Tag: SES
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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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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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Falcon 9 rocket powers into space with satellite for Turkmenistan
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 7:03 p.m. EDT (2303 GMT) after a 49-minute weather delay. Credit: SpaceX A communications satellite for Turkmenistan soared into orbit Monday, climbing through gloomy skies over Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to give the Central Asian nation its first foothold in space. After waiting 49…
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SES completes three-satellite procurement with Ariane 5 contract
File photo of an Ariane 5 launch. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG SES has selected Arianespace to launch a communications satellite ordered as part of a three-spacecraft procurement announced last month, after assigning the other two payloads for launches aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets. The SES 15 communications platform will blast off…
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SES satellites could be first to launch from Texas spaceport
Story updated Feb. 26. File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral on Feb. 11. Credit: SpaceX Two communications satellites owned by SES are booked to fly into orbit — possibly from South Texas — on a pair of Falcon 9 rockets in 2017, giving SpaceX two payloads that could be assigned…
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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…
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SES bridges the Atlantic in latest satellite purchase
Artist’s concept of the SES 16/GovSat satellite to be manufactured by Orbital ATK. Credit: Orbital ATK Boeing Satellite Systems, Airbus Defense and Space and Orbital ATK have won orders from Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES for three new communications spacecraft for launch in 2017. SES announced the deals with three satellite manufacturers Monday for spacecraft to…
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Photos: Proton lifts off with TV broadcasting satellite
Firing into space from the historic Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, a Russian Proton rocket guided a European television broadcast satellite into orbit Saturday. The 191-foot-tall rocket, fueled by a mixture of hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants, blasted off at 2137 GMT (4:37 p.m. EST) Saturday with the Astra 2G communications satellite owned by SES of…