Tag: SpaceX
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FAA, NASA seek public input on SpaceX Starship launches at the Kennedy Space Center
The Ship 29 upper stage of the fully integrated Starship rocket as seen before its fourth flight test on June 6, 2024. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now The Federal Aviation Administration is preparing to gather public input on SpaceX Starship launch operations at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The request for comments comes about a month after…
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Launch Roundup: Falcon 9’s busy launch cadence struggles
Following an extremely eventful week in Spaceflight, this week was expected to be a return to “business as usual”, with two SpaceX Starlink missions, one each from Vandenberg and Florida, and a Falcon 9 launching a customer satellite making up the launch manifest for the week. Unfortunately, the weather led to delays and cancellations, and…
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SpaceX launches 20 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 flight 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 SpaceX kicked off the weekend with the launch of another batch of its Starlink satellites. The mission,…
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SpaceX launches 22 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 flight from Cape Canaveral
A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on June 7, 2024. The mission, Starlink 10-1, was the first to send Starlink satellites to this shell of the mega constellation. Image: Spaceflight Now Update 8:57 p.m. EDT: SpaceX adjusted the T-0 liftoff time. SpaceX followed up its fourth…
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SpaceX Starship Completes Successful Test Flight Despite Booster Engine Issue
SpaceX successfully conducted the fourth test flight of its Starship launch system on June 6, with both the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage returning to the surface intact. The launch, which took place at 8:50 a.m. Eastern from the Starbase test site at Boca Chica, Texas, encountered a minor setback when one of…
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SpaceX accomplishes first soft splashdown of Starship, Super Heavy Booster on Flight 4 mission
For a fourth time in program history, SpaceX launches its Starship rocket from its Starbase facility in southern Texas. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now Update 2:32 p.m. EDT: Added mission details. For a fourth time in a little more than a year, SpaceX launched a test mission of its massive Starship rocket from its development facility…
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Starship finds success on fourth flight test
Just over a year after the first integrated flight test, SpaceX successfully launched the fourth flight of Starship on Thursday. For the first time, Super Heavy completed a successful landing burn while Starship made it through reentry – despite extensive burn damage to a forward flap – and softly landed in the Indian Ocean. This…
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SpaceX is about to launch Starship again—the FAA will be more forgiving this time
The Federal Aviation Administration approved the commercial launch license for the fourth test flight of SpaceX’s Starship rocket Tuesday, with liftoff from South Texas targeted for just after sunrise Thursday. “The FAA has approved a license authorization for SpaceX Starship Flight 4,” the agency said in a statement. “SpaceX met all safety and other licensing…
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SpaceX launches 20 Starlink satellites on 14th anniversary of the first Falcon 9 launch
A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on the Starlink 8-5 mission on June 4, 2024. The mission coincided with the 14th anniversary of the first Falcon 9 launch in 2010. Image: Spaceflight Now SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday night, 14 years to the…
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Here’s why a Japanese billionaire just canceled his lunar flight on Starship
On Friday night the dearMoon project—a plan to launch a Japanese billionaire and 10 other ‘crew members’ on a circumlunar flight aboard SpaceX’s Starship vehicle—was abruptly canceled. “It is unfortunate to be announcing that ‘dearMoon’, the first private circumlunar flight project, will be cancelled,” the mission’s official account on the social media site X said.…