Tag: Reusability
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U.S. military’s X-37B spaceplane lands in Florida
Members of the X-37B recovery team, wearing hazardous material suits, approached the X-37B spaceplane for safety checks after the vehicle landed Sunday on the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: U.S. Air Force The U.S. Air Force’s reusable Boeing-built X-37B spaceplane returned to Earth early Sunday with a touchdown…
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SpaceX’s next launch to mark another incremental step in rocket reusability
File photo of a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster returning to Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX next mission, slated to carry the company’s second set of Starlink broadband satellites into orbit, will be the first to fly with a reused Falcon 9 booster making its fourth launch when…
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U.S. military spaceplane breaks its own longevity record in orbit
Artist’s concept of the X-37B spaceplane in orbit. Credit: Boeing A robotic U.S. military spaceplane surpassed 719 days in orbit Monday, setting a new record for the longest flight of the Air Force’s winged X-37B orbiting experiment platform nearly two years after launching from Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Air Force officials have…
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Rocket Lab launches Electron flight 8. Company previews first stage recovery
Rocket Lab has conducted the launch its Electron rocket on its eighth mission, launching from Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. For this mission, Electron lofted four satellites into orbit for UnseenLabs and Spaceflight. The first attempt was scrubbed due to unacceptable ground winds, before recycling for a Monday launch. Electron…
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Rocket Lab to begin booster recovery experiments later this year
Rocket Lab’s next launch from New Zealand, set for Friday, will carry a data recorder to measure the aerothermal environments encountered by the Electron launcher’s first stage during descent back into the atmosphere, information engineers say is crucial to successfully achieving the company’s newly-announced plan to recover and reuse the booster. The U.S.-New Zealand…
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SpaceX postpones Starlink launch to update satellite software
A Falcon 9 rocket stands vertical at pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during a scrubbed launch attempt Wednesday night. Credit: SpaceX For the second consecutive day, SpaceX called off a Falcon 9 launch attempt at Cape Canaveral on Thursday evening, this time to complete a software update on the first 60 satellites…
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SpaceX releases new details on Starlink satellite design
The mission patch for SpaceX’s first dedicated launch for the Starlink network. Credit: SpaceX The 60 satellites SpaceX is set to launch Wednesday night, beginning the build-out of a broadband network of orbiting spacecraft that could eventually number thousands, are based on a new flat-panel design, with krypton-fueled plasma thrusters, high-power antennas, and a capability…
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Live coverage: SpaceX launches 60 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida with 60 satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. SpaceX’s live video webcast begins around 15 minutes prior to launch, and will be available on this page.
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Falcon 9 launch timeline for the Starlink 1 mission
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated to reflect new launch attempt May 23. Follow the key events of the Falcon 9 rocket’s ascent to orbit 60 satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket will lift off Thursday during a 90-minute opening at 10:30 p.m. EDT (0230 GMT Friday) from the Complex 40 launch pad at…
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Falcon 9 rocket rolled out for first dedicated Starlink launch
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated after static fire. File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad in September 2018. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX ground teams at Cape Canaveral transferred a Falcon 9 rocket to launch pad 40 and rotated the booster vertical Monday for a preflight hold-down firing, ahead of a liftoff…