Tag: SpaceX
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Launch Preview: Falcon 9 to launch Starlink satellites, New Glenn to launch with flown booster
Six launches are scheduled worldwide this week, with the third launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn, featuring a previously-flown booster, highlighting the week. SpaceX is expected to launch three Starlink missions this week: two from California and one from Florida. Internationally, two Chinese rockets, a Lilian-1 and Chang Zheng 2D, are scheduled to launch unknown…
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New Glenn Third Flight Tests Booster Reuse Strategy
Will New Glenn’s booster reuse strategy match SpaceX’s economics? Blue Origin’s New Glenn is preparing for its third orbital mission this week using a previously flown first-stage booster, marking a critical test of the company’s reusability strategy against SpaceX’s proven Falcon 9 economics. The mission represents Blue Origin’s first attempt at operational booster reuse, coming…
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Falcon 9 launches CRS NG-24 cargo ship to ISS
Weeks after Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus S.S. William McCool ended its CRS NG-23 mission with a destructive reentry, another Cygnus is now flying. A Falcon 9 successfully launched the Cygnus XL S.S. Steven R. Nagel to the International Space Station, the fourth time SpaceX has launched a Cygnus spacecraft. The launch took place on Saturday, April…
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The Artemis II mission has ended. Where does NASA go from here?
The Artemis era well and truly began Friday evening when a shiny spacecraft that had traveled 700,000 miles around the Moon, carrying four astronauts, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. For NASA, for its international partners, and for all of humanity the successful conclusion of the Artemis II mission marked…
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SpaceX launches 11,000 lbs of ISS cargo on Cygnus NG-24 mission
How much cargo is SpaceX delivering to the ISS this weekend? SpaceX launched 11,000 pounds of critical supplies to the International Space Station aboard Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus NG-24 spacecraft on Saturday, marking another successful cargo resupply mission that keeps the orbiting laboratory operational. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, delivering the automated…
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Launch Preview: Falcon 9 to loft Cygnus to ISS, Minotaur IV to launch from California
As NASA’s Artemis II mission reaches its halfway point, the launch manifest on Earth continues to stay busy, with eight launches scheduled for the week of April 6th. SpaceX is expected to launch four Falcon 9s this week, including three Starlink missions and the NG-24 mission to the International Space Station. A Northrop Grumman Minotaur…
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SpaceX Launches Transporter-16 Mission Carrying 119 Payloads to Orbit
SpaceX launched its Transporter-16 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, sending 119 payloads into orbit in what the company said is its first rideshare flight of 2026. The mission carried a broad mix of satellites and technology demonstrators spanning Earth observation (EO), radio frequency (RF) sensing, communications and in-orbit services. Further details are expected…
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SpaceX launches 119 payloads on smallsat rideshare mission from California
File: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base ahead of the Starlink 17-31 mission on March 13, 2026. Image: SpaceX SpaceX launched 119 payloads to a Sun-synchronous, low Earth orbit on a rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Liftoff of the Transporter-16 mission from Space…
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Portal Space’s ‘Mini-Nova’ payload goes into orbit to test technologies for maneuverable space vehicles
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sends Portal Space Systems’ “Mini-Nova” technology demonstration payload and more than 100 other payloads into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. (SpaceX Photo) Bothell, Wash.-based Portal Space Systems has made its first foray into Earth orbit, in the form of a piggyback payload that will test technologies for…
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Launch Preview: SLS, Falcon 9, Atlas V, and Soyuz launches comprise busy launch manifest
Nine launches are scheduled this week, with rockets expected to liftoff from Florida, California, Russia, Kazakhstan, and China. Most notably, NASA’s long-awaited Artemis II mission is scheduled to launch the first humans to the Moon in over 50 years on Wednesday. SpaceX has four Starlink missions scheduled for the week, with Falcon 9 launching two…