Tag: Reusability
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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…
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SpaceX plans new facilities at KSC to support more launches, landings
Artist’s concept of SpaceX’s new launch and landing control center. Credit: SpaceX/NASA An airport-like viewing tower standing up to 30 stories tall is the centerpiece of SpaceX’s planned rocket refurbishment and operations base proposed for vacant land at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Information published in a draft environmental assessment prepared by KSC officials…
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New photos illustrate progress in SpaceX’s fairing recovery attempts
One-half of the payload fairing from a May 22 launch of a Falcon 9 rocket parachutes into the Pacific Ocean a few hundred miles south of Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: SpaceX Photos released by SpaceX this week show how close the company’s payload fairing retrieval ship got to catching two halves of a…
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Watch a replay of the first Falcon 9 Block 5 launch
The first upgraded Falcon 9 rocket, known as the ‘Block 5’, takes flight from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on 11 May 2018. The rocket placed into orbit Bangladesh’s first communications satellite, and SpaceX successfully recovered the rocket’s first stage for reuse. Video: SpaceX
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Bangabandhu-1 sucessfully launched by first Block 5 Falcon 9 – SpaceX’s goal of affordable access to space
SpaceX has conducted the debut launch of the final variant of its powerhouse Falcon 9 rocket, the Block 5 -which will continue to further SpaceX’s already realized goal of providing low-cost, affordable access to space for countries that have not been able to afford such missions before. The mission launched from LC-39A at the Kennedy…
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Live coverage: SpaceX supply ship departs station, returns to Earth
Live coverage of the departure of SpaceX’s Dragon supply ship from the International Space Station and its splashdown in the Pacific Ocean with several tons of experiment samples and cargo. SpaceX and NASA will not provide live video coverage of the splashdown. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page.…