Tag: Vandenberg
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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: Falcon 9 launches continue, Rocket Lab to launch two Electrons, Russia to fly to ISS
Following the sixth flight of SpaceX’s Starship on Tuesday, eight additional orbital launches were planned worldwide. Rocket Lab launched an experimental hypersonic testbed payload using a modified Electron from Wallops. What’s more, a second Electron launched a batch of nanosatellites into low-Earth orbit from New Zealand less than 24 hours later. Meanwhile, SpaceX continued to…
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Launch Roundup: China launch crew to Tiangong Space Station, Russia launches military payload
In another busy week of launches, China launched three taikonauts to the Tiangong Space Station aboard a Chang Zheng rocket this week as part of the Shenzhou 19 mission. Additionally, both Russia and Japan launched military payloads. As usual, SpaceX continues to fly Starlink missions throughout the week. SpaceX’s CRS-31 mission, a Cargo Resupply Services…
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Launch Roundup: Starship flies, booster caught
SpaceX flew the Starship-Super Heavy on Sunday, Oct. 13. This was the fifth test flight of the full Starship-Super Heavy stack and the first attempt at catching the booster. On Friday, Oct. 11, SpaceX Falcon 9 missions were released from the hold imposed on them while an investigation into the anomaly with the second stage…
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Launch Roundup: Polaris Dawn aims high, Starlink launches continue
A total of five flights were on the worldwide launch manifest for this week. Most notable was to be the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 with the Polaris Dawn mission. A modified Crew Dragon capsule will carry four astronauts into the highest orbit a crewed mission has flown in since the Gemini missions. In…
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SpaceX launches Transporter-11 rideshare with 116 payloads
On Friday, Aug. 15, 2024, SpaceX launched the Transporter-11 rideshare mission from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB). Liftoff occurred at 11:56 AM PT (18:56 UTC), 36 minutes into a 53-minute launch window. At the end of the mission SpaceX declared that all payloads were successfully deployed. Payloads were deployed…
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Launch Roundup: Starlink constellation continues to expand while China begins building G60 constellation
Following a busy last two weeks, the pace of the worldwide launch schedule slowed down this week. The first launch of the week saw China launch the initial batch of its G60 internet satellite constellation. If the plans for this expansive constellation are fulfilled, we can expect to see many more of these launches shortly.…
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Launch Roundup: SpaceX flies more customer payloads and Ariane 6 debuts
As many as four SpaceX Falcon 9 missions and the long-delayed inaugural flight of Ariane 6 make up the roster for this week’s launch schedule. The four SpaceX missions will be split evenly between Starlink and two payloads for other customers. At least one of the SpaceX missions is likely to be affected by the…
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Firefly successfully launched Alpha on Noise of Summer mission
After six months of preparation following its last flight, Firefly successfully launched the Alpha rocket on its fifth mission. After deciding to stand down from a July 2 launch attempt while teams evaluated and tested the systems responsible for aborting the launch on Monday, July 1, Firefly took off at 9:04 PM PDT on July…