Tag: SpaceX
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As Ball completes design review for IXPE, SpaceX launch contract points to growing mission profiles
NASA’s award to SpaceX for the launch contract for their future X-ray telescope, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), points to SpaceX’s growing launch profile options for customers. This spacecraft would normally be a Pegasus mission due to its orbital requirements. However, SpaceX offered the capability via Falcon 9 and at a lower cost. IXPE…
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CRS-18 Dragon arrives at the ISS following Falcon 9 launch
Following the launch of SpaceX’s 18th Commercial Resupply Services 1 contracted cargo mission, the CRS-18 Dragon has arrived at the International Space Station on behalf of NASA. CRS-18 was scheduled to launch from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, on Thursday, 24 July 2019 in an instantaneous, single second launch window. Dragon…
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SpaceX’s Starship prototype aces first untethered hop test
SpaceX’s Starship Hopper is seen through a cloud of smoke in this view from an airborne drone during Thursday night’s test. Credit: SpaceX An early test model of SpaceX’s Starship vehicle, which billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk says will carry people and cargo to the moon and Mars, briefly left the ground in South Texas on…
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SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches Dragon cargo capsule to slime the space station
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from its Florida launch pad. (SpaceX via YouTube) SpaceX has launched the same robotic Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station for a third time, sending about 5,000 pounds of cargo that includes a bag of goopy green slime. The slime, provided by Nickelodeon, will be used on…
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Starhopper successfully conducts debut Boca Chica Hop
SpaceX’s Starhopper has successfully undertaken its first real hop into the Texas air on Thursday. The Hop saw the vehicle rise under the power of its Raptor (SN6) engine, around 20 meters in altitude, before translating several meters from where it launched. Elon Musk said the hop was successful and next will be a hop…
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They choose to avoid the moon: Anti-space event in Seattle urges Bezos and others to focus on Earth
Artwork by Kelsey Gallo, depicting an Amazon space shuttle and printed on used Amazon boxes, will be part of the Salish Sea Anti-Space Symposium in Seattle. (Courtesy of Kelsey Gallo) Daniel Smith is over the moon. As in, he’s kind of done hearing about it and the hype surrounding Saturday’s 50th anniversary of the Apollo…
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Falcon 9 finally conducts Static Fire test ahead of CRS-18 mission
SpaceX is preparing to launch its eighteenth contracted Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission to the International Space Station using its Cargo Dragon spacecraft – with a target launch date of Wednesday. A key test ahead of the launch was the Static Fire test of the Falcon 9 booster tasked with launching the CRS-18 Dragon, which…
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SpaceX reports milestone for Starlink satellite links — and sparks a debate
An artist’s conception shows the deployment of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. (SpaceX Illustration) In the wake of last month’s launch of 60 Starlink broadband data satellites, SpaceX says all but three of them are in communication with the company’s network of ground stations, including the satellite operation’s home base in Redmond, Wash. In an emailed update,…
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SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket puts a solar sail and scads of other experiments in orbit
Launch pad video shows the Falcon Heavy liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. (SpaceX via YouTube) SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket had its first night launch tonight, sending 24 different spacecraft toward three different types of orbit to test a wide range of technologies. The triple-barreled rocket rose into the sky from Launch Complex 39A at…
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SpaceX completes most-challenging flight with Falcon Heavy’s STP-2 mission
After years of payload preparation, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket launched one of the company’s most-challenging missions to date. Space Test Program 2 (STP-2), a U.S. Air Force contracted flight with 24 government and civilian testbed payloads, launch within at 4-hour launch window from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The launch window opened at…