Tag: SpaceX
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SES signs up for launch with more powerful Falcon 9 engines
A Falcon 9 rocket launches Feb. 11 with NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory. Credit: NASA/Tony Gray A communications payload owned by the Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES will ride the first launch of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket in mid-2015, SES officials said Friday. The decision comes after a review of the risks of launching the…
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Falcon Heavy into production as Pad 39A HIF rises out of the ground
SpaceX’s new rocket system, the Falcon Heavy, is continuing preparations for her 2015 debut, with work taking place around the country. Modifications to Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) are now making visible progress, in tandem with the opening hardware fabrication and testing at SpaceX assets – hardware that is being born with SpaceX’s…
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SpaceX leases property for landing pads at Cape Canaveral, Vandenberg
Artist’s concept of a Falcon rocket stage on final descent to a vertical propulsive landing as envisioned by SpaceX. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX plans to set up landing pads on abandoned launch sites at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force Base in a step toward the company’s vision for eventual recovery and reuse of rocket boosters.…
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Arianespace edges out SpaceX to launch Korean satellites
An Ariane 5 rocket lifts off on Dec. 6, 2014, with two commercial satellites. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG Two South Korean Earth-watching satellites will ride Ariane 5 rockets into orbit in 2018 and 2019 after Arianespace beat SpaceX in a competition to launch the spacecraft, Korean and Arianespace officials announced Friday.…
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SpaceX founder Elon Musk inks $3.5M book deal to write about Earth and Mars
Elon Musk Like he needed the cash, Tesla and SpaceX head honcho Elon Musk just signed a $3.5 million book deal with Penguin. Details are scarce at this point, but apparently it’s a book about Earth and Mars, “half about the issues facing us on Earth — sustainability issues in particular. The second half will be about the…
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Photos: Falcon 9 soars into space at sunset
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral on its 15th flight just before sunset Wednesday, putting on a spectacular sky show en route to space with a NOAA satellite to measure the solar wind. The 224-foot-tall booster launched at 6:03 p.m. EST (2303 GMT) from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad, pitched east-northeast…
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Space weather observatory blasts off after 17-year wait
The Falcon 9 rocket lifts off at 6:03 p.m. EST (2303 GMT) with the Deep Space Climate Observatory. Credit: SpaceX An interplanetary space weather station rocketed away from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday, speeding toward a remote operating post a million miles from Earth to help forecasters warn of intense solar…
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SpaceX to forgo booster recovery on Wednesday’s launch
A view of SpaceX’s rocket landing ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: SpaceX via Elon Musk SpaceX says it is giving up on landing the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean after Wednesday’s launch of a NOAA space weather observatory due to rough seas in the booster recovery zone…
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SpaceX to forgo booster recovery on Wednesday’s launch
A view of SpaceX’s rocket landing ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: SpaceX via Elon Musk SpaceX says it is giving up on landing the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean after Wednesday’s launch of a NOAA space weather observatory due to rough seas in the booster recovery zone…
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Commercial Dragon supply ship returns to Earth
Photo credit: SpaceX via Elon Musk SpaceX’s Dragon supply ship wrapped up a 29-day stay at the International Space Station on Tuesday, departing the complex with nearly 3,700 pounds of research specimens, a balky spacesuit and experimental 3D printed parts before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. The splashdown at 7:44…