Tag: commercial-space
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Photos: India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle prepared for liftoff
Ready for its 40th launch, India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle is set to carry 31 satellites into orbit Friday, and these photos chronicle the rocket’s launch preparations. The 144-foot-tall (44-meter) rocket is set for liftoff at 0359 GMT Friday (11:59 p.m. EDT Thursday) from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India’s east coast. It will…
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Head of BulgariaSat says satellite project would be impossible without SpaceX
The BulgariaSat 1 communications satellite. Credit: Space Systems/Loral On the eve of the launch of his country’s first communications satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket, the chief executive of BulgariaSat credited SpaceX’s cost-cutting ways with making space accessible for small nations and money-conscious companies like his own. Maxim Zayakov, CEO of BulgariaSat and its affiliate…
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Live coverage: India’s PSLV delivers international payloads to orbit
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a PSLV rocket from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Center with 31 satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter. ISRO’s live video stream begins at 0330 GMT (11:30 p.m. EDT).
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SpaceX rocket passes key preflight test before liftoff from California
The 10 Iridium Next communications satellites slated to launch Sunday from California were recently encapsulated inside the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing. Credit: Iridium Juggling simultaneous launch campaigns on both coasts, a team of SpaceX engineers put a Falcon 9 rocket through a customary countdown rehearsal and hold-down firing Tuesday at Vandenberg Air Force Base…
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Falcon 9 launch delay sets up potential SpaceX ‘doubleheader’ next weekend
Updated at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) with details. File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket at launch pad 39A before a previous mission. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now SpaceX has pushed back the liftoff of a Bulgarian television broadcast satellite on the company’s second previously-flown Falcon 9 rocket until at least Friday, giving ground crews…
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Falcon 9 launch scheduled for Monday after hold-down engine firing
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, without its payload, is test-fired Thursday at pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: SpaceX The launch of a commercial Bulgarian television broadcast satellite from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is set for Monday after SpaceX ran through a mock countdown Thursday and test-fired a previously-flown…
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Chinese astronomy satellite placed into orbit by Long March rocket
China’s Long March 4B rocket lifts off Thursday with the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope. Credit: Xinhua China’s first X-ray astronomy satellite launched Thursday on a mission to survey the Milky Way galaxy for black holes and pulsars, the remnants left behind after a star burns up its nuclear fuel. The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope will…
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Live coverage: Previously-flown Falcon 9 rocket fires engines on Florida launch pad
Live coverage of SpaceX’s preparations for the next Falcon 9 rocket launch from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will launch the BulgariaSat 1 communications satellite for television broadcasts in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us…
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Video: SpaceX’s second reused Falcon 9 rocket test-fired in Florida
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket ignited its nine Merlin main engines for several seconds Thursday at launch pad 39A in Florida, moving the previously-flown booster closer to a scheduled blastoff Monday with a Bulgarian communications satellite. The nine Merlin 1D first stage engines fired at 6:25 p.m. EDT (2225 GMT) after SpaceX’s launch team, stationed in…
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SpaceX aims to restore damaged launch pad to service by end of summer
File photo of the damaged strongback tower at Complex 40 shortly after the Sept. 1 Falcon 9 rocket explosion. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now Construction crews at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad are busily repairing and upgrading the facility after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded there last year, with the pad’s return to service…