Tag: SpaceX
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Photos: SpaceX prepares to launch 25th Falcon 9 rocket
A Thai communications satellite is fastened to the top of SpaceX’s 229-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket for launch Thursday. See photos of the Falcon 9 and Thaicom 8 being prepared for liftoff. Launch is set for 5:40 p.m. EDT (2140 GMT) Thursday from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad. It will take 32 minutes for the…
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SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Thaicom 8 and nails another ASDS landing
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket made its twenty-fifth flight – and its second of the month – on Friday, deploying Thailand’s Thaicom 8 communications satellite. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral was moved to Friday, following a scrub during Thursday’s window due to an issue with an upper stage engine actuator, before launching on Friday, along with another first…
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Stressing caution, SpaceX delays commercial satellite launch
Photo credit: SpaceX SpaceX scrubbed a launch Thursday to investigate a “tiny glitch” in an upper stage engine actuator on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, delaying liftoff from Florida of a Thai communications satellite at least 24 hours. The launch firm said managers delayed the launch until no earlier than Friday “out of an abundance…
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SpaceX ‘on track’ to launch astronauts in late 2017
Artist’s concept of the Crew Dragon spacecraft in orbit. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX is on schedule to fly two NASA astronauts on a test flight to the International Space Station by the end of 2017, but there is a lot of work to do to ensure the company’s new Crew Dragon spaceship is up to the…
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Falcon 9 sails through customary preflight engine firing
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ignited its nine kerosene-fueled Merlin engines on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral on Tuesday evening in a critical milestone before liftoff with a commercial Thai communications satellite later in the week. Held down by restraints at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad, the two-stage booster fired its engines for…
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Timeline for Falcon 9’s launch of the Thaicom 8 satellite
The Falcon 9 rocket’s fifth flight of the year will take off from Cape Canaveral on Thursday, heaving the Thaicom 8 communications satellite into orbit on an easterly trajectory from Florida’s Space Coast. It will take about 32 minutes to inject the approximately 6,800-pound (3,100-kilogram) spacecraft into a highly elliptical geostationary transfer orbit on the…
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Latest recovered Falcon 9 first stage welcomed into 39A HIF
The recently recovered Falcon 9 first stage (F9-0024-S1) has arrived inside SpaceX’s Pad 39A Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) following its recovery after the JCSAT-14 launch. The stage is being housed alongside the other two recovered cores, providing a glimpse into the triple-core processing that will be conducted ahead of the maiden launch of the Falcon…
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Latest recovered Falcon 9 first stage welcomed into 39A HIF
The recently recovered Falcon 9 first stage (F9-0024-S1) has arrived inside SpaceX’s Pad 39A Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) following its recovery after the JCSAT-14 launch. The stage is being housed alongside the other two recovered cores, providing a glimpse into the triple-core processing that will be conducted ahead of the maiden launch of the Falcon…
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SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule splashes down, returning Scott Kelly’s samples
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule descends toward the Pacific at the end of its parachutes. (Credit: SpaceX) A month after delivering an expandable prototype habitat and other goodies to the International Space Station, SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean today with tons of equipment and scientific samples. Among the roughly 3,700 pounds of cargo are freezers…
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Cargo-carrying Dragon spaceship returns to Earth
The Dragon spacecraft descends to the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX’s Dragon supply ship departed the International Space Station on Wednesday, fired rocket thrusters to brake out of orbit, and parachuted to a picture-perfect splashdown in the Pacific Ocean with approximately 3,461 pounds (1,570 kilograms) of experiment samples and equipment. Concluding a 31-day…