Tag: Launches & Spacecraft

The spaceflight company Rocket Lab called off a planned launch of half a dozen commercial satellites due to concerns over sensor readings on Friday (Dec. 20). Rocket Lab scrubbed what was to be its 16th Electron rocket flight of 2024 less than 20 minutes before planned liftoff at 10:03 a.m. EST (1503 GMT) from the company’s primary launch site on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. Fueling of the rocket had already begun at the time of the scrub. “We are standing down from today’s launch attempt for Synspective to take…

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Firefly Aerospace’s first mission to the moon is nearly ready to fly. The company’s Blue Ghost lunar lander arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Monday (Dec. 16) for integration with the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will launch the robotic probe — as well as the private Japanese moon lander Resilience — to space. Blue Ghost Mission 1, named Ghost Riders in the Sky, is scheduled to launch sometime within a six-day window that begins no earlier than mid-January. Firefly was chosen for the mission through…

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Things are getting hot for SpaceX’s next Starship launch. SpaceX fired up its next Starship spacecraft during an engine test over the weekend, ahead of the company’s 7th orbital test flight of the gargantuan megarocket. SpaceX ignited Starship’s Raptor engines for approximately 10 seconds on Sunday, Dec. 15, as a part of a series of checkouts to ensure the vehicle is healthy before being transported to the launchpad where it will be integrated with its first stage Super Heavy booster. Its next launch, Integrated Flight Test-7 (IFT-7), is expected around…

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SpaceX plans to launch yet another batch of its Starlink broadband satellites today (Dec. 13). A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 22 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base today during a 3.5-hour window that opens at 2:28 p.m. EDT (1928 GMT; 11:28 a.m. local time in California). SpaceX will webcast the action via X, beginning about five minutes before launch. If all goes to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth for a vertical touchdown on the drone ship…

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Watch live! Vega-C rocket to launch Sentinel-1C satellite in return to flight – YouTube Watch On For the first time since the launch vehicle’s catastrophic mission failure in 2022, Europe’s Vega-C rocket is poised to return to flight today. The European Space Agency (ESA) is scheduled to launch the Copernicus Sentinel-1C satellite today, lifting off from Kourou, French Guiana, during an instantaneous launch window Dec. 4, at 4:20 p.m. EST (2120 GMT, 22:20 CET — local time). This will be the third mission for ESA’s medium-lift rocket, and its first…

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Rocket Lab plans to launch five “Internet of Things” (IoT) satellites to orbit tonight (Nov. 23), and you can watch the action live. An Electron launcher carrying five spacecraft for the French company Kinéis is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab‘s New Zealand site tonight at 10:55 p.m. EST (0355 GMT and 4:55 p.m. local New Zealand time on Nov. 24). The launch window is instantaneous, so if the weather or any other issues force a delay, Rocket Lab will have to try again another day. Rocket Lab will…

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Just before sunset this evening (Nov. 19) on the outskirts of the southernmost town in Texas, SpaceX’s Starship rocket is scheduled to launch on its sixth test flight to space, and you can watch it live on Space.com. The two-stage reusable vehicle is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, consisting of the Starship upper stage and its Super Heavy booster. Today’s launch, designated Integrated Flight Test-6 (IFT-6), is scheduled to lift off during a 30-minute window that opens at 5:00 p.m. EST (2100 GMT; 4 p.m. local Texas…

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SpaceX is set to launch its first-ever mission for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today (Nov. 18). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying ISRO’s GSAT-N2 communications satellite is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today during a two-hour window that opens at 1:31 p.m. EST (1831 GMT). If it goes at the beginning of that window, it will be the third launch in 27 hours for Elon Musk‘s company. SpaceX will livestream the action via its X account, beginning about 15 minutes before liftoff. If all…

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SpaceX is targeting Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 19) for the launch of its sixth Starship flight test. The upcoming test flight is expected to lift off on Nov. 19 during a 30-minute window that opens at 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT). The Starship megarocket, which consists of two fully reusable elements — a huge first stage called Super Heavy and an upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship, or simply “Ship” — will launch from the company’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas. You’ll be able to watch the launch…

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