Tag: LC-2
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Launch Preview: GPS, Progress, and Starlink missions to launch during busy week
Seven missions, four countries, and five launch vehicles make the week of April 20 one of the more diverse on the 2026 manifest. GPS III SV10 carries the week’s most technically significant payload in its first-ever GPS laser communications demonstration, while South Korea’s ADD vehicle attempts its first complete four-stage orbital flight. Rocket Lab pulls…
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Launch Preview: Falcon 9 to launch five Starlink missions, Firefly to launch Alpha
Seven missions are on this week’s launch manifest, with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 dominating the schedule. Falcon 9 is expected to launch five Starlink missions from SpaceX’s launch sites in Florida and California. Meanwhile, Rocket Lab’s suborbital HASTE rocket will launch a hypersonic test vehicle for Hypersonix from Virginia, and Firefly will return its Alpha vehicle…
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Launch Roundup: New Glenn, Viasat, & Sentinel-6B highlight busy week of launches
This week’s launch schedule featured two high-profile launches that were pushed back after scrubs from last week, as well as the Sentinel-6B mission and two Starlink missions for SpaceX. A suborbital Electron HASTE mission from Wallops is also scheduled. New Glenn’s second launch, featuring the Mars-bound ESCAPADE payload, was scheduled to launch no earlier than…
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Launch Roundup: Falcon 9 launches Starlink and Kuiper satellites
SpaceX is scheduled to launch up to three times this week, with each mission planned to deploy internet communications satellites into low-Earth orbit: two for the company’s own Starlink megaconstellation and one for its competitor, Amazon’s Project Kuiper. China kicked off the week’s launch manifest, for those in UTC, with the launch of its 100th…
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Rocket Lab achieves multiple milestones in Neutron development
Rocket Lab is making rapid progress in its quest to get its medium-lift launcher, Neutron, ready for launch by the second half of this year. Multiple tests of both the first and second stages of the rocket are in progress, contracts are being awarded for Rocket Lab to secure, and the Launch Complex 3 pad…
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Launch Roundup: SpaceX launches two Starlink missions; China launches Chang Zheng 5
A brand new week of spaceflight is approaching with SpaceX preparing to launch three Starlink missions, China getting ready to send two payloads to orbit, including one on the powerful Chang Zheng 5 (CZ-5) rocket, and Roscosmos preparing to launch Russian-built satellites to orbit atop Soyuz. Late on Feb. 22, Starlink Group 7-15 took 22…
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Rocket Lab launches pair of Capella satellites from Wallops
Rocket Lab, which opened its 2023 campaign with the inauguration of its first US-based launch pad, has launched its second consecutive mission from Launch Complex 2 at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Liftoff of the “Stronger Together” mission occurred 38 minutes into the two-hour window, with T0 at 6:38 PM EDT (22:38 UTC) on…