Tag: SpaceX
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SpaceX completes 300th booster reflight during first of planned back-to-back Falcon 9 launches
A Falcon 9 rocket stands at the ready to support the Starlink 10-4 mission, which will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on July 28, 2024. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now Update 2:13 a.m. EDT: SpaceX confirmed successful deployment of the Starlink satellites. SpaceX continued its post-mishap resurgence with the…
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SpaceX launched 21 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base
A stack of SpaceX Starlink satellites, which included the first six featuring Direct to Cell capabilities. The batch launched on the Starlink 7-9 mission, which lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Jan. 2, 2024. Image: SpaceX Update 6:23 a.m. EDT: SpaceX confirmed successful deployment of the 21 Starlink satellites. Hours after a successful…
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NASA nears decision on what to do with Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft
The astronauts who rode Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station last month still don’t know when they will return to Earth. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been in space for 51 days, six weeks longer than originally planned, as engineers on the groundwork through problems with Starliner’s propulsion system. The problems…
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SpaceX roars back to orbit barely two weeks after in-flight anomaly
Early on Saturday morning, at 1:45 am local time, a Falcon 9 rocket soared into orbit from its launch site at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. By some measures this was an extremely routine mission—it was, after all, SpaceX’s 73rd launch of this calendar year. And like many other Falcon 9 launches this year, the…
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Falcon 9’s return to flight reminds spaceflight industry of past anomalies
Nearly every rocket that has flown has had an anomaly. With thousands of components that all need to work in perfect harmony to have a successful mission, there is likely to be one component that is unable to perform every once in a while. While witnessing an anomaly in spaceflight is not as improbable as…
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SpaceX launches Falcon 9 return to flight mission from the Kennedy Space Center
The Falcon 9 returns to flight two weeks after an upper stage failure. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now. A two-week launch hiatus for SpaceX came to a close after midnight on Saturday with the Starlink 10-9 mission returning the Falcon 9 to flight after an upper stage mishap on a July 11 grounded the workhorse rocket.…
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SpaceX completes Falcon 9 static fire test amid return to flight campaign
SpaceX conducted a static fire test of its Falcon 9 rocket as it looks to resume launches in the near future. The launch provider was grounded following a July 11 anomaly that occurred with its upper stage during the Starlink 9-3 mission. Image: Spaceflight Now SpaceX took another important step on its road to resuming…
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SpaceX just stomped the competition for a new contract—that’s not great
There is an emerging truth about NASA’s push toward commercial contracts that is increasingly difficult to escape: Companies not named SpaceX are struggling with NASA’s approach of awarding firm, fixed-price contracts for space services. This belief is underscored by the recent award of an $843 million contract to SpaceX for a heavily modified Dragon spacecraft…
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Launch Roundup: Falcon 9 returns to flight, China launches Earth observation satellites
The launch schedule in the past few weeks had been notably quieter than usual. Last week, a Chang Zheng 4B launched the latest set of Gaofen-11 high-resolution Earth observation satellites in the early hours of Friday, July 19 — the only launch of the week of July 14 through July 20. Following a Falcon 9…
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Rocket Report: Firefly’s CEO steps down; Artemis II core stage leaves factory
Welcome to Edition 7.03 of the Rocket Report! One week ago, SpaceX suffered a rare failure of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. In fact, it was the first time the latest version of the Falcon 9, known as the Block 5, has ever failed on its prime mission after nearly 300 launches. The world’s launch…