Tag: Falcon 9
-
Launch Roundup: Project Kuiper Protoflight and Galactic 04 highlight this week
United Launch Alliance (ULA) flew only its second Atlas V of 2023, as Amazon’s subsidiary Kuiper Systems LLC is finally placed its first Kuiper demonstration satellites into orbit. This week also featured a launch from China, three Falcon 9 Starlink launches, a Virgin Galactic suborbital tourist flight, and one of the final flights for the…
-
SpaceX breaks another booster reuse record, but did anyone see it?
SpaceX launched its 67th rocket of the year on Tuesday night, a staggering total for the company and its workhorse booster, the Falcon 9. At this pace, a clip of one launch every four days, the company is likely to launch 90 or more rockets during this calendar year. This Starlink satellite launch was notable…
-
Launch Roundup: Rocket Lab fails during “We Will Never Desert You” launch; SpaceX launches two boosters for 17th time
The week of Sept. 18 through Sept. 24 is set to see four orbital launches, all but one of which are set to take place from US-based aerospace companies. Firstly, Rocket Lab launched its ninth Electron of 2023 on a mission dubbed “We Will Never Desert You.” However, the mission suffered a failure during staging.…
-
SpaceX conducts 65th and 66th launches of 2023
SpaceX launched two back-to-back Starlink missions this week. The first mission, Starlink Group 7-2, launched 21 satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex (SLC) 4 East at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Liftoff occurred Monday, Sept. 11, at 11:57 PM PDT (06:57 UTC on Sept. 12). SpaceX then launched the Starlink Group…
-
Rocket Report: Japan launches Moon mission; Ariane 6 fires up in Kourou
Welcome to Edition 6.10 of the Rocket Report! A Japanese spacecraft has joined the international flock of missions traveling to the Moon this year, but you’ll need to practice patience on this one. It will take about four months for Japan’s small lander to get into lunar orbit, then more weeks to align with the…
-
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches record-breaking 62nd mission of the year
Update: 10:57 p.m. EDT: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at 10:47 p.m. EDT (0247 UTC), marking an historic 62nd orbital launch this calendar year. The mission broke its own orbital launch record that it set back in 2022 when it launched 61 orbital missions for the full year. In a…
-
Pension fund sues Jeff Bezos and Amazon for not using Falcon 9 rockets
Shareholders of a pension fund that includes Amazon stock have sued the company, its founder Jeff Bezos, and its board of directors for “breaching their fiduciary duty” as part of a contract to acquire launch services for the Project Kuiper megaconstellation. The lawsuit, filed on Thursday and first reported by the Delaware Business Court Insider,…
-
Why did SpaceX give up on “catching” falling fairings? Its VP of launch explains
Amid much fanfare, SpaceX started landing its Falcon 9 rockets in 2015, and it began reusing them less than two years later. The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, with nine engines and the bulk of the mass, accounts for about half of the cost of manufacturing a rocket, so this represents a considerable…
-
Four people from four different nations ride SpaceX rocket into orbit
SpaceX launched a Dragon spacecraft into orbit from Florida’s Space Coast early Saturday, carrying a multinational crew from the United States, Denmark, Japan, and Russia on a flight to the International Space Station. The four crew members strapped into their seats inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft overnight and then waited for a Falcon 9…
-
NASA, SpaceX conducts Crew-7 mission to ISS
NASA launched its next astronaut rotation, Crew-7, to the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, docking the following day. The four astronauts launched from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket in the Dragon spacecraft C210-3 Endurance. The first attempt stood down from…