Tag: Launch
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China’s first launch of 2020 lofts mystery payload
A Long March 3B rocket lifts off Tuesday with the TJS 5 satellite. Credit: People’s Daily A Chinese Long March 3B rocket launched a satellite Tuesday toward a position in geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) above Earth. Chinese state media claimed the mysterious spacecraft has a communication and television broadcast mission,…
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Stacking of ULA’s next Atlas 5 rocket begins at Cape Canaveral
United Launch Alliance teams began stacking an Atlas 5 rocket inside a vertical hangar at Cape Canaveral Monday in preparation for an early February launch with the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, a joint U.S.-European probe that will take the first pictures of the sun’s poles. This week at Cape Canaveral’s Vertical Integration Facility, ULA technicians are…
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Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket launches on first mission of 2020
Live coverage of SpaceX’s preparations for the next Falcon 9 rocket launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The mission will launch SpaceX’s third batch of Starlink broadband satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Spaceflight Now members can watch a live feed of the launch pad. Our live…
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SpaceX test-fires rocket ahead of record-setting Starlink launch
The Falcon 9 rocket slated to launch SpaceX’s third batch of Starlink broadband satellites was test-fired Jan. 4 at Cape Canaveral. Credit: Steven Young/Spaceflight Now SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday at Cape Canaveral, two days before a scheduled launch Monday with 60 Starlink broadband relay stations that will make SpaceX the owner of…
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SpaceX drawing up plans for mobile gantry at launch pad 39A
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Feb. 27, 2020, with artist’s rendering and dimensions of the mobile gantry. A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket stands at launch pad 39A before liftoff in June 2019 on the STP-2 mission for the U.S. Air Force. Credit: SpaceX With construction already underway at Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A on facilities for SpaceX’s…
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Good weather predicted for Cape Canaveral’s first launch of 2020
File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now Forecasters predict near-ideal weather conditions Monday night for the first launch at Cape Canaveral this year, when SpaceX plans to send another 60 Starlink broadband satellites into orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The 60 small satellites…
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Russia retires Rockot launcher after liftoff with four satellites
The final flight of Russia’s Rockot launcher took off Thursday and placed four satellites into orbit nearly 1,000 miles above Earth, ending a run of 31 launches since May 2000. Derived from decommissioned Soviet-era missiles, the Rockot vehicles launched Russian military satellites, European Earth observation satellites, and payloads for NASA and Iridium during its…
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Successful Long March 5 launch paves way for new Chinese space missions
China’s third Long March 5 rocket lifts off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center. Credit: CCTV The third launch of China’s heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket successfully delivered its satellite payload to orbit Friday, validating engine design changes after a failure on the Long March 5’s second flight, and clearing the way for the launch…
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China’s Long March 5 rocket poised for crucial return-to-flight launch
China’s third Long March 5 rocket rolled out to its launch pad Dec. 21 at the Wenchang space center on Hainan Island. Credit: Xinhua China’s Long March 5 rocket — the country’s most powerful launcher — is set for its third flight Friday on a critical validation mission after a core stage engine failure doomed…
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Russia launches geostationary weather satellite
A Russian satellite launched Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, riding a Proton booster and Block DM upper stage toward a position in geostationary orbit to provide weather observations over Siberia, other parts of Russia’s Far East, and the Asia-Pacific region. The Elektro-L 3 weather satellite lifted off from Baikonur atop a Proton rocket…