Tag: Falcon 9
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ESA’s Hera spacecraft launches on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket as Hurricane Milton takes aim at Florida
An artist’s rendering of the Hera spacecraft along with CubeSats Milani and Juventas around the asteroid, Dimorphous. Graphic: ESA The European Space Agency and SpaceX managed to find good enough weather right in the nick of time to launch a mission to a binary asteroid Monday morning. The Hera mission is a follow-on operation, which…
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ESA’s Hera mission launched to asteroid binary as Falcon 9 returns to flight
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera mission, which is traveling to asteroid Didymos and its moon Dimorphos as a follow-up to NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, beat weather odds and successfully launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This flight, the 95th Falcon flight of 2024, was the first Falcon 9 mission to…
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Engineers investigate another malfunction on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket
SpaceX is investigating a problem with the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage that caused it to reenter the atmosphere and fall into the sea outside of its intended disposal area after a Saturday launch with a two-man crew heading to the International Space Station. The upper stage malfunction apparently occurred after the Falcon 9 successfully deployed SpaceX’s Crew…
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SpaceX launches mission to bring Starliner astronauts back to Earth
NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov lifted off Saturday from Florida’s Space Coast aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, heading for a five-month expedition on the International Space Station. The two-man crew launched on top of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket at 1:17 pm EDT (17:17 UTC), taking advantage of a break in the…
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NASA, SpaceX conduct prelaunch activities as Tropical Storm delays Crew-9 mission
SpaceX static fires its Falcon 9 rocket at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) in preparation for the Crew-9 mission on Saturday, Sept. 28. The test came following a dry dress rehearsal of launch activities earlier in the day. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now NASA and SpaceX pushed ahead with planned prelaunch activities Cape Canaveral Space Force…
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SpaceX launches 20 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket streaks across the sky above California in this long exposure image of the Starlink 9-8 launch on Sept. 24, 2024. Image: SpaceX SpaceX launched its latest Falcon 9 rocket on a Starlink mission as Tropical Storm Helene pushed back the launch of the next mission to the International Space Station.…
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Launch Roundup: NASA Crew-9 flies half-empty, Starlink and Chinese launches continue
NASA and SpaceX’s launch of the Crew-9 mission took center stage this week. The launch of two new International Space Station crew members took place on Saturday from the recently crew-certified Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS). Meanwhile, in California, another Falcon 9 lifted the only scheduled Starlink…
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Elon Musk threatens to sue FAA after feds propose fining SpaceX $633,000
The Federal Aviation Administration alleged Tuesday that SpaceX violated its launch license requirements on two occasions last year by using an unauthorized launch control center and fuel farm at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The regulator seeks to fine SpaceX $633,009 for the alleged violations, which occurred during a Falcon 9 launch and a…
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SpaceX launches European Commission’s Galileo satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral
A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying a pair of Galileo navigation satellites. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now SpaceX launched the latest pair of Galileo spacecraft for the European Union’s navigation satellite constellation. The mission marked the second time that Galileo satellites will launch…
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Launch Roundup: Falcon 9 and Electron to extend satellite constellations
This week’s manifest includes the delayed launches of a Falcon 9 with Galileo global positioning satellites and an Electron with a second batch of satellites for Kinéis. SpaceX also launched a batch of 20 Starlink satellites from California as the constellation increases to 6,000 operational satellites. Following last weekend’s return and recovery of the Polaris…