Tag: SpaceX
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Can NASA remain nonpartisan when basic spaceflight truths are shredded?
It looked like the final scene of a movie, the denouement of a long adventure in which the good guys finally prevail. Azure skies and brilliant blue seas provided a perfect backdrop on Tuesday evening as a spacecraft carrying four people neared the planet’s surface. “Just breathtaking views of a calm, glass-like ocean off the…
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Crew-9, Starliner CFT astronauts return to Earth aboard Dragon
After more than nine months in space, the crew of the Boeing Crew Flight Test mission have returned home. Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams boarded SpaceX Crew Dragon C212 Freedom and undocked from the International Space Station on March 17, and splashed down off the coast of Florida on March 18. They were…
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SpaceX Dragon Freedom splashes down off coast of Florida, ending Crew-9 mission
Support teams work around a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft shortly after it landed with NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard in the water off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Hague, Gorbunov, Williams, and Wilmore are returning from a long-duration science expedition aboard the International…
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SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites Tuesday afternoon Falcon 9 flight
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) to begin the Starlink 12-25 mission on March 18, 2025. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now SpaceX launched a batch of 23 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to low Earth orbit as it and NASA are in the process of returning four people from the…
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Launch Roundup: Electron, Falcon 9, and Ceres-1 launches flying this week
The busy launch manifests of recent weeks are continuing, with Falcon 9, Electron, and Chinese rocket launches having taken place this week. SpaceX launched Starlink 12-25 and NROL-57 along with NROL-69, while Starlink 11-7 moved into next week. Rocket Lab’s Electron successfully launched from New Zealand on the heels of last week’s “The Lightning God…
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SpaceX sets new launchpad turnaround record with Saturday sunrise launch
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off at sunrise to begin the Starlink 12-16 mission on March 15, 2025. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now Update March 15, 8:41 a.m. EDT: SpaceX confirmed deployment of the 23 Starlink satellites. SpaceX launched its latest batch of Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at sunrise Saturday morning.…
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Rocket Report: ULA confirms cause of booster anomaly; Crew-10 launch on tap
Welcome to Edition 7.35 of the Rocket Report! SpaceX’s steamroller is still rolling, but for the first time in many years, it doesn’t seem like it’s rolling downhill. After a three-year run of perfect performance—with no launch failures or any other serious malfunctions—SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has suffered a handful of issues in recent months.…
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SpaceX launches Transporter-13 rideshare from Vandenberg
SpaceX launched the Transporter-13 rideshare mission on Friday, March 14, at 11:43 PM PDT (06:43 UTC on March 15) from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Following launch, Falcon 9 deployed more than 60 satellites into orbit. The Falcon booster supporting this mission returned to land at LZ-4. The second stage for this…
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SpaceX press on with pre-launch testing while working Ship issue mitigation
SpaceX continues to press on with pre-flight testing for Flight 9, while internally looking to resolve issues with the Ship that has resulted in the loss of the first two Block 2 vehicles. Ship 35 and Booster 16 – the potential pairing for Flight 9 – have been cryotested at the Masseys test site. Booster…
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SpaceX launches NASA’s Crew-10 mission to the ISS
NASA and SpaceX successfully launched the next ISS crew-rotation mission, Crew-10. The 10th operational crewed mission under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon Endurance is carrying a crew of four NASA, JAXA, and Roscosmos astronauts to the orbiting laboratory for a six-month stay as part of Expedition 72/73. Falcon 9 lifted…