Tag: Falcon 9
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SpaceX sticks first Falcon 9 booster landing in The Bahamas
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket takes off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin the Starlink 10-12 mission on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster, B1080, performed the first booster landing in The Bahamas. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now…
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Vast space station qualification article passes major milestone
Vast is one step closer to launching its first private commercial space station. The company recently completed testing of its Haven-1 qualification article in Mojave, California, and reported that it successfully passed its tests. The company’s current goal is to launch the flight article aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than May 2026.…
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Launch Roundup: Starlink and CZ-8A launches planned; Falcon booster to land in Bahamas
China conducted the debut flight of an upgraded version of the Chang Zheng 8 medium-lift rocket this week. Three Starlink launches from Florida were planned, with just the Feb. 18 flight remaining to be done, and a NROL flight from Vandenberg aboard a Falcon 9 is now set for Feb. 17. All three Starlink flights…
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SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from California
A streak shot of the Falcon 9 rocket as it flys away from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base on Feb. 10, 2025. Image: SpaceX SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket its latest batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Monday evening. The company stood…
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Rocket Report: Another hiccup with SpaceX upper stage; Japan’s H3 starts strong
Welcome to Edition 7.30 of the Rocket Report! The US government relies on SpaceX for a lot of missions. These include launching national security satellites, putting astronauts on the Moon, and global broadband communications. But there are hurdles—technical and, increasingly, political—on the road ahead. To put it generously, Elon Musk, without whom much of what…
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SpaceX launches final block 1 WorldView Legion satellites for Maxar Technologies
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket as seen from Central Florida, making its ascent from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Onboard were two WorldView Legion Satellites that will be operated by Maxar Intelligence, a division of Maxar Technologies. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now Update 7:32 p.m. EST (0032 UTC): SpaceX confirmed deployment of the fifth…
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Launch Roundup: Soyuz flies; New Shepard simulates lunar gravity
This week’s launch manifest is quite diverse, featuring the launches of four different rockets worldwide. Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket has simulated the Moon’s gravity from just beyond the Kármán line, and Rocket Lab launched Electron for the first time this year from New Zealand. Russia launched Soyuz for the first time in 2025…
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SpaceX launches 21 Starlink satellites on foggy Tuesday morning
Blanketed by early morning fog, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket takes off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on the Starlink 12-3 mission on Feb. 4, 2025. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now Update 5:42 a.m. EST (1042 UTC): SpaceX landed the first stage booster on its droneship. Against a densely foggy backdrop, SpaceX completed its second…
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Saturday Starlink launch marks 200th orbital flight from Vandenberg’s pad 4E
File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch the Starlink 7-14 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Image: SpaceX SpaceX launched its latest batch of Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base Saturday afternoon. The mission was the 111th orbital launch for SpaceX from its pad at Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E)…
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Launch Roundup: New Shepard to simulate lunar gravity, India and Japan launch navigation satellites
This week’s schedule has a mix of orbital and suborbital missions launching from seven different sites around the globe. In addition to launches from the Florida space coast, India and Japan have both launched navigation satellites. Rocket Lab is launching another batch of satellites for its French customer, Kinéis, while SpaceX has launched a next-generation replacement…