Tag: SpaceX
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Spaceport America set for SpaceX reusability testing
SpaceX’s reusability aspirations will receive further testing at Spaceport America, in the shape of the first successfully recovered Falcon 9 first stage. The New Mexico spaceport will host the recovered booster – potentially the core stage from the upcoming CRS-6 mission, if recovered – for an additional flight to find hardware limits, paving the way for…
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SpaceX puts off next Falcon 9 launch
File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX’s next launch with a European-built communications satellite has been delayed to no earlier than March 28 to study a problem with a helium pressurization system on the Falcon 9 rocket, officials said Tuesday. The liftoff was set for…
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Weeks from another launch, SpaceX keeping pace with manifest
File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket inside SpaceX’s hangar at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad. Credit: SpaceX The next launch in SpaceX’s busy manifest this year is scheduled for March 21, when a Falcon 9 rocket will take off from Cape Canaveral and deliver Turkmenistan’s first satellite into orbit. The liftoff from SpaceX’s…
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NASA orders missions to resupply space station in 2017
A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft approaches the International Space Station in September 2014. Credit: NASA NASA has ordered four additional launches to deliver cargo to the International Space Station in 2017 — three from SpaceX and one from Orbital ATK — to cover the research lab’s logistics needs until a new set of resupply contracts take…
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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin dealt setback in patent dispute with SpaceX over rocket landings
The “autonomous spaceport drone ship” that SpaceX built to recover the Falcon 9 first stage. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has won a key preliminary ruling in its dispute with Blue Origin over a patent received by the Jeff Bezos-backed commercial space venture covering the landing of rockets at sea. Elon Musk announces the opening of SpaceX’s Seattle-area engineering office.…
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Commercial crew demo missions manifested for Dragon 2 and CST-100
Mission planners at NASA have installed four Commercial Crew demonstration missions into the International Space Station (ISS) manifest. Both SpaceX’s Dragon 2 (V2) and Boeing’s CST-100 will conduct uncrewed and crewed qualification missions – beginning as early as December, 2016 – prior to the awarding of the US Crew Vehicle -1 (USCV-1) mission for NASA.…
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Photos: Last look at Sunday’s launch by SpaceX
Sunday’s liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket marked the 16th flight of SpaceX’s workhorse launcher, and its third mission of the year. The rocket carried two communications satellites into orbit for Eutelsat and Asia Broadcast Satellite. Here is another set of launch photos from SpaceX. Photo credit: SpaceX Photo credit: SpaceX Photo credit: SpaceX Photo…
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SpaceX Falcon 9 launches debut dual satellite mission
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket made its sixteenth launch Sunday, carrying a pair of commercial communications satellites in the company’s first dual launch to a geosynchronous transfer orbit. The Falcon departed at the first attempt from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 at the start of a 44-minute window that opened at 22:50 local time (03:50…
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Falcon 9 launch timeline with Eutelsat 115 West B and ABS 3A
Follow the key events of the Falcon 9 rocket’s ascent into space from Cape Canaveral with the Eutelsat 115 West B and ABS 3A communications satellites. Launch is set for 10:50 p.m. EST on March 1 (0350 GMT on March 2) from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad. The satellites will be deployed in a…
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Legless Falcon 9 conducts Static Fire test ahead of Sunday launch
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 v1.1 has conducted a Static Fire – or Hot Fire – test at Cape Canaveral’s SLC-40 ahead of Sunday’s mission to loft the ABS-3A and Eutelsat 115 West B satellites into orbit. This mission won’t involve a propulsive landing on the company’s ASDS, although it will still provide another milestone for SpaceX –…