Tag: Falcon 9
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SpaceX, Blue Origin, Stoke, and others make major progress on Cape launch facilities
The two spaceport launch facilities in the Cape Canaveral area — NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and the U.S. Space Force’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) — are on the verge of even bigger changes than have been seen in the last few years. In a recent flyover of the Cape, NSF obtained new…
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SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral
File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now Update Sept. 25, 4 a.m. EDT (0800 UTC): SpaceX landed its booster on the droneship. SpaceX was back at the launch pad Thursday morning, launching its 86th Starlink mission of the year…
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SpaceX launches NASA, NOAA missions exploring the impacts of the Sun
The Falcon 9 carrying NASA’s IMAP mission transits the disk of the Sun seconds after lifting off from Kennedy Space Center. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now. Update: Launch occurred at 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 UTC). With successful payload deployments complete about 1.5 hours after liftoff. A trio of Sun-studying, marquee missions for both NASA and the…
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U.S. Launches Three Spacecraft Aboard Falcon 9 to Boost Space Weather Monitoring
The United States launched three spacecraft on Wednesday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to improve monitoring of solar activity and its effects on technology, astronauts, and infrastructure on Earth. The launch from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center sent the probes on a journey toward the Lagrange 1 point, around 1.5 million kilometers from the sun,…
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NASA, SpaceX launch IMAP and rideshare payloads to study space weather at L1
NASA and SpaceX successfully launched the agency’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) from Florida on Wednesday morning. Joining IMAP on its way to Lagrange Point 1 are two additional rideshare payloads: NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) and the joint NASA/University of Illinois Carruthers Geocorona Observatory. Liftoff took place on Wednesday, Sept. 24,…
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NRO, SpaceX launch reconnaissance satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB
A Falcon 9 rocket launches the NROL-48 mission from Vandenberg on Sept. 22, 2025. Image: SpaceX. The National Reconnaissance Office sent its 11th batch of small, reconnaissance satellites into low Earth orbit Monday morning. These are believed to be Starshield satellites, a government variant of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, though the NRO hasn’t confirmed this. The…
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SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites on Sunday sunrise Falcon 9 flight
A so-called ‘jellyfish effect’ could be seen by launch viewers as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage plume was illuminated by the light of sunrise. The Starlink 10-27 mission launched from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sept. 21, 2025. Image: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now Update Sept. 21,…
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SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites from California following back-to-back weather scrubs
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Starlink 17-12 mission on Sept. 19, 2025. Image: SpaceX Update Sept. 19, 3 p.m. EDT: SpaceX confirmed deployment of the satellites. Update Sept. 18, 12:09 p.m. EDT: SpaceX scrubbed the mission and is targeting launch…
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Launch Roundup: Starlink, NRO, and New Shepard missions
Another busy week of launches has arrived, with SpaceX dominating the launch manifest with four missions for the week. Three of these missions saw new batches of Starlink internet satellites launched into the company’s Starlink constellation, with the fourth mission launching a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. Blue Origin finally launched its uncrewed NS-35…
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Northrop Grumman’s 1st Cygnus XL spacecraft launches on cargo run to the space station
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sept. 14, 2025, to begin the NG-23 mission. This was the first launch of a Northrop Grumman Cygnus XL spacecraft. Image: John Pisani / Spaceflight Now Northrop Grumman’s first Cygnus XL vehicle was jettisoned on…