Tag: SES 9
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Falcon 9 rocket to give SES 9 telecom satellite an extra boost
The Falcon 9 rocket stands at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad with the SES 9 satellite. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX and SES, owner of a 5.8-ton commercial telecom satellite poised for launch from Cape Canaveral on Wednesday, struck a deal to tweak the Falcon 9 rocket’s standard launch profile to give the SES 9 spacecraft…
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SES eager to fly satellite aboard used Falcon 9 rocket
The first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket stands on its landing pad at Cape Canaveral after a successful touchdown following a Dec. 21 launch with 11 Orbcomm communications satellites. Credit: SpaceX In one of the strongest public endorsements of SpaceX’s initiative to put a reusable launcher on the commercial market, a top official from…
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Flight timeline for Falcon 9’s launch of SES 9
Updated after scrubs. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Friday evening, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the SES 9 television broadcast satellite into orbit 31 minutes later. The 229-foot-tall rocket is poised for launch from Complex 40 at 6:35 p.m. EST (2335 GMT) Friday at…
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Falcon 9 clears static fire test before launch this week
The Falcon 9 rocket’s nine Merlin 1D first stage engines fired Monday while the booster was on Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX’s launch team in Cape Canaveral fueled a Falcon 9 rocket with super-chilled liquid propellants and briefly fired the first stage’s nine Merlin engines Monday in a customary preflight test…
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Orbcomm first in Falcon 9’s return-to-flight launch queue
File photo of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket before launching six Orbcomm satellites in 2014. Credit: SpaceX Going with a philosophy that favors incremental testing of an upgraded version of the Falcon 9 booster, SpaceX officials said Friday that eleven mini-satellites for Orbcomm’s data relay business will fly on the company’s first mission since a launch…
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First static fire completed on upgraded Falcon 9
SpaceX’s upgraded Falcon 9 booster powered up to full throttle in a brief ignition at the company’s Central Texas test site this week as engineers prepare for the rocket’s return to flight as soon as mid-November with a European communications satellite. The November launch from Cape Canaveral, which will haul up the SES 9 television…
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Falcon 9 rocket to be grounded longer than expected
File photo of a Falcon 9 launch in February 2015. Credit: NASA/KSC The beginning of November will be the earliest SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket can resume launching after a June 28 failure blamed on a deficient structural support brace inside the the vehicle’s second stage, a SpaceX executive said Monday. The next launch will be…
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Satellite owners among bystanders in Falcon 9 accident
Updated June 30 with SpaceX comment. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral on Sunday. The rocket broke apart at about T+plus 2 minutes, 19 seconds, and SpaceX is focusing its investigation on the second stage. Credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Scriptunas Images The long queue of satellites waiting on launches aboard SpaceX’s…
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SES signs up for launch with more powerful Falcon 9 engines
A Falcon 9 rocket launches Feb. 11 with NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory. Credit: NASA/Tony Gray A communications payload owned by the Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES will ride the first launch of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket in mid-2015, SES officials said Friday. The decision comes after a review of the risks of launching the…