Tag: Jason 3
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Orbcomm first in Falcon 9’s return-to-flight launch queue
File photo of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket before launching six Orbcomm satellites in 2014. Credit: SpaceX Going with a philosophy that favors incremental testing of an upgraded version of the Falcon 9 booster, SpaceX officials said Friday that eleven mini-satellites for Orbcomm’s data relay business will fly on the company’s first mission since a launch…
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SpaceX conducts additional Falcon 9 improvements ahead of busy schedule
SpaceX engineers are busily processing the Falcon 9 fleet for a salvo of missions that will mark the company’s return from the CRS-7 failure. The replacement of helium bottle support struts – one of which is suspected to have caused the CRS-7 mishap in June – is being conducted alongside additional changes, as SpaceX prepare…
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Falcon 9 rocket to be grounded longer than expected
File photo of a Falcon 9 launch in February 2015. Credit: NASA/KSC The beginning of November will be the earliest SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket can resume launching after a June 28 failure blamed on a deficient structural support brace inside the the vehicle’s second stage, a SpaceX executive said Monday. The next launch will be…
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Satellite owners among bystanders in Falcon 9 accident
Updated June 30 with SpaceX comment. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral on Sunday. The rocket broke apart at about T+plus 2 minutes, 19 seconds, and SpaceX is focusing its investigation on the second stage. Credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Scriptunas Images The long queue of satellites waiting on launches aboard SpaceX’s…
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Jason 3 satellite shipped to Vandenberg for SpaceX launch
Artist’s concept of the Jason 3 satellite in orbit. Credit: Thales Alenia Space-D. Ducros An international oceanography satellite arrived at its California launch base from a factory in France on Thursday for fueling, testing and other final preps before its scheduled Aug. 8 blastoff on a Falcon 9 rocket. Packed inside a specialized shipping container,…
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Launch of U.S.-French oceanography satellite postponed
The Jason 3 satellite inside a clean room at its Thales Alenia Space factory in Cannes. Credit: CNES/Thales Alenia Space The launch of a U.S.-French oceanography satellite from California has been postponed from July 22 after engineers discovered contamination in one of the spacecraft’s thrusters at its factory in France. NOAA announced the launch slip…
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SpaceX gets certified to launch NASA science missions
File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX NASA has formally certified SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to launch all but the space agency’s most costly robotic science missions, beginning with a a U.S.-French oceanography satellite set for liftoff from California in July. NASA’s Launch Services Program, which…