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Starship and other launch site preparations in Florida moving into a higher gear
The long-awaited Starship ramp-up in Florida has begun, with work increasing at Pad 39A on the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) grounds. NSF obtained pictures of these preparations during a Cape flight, and companies like Stoke Space and Relativity are also proceeding with construction for flights scheduled for 2025 or 2026. Starship SpaceX started preparations for…
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Launch Roundup: ZhuQue-2E and Chang Zheng 12 take first flights; SpaceX launches classified mission
This week Landspace debuted the enhanced version of its ZhuQue-2 rocket and the Chang Zheng 12 rocket has also taken its maiden flight. Roscosmos has launched one of two planned Soyuz missions – the highly classified mission from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome has now been delayed until next week. In contrast, four Falcon 9 missions are…
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Launch Roundup: Falcon 9 launches customer payloads, China fly resupply mission to Tiangong
While SpaceX flew Starship on its sixth integrated test flight, the company also flew three satellites to geostationary transfer orbit this week. Koreasat 6A, Optus-X, and GSAT-20 were launched. Meanwhile, four Starlink missions also flew this week. Finally, Starship Flight 6 was moved to Tuesday, Nov. 19 and was launched successfully on that day. Starlink…
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Launch Roundup: SpaceX launches cargo resupply mission to ISS, Roscosmos and Rocket Lab also launch
This week got off to a flying start when new science experiments and cargo were launched to the International Space Station, and Roscosmos launched ionospheric research satellites. Rocket Lab has also launched its Electron rocket on the company’s quickest turnaround mission to date this week. Following a scrub of Sunday’s Starlink mission just moments before…
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Launch Roundup: SpaceX launches 400th orbital flight; Blue Origin, China launch missions
Blue Origin tested its second human-rated New Shepard capsule this week, which had been delayed twice since the start of the month. The week has also seen two launches from China while a fourth flight of the Japanese H3 rocket carrying a communications satellite for the Japanese military has now been delayed until next week.…
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NASA, SpaceX launch historic Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter
NASA and SpaceX have launched NASA’s Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Falcon Heavy launched during an instantaneous launch window on Monday, Oct. 14, at 12:05 PM EDT (16:05 UTC) from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. If Monday’s attempt…
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Launch Roundup: Europa Clipper launches, Starlink launches return
The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) recent decision to clear SpaceX’s Falcon 9 for a return to all flights paved the way for a busy week of launches. Before Falcon 9 returned to flying regular Starlink missions, though, a Falcon Heavy launch with NASA’s Europa Clipper mission started the week off. Following Europa Clipper’s launch, SpaceX…
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SpaceX navigates Q3 anomalies, starting ambitious Q4 goals
SpaceX’s record-breaking streak of successful launches and landings ended during the third quarter of 2024, having suffered a failure during launch with Falcon 9’s second stage and a Falcon 9 first stage landing failure. More recently, a third issue arose during the disposal of a Falcon 9 second stage after it had successfully completed its…
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SpaceX launches Transporter-11 rideshare with 116 payloads
On Friday, Aug. 15, 2024, SpaceX launched the Transporter-11 rideshare mission from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB). Liftoff occurred at 11:56 AM PT (18:56 UTC), 36 minutes into a 53-minute launch window. At the end of the mission SpaceX declared that all payloads were successfully deployed. Payloads were deployed…