Tag: SpaceX
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SpaceX launches 350th mission using a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket booster during Starlink mission from California
File: A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch a Starlink mission. Image: SpaceX SpaceX aims notched another milestone in spaceflight reusability Wednesday night when it not only launched a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket booster for the 350th time in program history, but also performed its 300th successful booster landing. The Starlink 9-14 mission lifted…
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Trump nominates Jared Isaacman to serve as next NASA administrator
Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur with two commercial spaceflights to his credit and strong ties to Elon Musk and SpaceX, has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as NASA’s next administrator. Image: John Kraus/Inspiration4 Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, a veteran private astronaut with strong ties to Elon Musk and his rocket company SpaceX,…
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SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket booster for record 24th time
A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin a record-breaking 24th mission for booster B1067. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now Update 5:49 a.m. EST (1049 UTC): The first stage booster successfully landed on the droneship. SpaceX completed the first of three planned Falcon 9…
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Falcon 9 reaches a flight rate 30 times higher than shuttle at 1/100th the cost
SpaceX recently hit some notable milestones with its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, and even in the full context of history, the performance of the vehicle is pretty incredible. Last Tuesday, the company launched a batch of Starlink v2-mini satellites from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket, marking the 400th successful mission…
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Launch Roundup: Sentinel 1C and PROBA 3 among ten planned launches
This week is busy in spaceflight, with 10 orbital launches planned throughout the week. China has, as expected, continued its launch cadence from last week with three more launches this week. SpaceX planned to launch five Falcon 9 missions in five days with the launches of four Starlink missions and one customer payload but has…
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SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from the pad at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) to begin the Starlink 6-65 mission. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now Update 12:29 a.m. EST (0529 UTC): SpaceX landed the first stage booster on its droneship. SpaceX completed the first of its two final Falcon 9 launches of November, using…
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SpaceX launches combination of NRO Starshield and Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 flight
Nine Merlin 1D engines power the Falcon 9 rocket into space on the NROL-126 mission. Image: SpaceX. Update 10:24 a.m. EST (1524 UTC) Nov. 30: Added post-launch statement from the NRO. SpaceX launched a mission early Saturday that blends national security satellites with those supporting its non-governmental Starlink satellite network. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex…
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Rocket Report: A good week for Blue Origin; Italy wants its own launch capability
Welcome to Edition 7.21 of the Rocket Report! We’re publishing the Rocket Report a little early this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. We don’t expect any Thanksgiving rocket launches this year, but still, there’s a lot to cover from the last six days. It seems like we’ve seen the last…
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Starbase continues its rapid pace of advancement after Starship Flight 6
With a successful test of Starship Flight 6, SpaceX has continued building on its many projects around Starbase. Repair work has begun around the launch site, with damage found in different areas of the tower from prior launches. A proposed Gigabay could be coming to the Starbase production site shortly, and Ship 26 has finally…
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NASA awards SpaceX a contract for one of the few things it hasn’t done yet
When you compare SpaceX to the world’s other space enterprises, it’s probably easier to list the things SpaceX hasn’t done instead of reciting all of the company’s achievements. One of these is the launch of nuclear materials. SpaceX has launched a handful of planetary science missions for NASA, but these spacecraft have all used solar…