Tag: Reusability
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Video: Falcon 9 lifts off with Telstar 19 VANTAGE
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket climbed away from Cape Canaveral early Sunday, and its first stage booster returned to a drone ship parked in the Atlantic Ocean after sending a heavyweight commercial communications satellite toward orbit for Telesat. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket lifted off at 1:50 a.m. EDT (0550 GMT) Sunday from Cape Canaveral’s Complex…
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SpaceX delivers for Telesat with successful early morning launch
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated July 23 with orbital parameters. A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off at 1:50 a.m. EDT (0550 GMT) Sunday from Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX An upgraded model of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket fired into orbit early Sunday from Florida’s Space Coast, hoisting a record-setting 7.8-ton (nearly 7.1-metric ton) communications satellite for Telesat toward…
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Record-setting commercial satellite awaits blastoff from Cape Canaveral
The Telstar 19 VANTAGE communications satellite is tested at SSL’s compact antenna test range. Credit: SSL A huge U.S.-built, Canadian-owned communications satellite weighing 15,600 pounds, the heaviest spacecraft of its kind ever launched, is mounted to a Falcon 9 rocket for liftoff early Sunday from Cape Canaveral on a heavy-lifting mission that previously would have…
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Live coverage: SpaceX launches heavyweight Canadian telecom satellite
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral with the Telstar 19 VANTAGE communications satellite for the Canadian company Telesat. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Spaceflight Now members can watch a live view of the launch pad. SpaceX’s live video webcast begins around 15 minutes…
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Falcon 9 launch timeline with Telstar 19 VANTAGE
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Monday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the Telstar 19 VANTAGE communications satellite into orbit around 32 minutes later. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket is poised for launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 12:50…
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Video: SpaceX rocket lights engines in pre-flight test
Video credit: Steven Young/Spaceflight Now Passing a major pre-flight milestone ahead of a launch and landing planned early Sunday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ignited its main engines Wednesday for a hold-down firing at Cape Canaveral. The static fire test occurred at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad, with…
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SpaceX to attempt five recoveries in less than two weeks as fleet activity ramps up
Begining July 22nd, SpaceX is currently scheduled to perform three Falcon 9 droneship recoveries, a fairing recovery, and a Dragon recovery in less than two weeks. A total of five recoveries in short succession paves the way for an unprecedented amount of activity from SpaceX’s fleet of recovery vessels. The fleet operates out of the…
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Falcon 9 rocket test-fired for weekend launch
A plume of exhaust rises from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad after ignition of the Falcon 9 rocket’s main engines during a static fire test Wednesday. Credit: Steven Young/Spaceflight Now Nine Merlin engines on the first stage of SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 rocket briefly fired up on a Cape Canaveral launch pad Wednesday, and…
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Blue Origin performs high-altitude test of crew escape motor
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT) after the test flight. Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard booster launched Wednesday on an uncrewed test flight, sending a capsule on a brief jaunt into space over West Texas to demonstrate a key safety feature for space tourists and scientists riding on the company’s future rockets. Blue…
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SpaceX could try to land rocket in California later this year
File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket booster landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Credit: SpaceX A recent federal regulatory filing by SpaceX suggests the company may attempt to return a Falcon 9 rocket booster to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California for the first time later this year. Landing a Falcon 9…