Tag: Falcon launch
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SpaceX launches gravity-mapping probes plus another five Iridium telecom satellites
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. (SpaceX via YouTube) A refurbished SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket sent two gravity-mapping satellites and five satellites for Iridium’s next-generation telecommunications network into orbit today on its second go-round. The soot-smudged first-stage booster previously flew in January to launch Zuma — a secret national security…
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Computer aborts milestone SpaceX rocket launch at last minute, forcing a day’s delay
SpaceX’s first Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket sits on its Florida launch pad. (SpaceX via YouTube) News Brief: The anxiously awaited launch of the first of SpaceX’s “last” Falcon 9 rockets will have to wait at least one more day. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says the company’s upgraded Block 5 model “will be the last…
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SpaceX launches NASA’s TESS spacecraft on mission to seek out alien planets
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lofts NASA’s TESS probe into space. (NASA via YouTube) SpaceX has launched NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, kicking off a mission aimed at surveying nearly the entire sky for exoplanets. The probe rose into space atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, sent up from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in…
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SpaceX and NASA delay launch of TESS planet hunter to check guidance analysis
An artist’s conception shows the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. (NASA Illustration) NASA and SpaceX say they’ll take more time to launch the Transiting Exoplanet Survey System, or TESS, just to make sure the $337 million mission will be on the right track to hunt for planets beyond our solar system. TESS’ liftoff aboard a SpaceX…
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SpaceX sends reused cargo ship to space station on reused Falcon 9 rocket … again
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from its Florida launch pad. (NASA via YouTube) SpaceX sent nearly three tons of supplies, hardware and experiments to the International Space Station today, using a Falcon 9 rocket booster and a Dragon capsule that have both been flown before. The rocket rose from its launch pad at Cape…
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SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches fifth batch of Iridium NEXT telecom satellites
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. (SpaceX Photo) Another 10 next-generation Iridium telecommunications satellites were sent into orbit today aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This makes the fifth set of 10, out of a total of 75 that SpaceX…
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SpaceX sends Spanish telecom satellite into orbit with 50th Falcon 9 rocket launch
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lofts the Hispasat 30W-6 satellite to space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. (SpaceX Photo) SpaceX sent a Spanish broadband telecommunications satellite into orbit tonight, marking the 50th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket sent Hispasat 30W-6 rose into the night sky from Cape Canaveral Air Force…
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SpaceX launches its first Starlink internet satellites (and Spain’s Paz satellite, too)
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. (SpaceX via YouTube) SpaceX put its first two prototype Starlink broadband satellites into orbit along with a Spanish radar imaging satellite today. The launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California came at 6:17 a.m. PT Thursday, 24 hours after strong upper-level…
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SpaceX launches GovSat-1 satellite, clearing the way for Falcon Heavy’s debut
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, sending the GovSat-1 satellite to space. (SpaceX via YouTube) SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket sent a telecommunications satellite into orbit today for Luxembourg’s government and the SES satellite venture, setting the stage for next week’s maiden launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket.…
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Amid Zuma satellite controversy, SpaceX gets a vote of confidence from Air Force
News Brief: The classified satellite known as Zuma was said to have disappeared soon after its Jan. 7 launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, but the commander of the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center is giving SpaceX a qualified thumbs-up. “Based on the data available, our team did not identify any information…