Tag: Reusability
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Tropical storm could be a factor in SpaceX launch Saturday
File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket before a launch in May. Credit: SpaceX Weather forecasters at Cape Canaveral are keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Hermine in the Gulf of Mexico in case winds and thick clouds from the cyclone threaten the scheduled launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket early Saturday. The Falcon…
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SES agrees to launch satellite on ‘flight-proven’ Falcon 9 rocket
File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket launch. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX and SES, an international communications satellite operator based in Luxembourg, have agreed to place the SES 10 television relay craft aboard the first launch of a reused “flight-proven” Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral as soon as October, the companies announced Tuesday. The agreement…
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SpaceX puts historic flown rocket on permanent display
Credit: Gene Blevins/LA Daily News Crews outside the SpaceX’s headquarters in Southern California on Saturday positioned the booster that stuck the first Falcon 9 rocket landing for vertical display, and now the launcher is an unmistakable Space Age trophy visible to passersby on nearby streets and freeways. Workers put the rocket near the southeast corner…
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Another Falcon 9 rocket returns to perch in Port Canaveral
A 156-foot-tall (47-meter) first stage from a Falcon 9 rocket sits at Port Canaveral on Saturday evening. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now The sixth Falcon 9 rocket booster recovered by SpaceX has returned to Port Canaveral after an up-and-down flight Aug. 14 that sent a commercial Japanese broadcasting satellite toward orbit. The 15-story first stage of…
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Falcon 9 rocket launches Japanese satellite, then nails bullseye landing
A Falcon 9 rocket blasts off with the JCSAT 16 communications satellite at 1:26 a.m. EDT (0526 GMT) Sunday. Credit: SpaceX Vaulting into a starry sky over Florida’s Space Coast, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully took off early Sunday with a Japanese video and data relay satellite, then stuck a landing on a barge…
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Falcon 9 launch timeline with JCSAT 16
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral early Sunday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the JCSAT 16 communications satellite into orbit 32 minutes later. The 229-foot-tall rocket is poised for launch from Complex 40 at 1:26 a.m. EDT (0526 GMT) Sunday at the opening of a 120-minute…
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Ariane 6 rocket holding to schedule for 2020 maiden flight
Artist’s illustration of the Ariane 64 rocket version, with four solid rocket boosters. Credit: ESA–David Ducros, 2016 Europe’s top rocket contractor is pressing ahead with development of the Ariane 6 rocket, a versatile launcher with half the cost of Europe’s current Ariane 5 booster, keeping the new vehicle on track for its 2020 debut. The…
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Falcon 9 rocket rumbles through pre-flight engine firing
File photo of a static fire test before a previous Falcon 9 launch. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX technicians planned to connect a Japanese communications satellite to the tip of a Falcon 9 rocket as soon as Thursday, eyeing a launch from Cape Canaveral just after midnight Sunday. Fixed on top of Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch…
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SpaceX shares eye-catching slow-mo rocket footage
SpaceX has released a new YouTube video showing up-close, slow-motion views of recent Falcon 9 rocket launches and landings at Cape Canaveral, and it’s something you want to see. The views were recorded by high-speed cameras at Cape Canaveral and edited into a video accompanied by music. The imagery sequence begins with zoomed-in views of…
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SpaceX fires previously-flown rocket in major stride toward reusability
Throttling up to more than a million pounds of thrust at SpaceX’s Central Texas test facility, a Falcon 9 rocket booster recovered after a commercial satellite launch in May passed a key milestone Thursday as the company sets its sights on re-flying a used first stage on a mission this fall. Nine Merlin 1D engines…