Tag: Launch
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SpaceX test-fires Falcon 9 rocket before GPS launch
A Falcon 9 rocket test-fires its nine Merlin 1D engines Saturday at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT). Credit: Spaceflight Now SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral on Saturday in a pre-flight checkout designed to verify the launcher’s engines are ready to loft a U.S. military GPS navigation satellite into orbit Nov. 5.…
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SpaceX executive pitches Starship for space debris cleanup
File photo of Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer. Credit: NASA/Jay Westcott SpaceX could use its Starship vehicles to clear out space debris in Earth orbit, alongside the program’s more publicized purpose of ferrying people and cargo to the moon and Mars, a company executive said. Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating…
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Atlas 5 launch from Cape Canaveral scheduled for next week
The National Reconnaissance Office’s top secret payload is lifted atop ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket Monday inside the Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Credit: United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance teams mounted a top secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office on top of an Atlas 5 rocket at Cape Canaveral Monday…
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Russia launches Glonass navigation satellite
A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifts off Saturday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome with a Glonass K navigation satellite. Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense A Soyuz booster and Fregat upper stage successfully delivered an upgraded Russian Glonass navigation satellite to an orbit nearly 12,000 miles above Earth on Saturday. The new satellite joins 24 active navigation spacecraft in…
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SpaceX test-fires Starship prototype with three engines
A view of the Starship SN8 prototype with three Raptor engines. Future Starship vehicles will have six Raptor engines, with three vacuum-rated engines with larger nozzles clustered around the three center engines optimized for sea level performance. Credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX SpaceX fired three Raptor engines on a prototype of the company’s Starship vehicle Tuesday, accomplishing…
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SpaceX launches another batch of Starlink satellites
A Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from pad 39A at 8:25 a.m. EDT (1225 GMT Sunday. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX launched 60 more Starlink internet relay platforms into orbit Sunday as the company ramps up network testing in Washington state and touts a streak of nearly 300 satellites launched since June without a spacecraft failure. Nine…
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Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will launch SpaceX’s 14th batch of approximately 60 Starlink broadband satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. [tabby title=”SpaceX webcast”] [tabby title=”SpaceX mission audio”] [tabbyending] Spaceflight Now…
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ULA’s Delta 4-Heavy rocket still grounded by launch pad problem
Three swing arms are designed to pull away from the Delta 4-Heavy rocket at liftoff. Credit: United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance engineers have resolved the problem that triggered an abort of a planned Delta 4-Heavy rocket launch Sept. 30, but the company said Friday it is continuing to evaluate a concern with the launch…
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Photos: Soyuz launches new station crew with spectacular autumn blastoff
Photos released by Russia’s space agency show the launch of a Soyuz booster Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut heading for the International Space Station. The 162-foot-tall (49-meter) Soyuz-2.1a rocket took off from Pad No. 31 at Baikonur at 10:45:04 a.m. local time Wednesday. Liftoff occurred…
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India planning to resume launches next month
File photo of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle at the Satish Dhawan Space Center in India. Credit: ISRO India is set to resume satellite launches as soon as early November with a mission to deliver Indian, U.S., and European payloads to orbit, the country’s first space launch in nearly a year after delays caused by…