Tag: Launch
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United Launch Alliance nears first fueling test on Vulcan rocket
A pathfinder core stage for ULA’s Vulcan rocket on pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station earlier this year. The Vertical Integration Facility is pictured in the background. Credit: United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance could load cryogenic methane and liquid oxygen propellants into a Vulcan rocket test article at Cape Canaveral for the…
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Chinese Long March rocket launches oceanography satellite
A Long March 4B rocket takes off with China’s Haiyang 2D oceanography satellite. Credit: Xinhua A Long March 4B rocket successfully launched an oceanography satellite Wednesday from northwestern China, hours before officials at a different spaceport scrubbed the planned launch of a cargo ship to deliver supplies to the Chinese space station. China’s unpiloted Tianzhou…
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Tyvak smallsat launched by SpaceX to validate miniature space debris telescope
File photo of a Tyvak-built 6U CubeSat being placed Ito its launch dispenser. Credit: Tyvak Tyvak, a manufacturer of small satellites, disclosed new details Monday about an experimental spacecraft launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Saturday, revealing plans to validate compact optical telescopes that could offer a new way to monitor space traffic and…
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SpaceX ramps up launch rate with fifth Falcon 9 mission in three weeks
A Falcon 9 rocket climbs away from pad 39A Saturday. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now SpaceX’s fifth Falcon 9 launch in a little more than three weeks delivered 52 more Starlink internet satellites and two small hitchhiker payloads to orbit after a booming blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday evening. The kerosene-fueled…
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Two BlackSky satellites lost on Rocket Lab launch failure
An Electron rocket lifts off at 7:11 a.m. EDT (1111 GMT) Saturday from Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. Credit: Rocket Lab A Rocket Lab Electron launcher malfunctioned about two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff from New Zealand Saturday, destroying two BlackSky Earth-imaging satellites in the launch company’s second failed flight in less than a year. Rocket Lab,…
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Photos: Falcon 9 stands ready for weekend launch
Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stood atop historic launch pad 39A Saturday afternoon as teams counted down to liftoff with 52 more Starlink internet satellites and two hitchhiker payloads. Weather permitting, the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) launcher was set for liftoff at 6:54 p.m. EDT (2254 GMT) on SpaceX’s 15th Falcon 9 flight…
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Live coverage: Rocket Lab’s upper stage runs into trouble soon after launch
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand carrying two BlackSky optical Earth observation satellites. Rocket Lab will attempt to recover the first stage at sea. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Rocket Lab’s live video webcast begins approximately…
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Live coverage: SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will launch SpaceX’s next batch of Starlink broadband satellites. There are 52 Starlink satellites on this mission, plus two rideshare payloads from Capella Space and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems. Text updates…
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Two hitchhiker smallsats to accompany SpaceX’s next Starlink mission into orbit
Artist’s concept of a Capella synthetic aperture radar satellite. Credit: Capella Space An innovative commercial Capella radar observation spacecraft with night vision and a small payload from the California-based smallsat manufacturer Tyvak are set to ride into orbit from Florida’s Space Coast Saturday with 52 more Starlink internet satellites on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.…
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Rocket Lab ready for second booster recovery attempt
Rocket Lab’s Electron launcher during a countdown dress rehearsal earlier this month. Credit: Rocket Lab The scheduled launch Saturday of two commercial BlackSky Earth-imaging satellites from New Zealand will double as an opportunity for Rocket Lab to test an enhanced heat shield on its Electron booster, an upgrade that should allow the company to recover…