Tag: commercial-space
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Photos: Ariane 5 rocket rolls to launch with four Galileo satellites
An Ariane 5 rocket emerged from its vertical assembly building Monday and rolled along dual rail tracks for a 1.7-mile (2.7-kilometer) journey to its launch pad at the Guiana Space Center on the northern coastline of South America, moving into position for blastoff Wednesday with four Galileo navigation satellites. The midday rollout Monday was powered…
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Video: Falcon 9 lifts off with Telstar 19 VANTAGE
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket climbed away from Cape Canaveral early Sunday, and its first stage booster returned to a drone ship parked in the Atlantic Ocean after sending a heavyweight commercial communications satellite toward orbit for Telesat. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket lifted off at 1:50 a.m. EDT (0550 GMT) Sunday from Cape Canaveral’s Complex…
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Engine test anomaly deals setback to Boeing’s plans for Starliner space taxi
Aerojet Rocketdyne conducts a 2016 test firing of the launch abort engines designed for use on Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner space taxi. The engines feature a new type of propellant valves. (Aerojet Rocketdyne Photo) Boeing confirms that it experienced an anomaly last month during tests of the engines that would be used on its CST-100 Starliner…
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SpaceX delivers for Telesat with successful early morning launch
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated July 23 with orbital parameters. A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off at 1:50 a.m. EDT (0550 GMT) Sunday from Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX An upgraded model of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket fired into orbit early Sunday from Florida’s Space Coast, hoisting a record-setting 7.8-ton (nearly 7.1-metric ton) communications satellite for Telesat toward…
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Record-setting commercial satellite awaits blastoff from Cape Canaveral
The Telstar 19 VANTAGE communications satellite is tested at SSL’s compact antenna test range. Credit: SSL A huge U.S.-built, Canadian-owned communications satellite weighing 15,600 pounds, the heaviest spacecraft of its kind ever launched, is mounted to a Falcon 9 rocket for liftoff early Sunday from Cape Canaveral on a heavy-lifting mission that previously would have…
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Live coverage: SpaceX launches heavyweight Canadian telecom satellite
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral with the Telstar 19 VANTAGE communications satellite for the Canadian company Telesat. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Spaceflight Now members can watch a live view of the launch pad. SpaceX’s live video webcast begins around 15 minutes…
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Weather-monitoring and tech demo CubeSats deployed in orbit
Artist’s illustration of the RainCube spacecraft released from the International Space Station on July 13. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Fifteen CubeSats owned by NASA, Spire Global, and U.S. research institutions launched aboard a Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship in May have been released into orbit, beginning missions to demonstrate miniaturized, low-cost Earth science instruments and join a…
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Falcon 9 launch timeline with Telstar 19 VANTAGE
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Monday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the Telstar 19 VANTAGE communications satellite into orbit around 32 minutes later. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket is poised for launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 12:50…
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Video: SpaceX rocket lights engines in pre-flight test
Video credit: Steven Young/Spaceflight Now Passing a major pre-flight milestone ahead of a launch and landing planned early Sunday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ignited its main engines Wednesday for a hold-down firing at Cape Canaveral. The static fire test occurred at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad, with…
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Falcon 9 rocket test-fired for weekend launch
A plume of exhaust rises from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad after ignition of the Falcon 9 rocket’s main engines during a static fire test Wednesday. Credit: Steven Young/Spaceflight Now Nine Merlin engines on the first stage of SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 rocket briefly fired up on a Cape Canaveral launch pad Wednesday, and…