Tag: SpaceX
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Radio bug to keep new Iridium satellites grounded until April
Artist’s concept of an Iridium Next satellite. Credit: Thales Alenia Space The first launch for Iridium’s next-generation mobile communications fleet has been pushed back four months — from December until April — to resolve a technical problem inside the spacecraft’s Ka-band communications payload. The announcement Oct. 29 means Iridium will miss a long-targeted timetable to…
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Planning for December Falcon 9 launch, Orbcomm ships satellites
Orbcomm’s 11 second-generation OG2 satellites are pictured inside Sierra Nevada’s factory in Louisville, Colorado. Credit: Sierra Nevada Corp. The first shipment of Orbcomm’s 11-satellite payload for the Falcon 9 rocket’s first flight since a June launch failure has arrived at Cape Canaveral, and the rest of the spacecraft will reach the Florida spaceport in the…
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SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell signals go-slow approach for Seattle satellite plan
During SpaceX’s Seattle announcement about an Internet satellite network, the company’s logo lit up Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center. (GeekWire photo) It’s been nine months since SpaceX’s billionaire founder, Elon Musk, announced plans to put up a constellation of 4,000 satellites to provide global Internet service, and scores of employees are being hired in the Seattle area to…
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SpaceX preparing for Static Fire test on first Full Thrust Falcon 9 First Stage
SpaceX is preparing to conduct the first full duration static fire test on its “full thrust” Falcon 9 first stage. The milestone – set to be conducted at its McGregor test facility in Texas within the next few days – will be a major step forward in the flow towards the company’s Return To Flight…
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SpaceX DragonFly arrives at McGregor for testing
SpaceX’s DragonFly test vehicle has arrived at its test facility in McGregor, Texas. DragonFly will be attached to a large crane, ahead of a series of test firings of its SuperDraco thrusters to set the stage towards the eventual goal of propulsive landings. The first test is set to take place in the next few…
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Robotic missions aid in-situ resource identification for human Mars missions
The draw of mounting a human mission to Mars has held the public’s attention since telescopic observations of the red planet began centuries ago. With the recent discovery of current-day saltwater flows on Mars, the notion of usable, in-situ resources for Martian human missions now places greater emphasis on robotic precursor missions in the next decade.…
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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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SpaceX selects ORBCOMM-2 mission for Falcon 9’s Return To Flight
SpaceX has selected the ORBCOMM-2 (OG2) mission for Falcon 9’s Return To Flight. While no specific launch date has been selected, the company is aiming for lift off to take place in around six to eight weeks, likely resulting in an early December mission. ORBCOMM-2’s trip to LEO will allow for the Second Stage to…
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Canaveral and KSC pads: New designs for space access
For the past several years, the historic launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, have undergone sweeping changes as the conclusion of the Space Shuttle program brought a new vision to the spaceport. Those changes have now spread across the lagoon to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where pad modifications are underway for…
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Former astronaut: NASA ‘certainly not dead, but they are lost at the moment’
Former astronaut Ed Lu (right) at the 2015 GeekWire Summit. Former NASA astronaut Ed Lu, who logged more than 206 days in space over his career, said there are a lot of interesting things going on in space exploration right now — they’re just not coming from the organization you would expect. “It [NASA] is…