Tag: SLC-4E
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Launch Roundup: SpaceX, China, and Russia maintain busy launch manifests through the holidays
At the start of this week, Monday, Dec. 23, there had been 24 launch attempts worldwide. There was no let-up during the holiday period, with six further launch attempts taking place. The SpaceX launch manifest for this week included a single customer payload and three batches of Starlink satellites. SpaceX’s target of 136 launches for…
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SpaceX launches Bandwagon-2 rideshare from Vandenberg
On Saturday, Dec. 21st, SpaceX launched the Bandwagon-2 rideshare mission from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Liftoff occurred as scheduled at 3:34 AM PST (11:34 UTC). This flight carried 30 payloads for a variety of customers, including a synthetic aperture radar satellite for South Korea. The spacecraft were carried…
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Launch Roundup: SpaceX plans for five customer missions; Rocket Lab launch mission for Synspective
The orbital launch manifest for the week of Dec. 16 through Dec. 22 has been one of the busiest yet, with 10 of the 12 planned launches worldwide succeeding. SpaceX planned to launch seven Falcon 9 missions this week, with five customer missions, one rideshare mission, and one Starlink mission. Outside of the U.S., three…
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Launch Roundup: Kairos stands down second launch attempt, Falcon 9 to launch 03, GPS and NRO missions
This week, Japanese commercial company Space One stood down two attempts to launch its Kairos vehicle for the second time, while SpaceX has four Falcon 9 launches at the end of the week from Friday onwards. These include customer missions carrying satellites for the 03b mPOWER and GPS-III constellations and another for the National Reconnaissance…
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Launch Roundup: Sentinel 1C and PROBA 3 among ten planned launches
This week is busy in spaceflight, with 10 orbital launches planned throughout the week. China has, as expected, continued its launch cadence from last week with three more launches this week. SpaceX planned to launch five Falcon 9 missions in five days with the launches of four Starlink missions and one customer payload but has…
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Launch Roundup: ZhuQue-2E and Chang Zheng 12 take first flights; SpaceX launches classified mission
This week Landspace debuted the enhanced version of its ZhuQue-2 rocket and the Chang Zheng 12 rocket has also taken its maiden flight. Roscosmos has launched one of two planned Soyuz missions – the highly classified mission from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome has now been delayed until next week. In contrast, four Falcon 9 missions are…
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Launch Roundup: SpaceX launches 400th orbital flight; Blue Origin, China launch missions
Blue Origin tested its second human-rated New Shepard capsule this week, which had been delayed twice since the start of the month. The week has also seen two launches from China while a fourth flight of the Japanese H3 rocket carrying a communications satellite for the Japanese military has now been delayed until next week.…
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Launch Roundup: Europa Clipper launches, Starlink launches return
The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) recent decision to clear SpaceX’s Falcon 9 for a return to all flights paved the way for a busy week of launches. Before Falcon 9 returned to flying regular Starlink missions, though, a Falcon Heavy launch with NASA’s Europa Clipper mission started the week off. Following Europa Clipper’s launch, SpaceX…
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Launch Roundup: NASA Crew-9 flies half-empty, Starlink and Chinese launches continue
NASA and SpaceX’s launch of the Crew-9 mission took center stage this week. The launch of two new International Space Station crew members took place on Saturday from the recently crew-certified Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS). Meanwhile, in California, another Falcon 9 lifted the only scheduled Starlink…
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Launch Roundup: Falcon 9 and Electron to extend satellite constellations
This week’s manifest includes the delayed launches of a Falcon 9 with Galileo global positioning satellites and an Electron with a second batch of satellites for Kinéis. SpaceX also launched a batch of 20 Starlink satellites from California as the constellation increases to 6,000 operational satellites. Following last weekend’s return and recovery of the Polaris…