Tag: Launches & Spacecraft

SpaceX sent a set of internet satellites to orbit for another company early Sunday morning (Oct. 20). SpaceX launched the last batch of Eutelsat OneWeb’s V1 satellites from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base atop a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday at 1:13 a.m. EDT (0513 GMT; 10:13 p.m. on Oct. 19 local California time). The Falcon 9‘s first stage returned to Earth as planned, touching down at Vandenberg’s Landing Zone 4 about eight minutes after lifting off. It was the seventh launch and landing for this particular booster, according to…

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SpaceX just added another batch of launches to its already-busy manifest. The U.S. Space Force announced on Friday (Oct. 18) that it has awarded SpaceX $733.6 million, in the form of two “National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 Launch Service Task Orders.” Together, the two task orders cover seven launches for the Space Development Agency (SDA) and one “mission set” for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), according to Space Force officials. “In this era of Great Power Competition, it is imperative to not leave capability on the ground,”…

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SpaceX sent yet another batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit tonight (Oct. 18). A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 20 Starlink craft, including 13 with direct-to-cell capability, lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station tonight at 7:31 p.m. EDT (2331 GMT). The Falcon 9’s first stage came back to Earth about 8.5 minutes after liftoff as planned, landing on the SpaceX drone ship “Just Read the Instructions” in the Atlantic Ocean. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 20 of the company’s Starlink internet satellites from Florida’s…

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This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Dan Kotlyar is an Associate Professor of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. NASA plans to send crewed missions to Mars over the next decade – but the 140 million-mile (225 million-kilometer) journey to the red planet could take several months to years round trip. This relatively long transit time is a result of the use of traditional chemical rocket fuel. An alternative technology to the chemically propelled rockets…

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Watch live! SpaceX Falcon Heavy to launch NASA’s Europa Clipper – YouTube Watch On NASA’s first mission to another ocean world in our solar system will launch toward Jupiter on Monday (Oct. 14), but if you want to watch it live, you’ll need to know when to tune in. Europa Clipper, a $5 billion NASA mission to study the salty ocean beneath the ice of Jupiter’s moon Europa, will launch on its way Monday atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Liftoff is set for 12:06 p.m. EDT (1606 GMT) from…

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Watch live! SpaceX to launch Starship, attempt to catch booster – YouTube Watch On It’s official: SpaceX is “go” to launch what may be its most ambitious Starship test flight yet, and if you’re hoping to watch it live online, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered.  SpaceX’s next Starship test launch, called Starship Flight 5, is now officially scheduled to launch on Sunday, Oct. 13, at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) from the company’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas. It will be 7 a.m. local time…

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The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has given SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket a green light to return to flight. The Falcon 9 had been grounded since Sept. 28, when the rocket suffered an issue with its upper stage during the launch of the Crew-9 astronaut mission for NASA. (A Falcon 9 did launch Europe’s Hera asteroid-inspection probe on Oct. 7, but that was a one-time exception granted by the FAA.) “The FAA notified SpaceX on Oct. 11 that the Falcon 9 vehicle is authorized to return to regular flight…

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2024-10-11T23:05:00.079Z SpaceX aims for Starship Flight 5 launch on Oct. 13 SpaceX’s Starship Flight 5 rocket and its Super Heavy booster are stacked together ahead of a planned launch from Boca Chica Beach, Texas on Oct. 13, 2024, pending FAA approval. (Image credit: SpaceX) SpaceX on Friday, Oct. 11, said its next Starship rocket could launch as early as Sunday, Oct. 13, pending final FAA regulatory approvals. Liftoff is targeted for no earlier than 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) on Oct. 13, if the approvals come through in time. A…

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ESA’s Hera mission launch (Official broadcast) – YouTube Watch On SpaceX will launch Europe’s Hera spacecraft toward the asteroid Dimorphos for a post-impact evaluation on Monday (Oct. 7), and you can watch the liftoff live. The European Space Agency‘s Hera mission will visit Dimorphos — the asteroid that NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft knocked off course in September 2022. Hera will assess the aftermath of that impact and study both the surface and internal structure of the asteroid in greater detail.  The main Hera spacecraft and its two…

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