Zena Cardman, the original commander of the Crew-9 mission, will get to fly to space as the commander of Crew-11. Launch is set for no earlier than July 2025.
The conclusion of certification closes out a process that began in September 2016 and saw the government closely track the development of Vulcan alongside United Launch Alliance. Its first National Security Space Launch mission is targeting liftoff over the summer.
The mission marks the largest number of Starlink V2 Mini satellites launched in a single batch from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened at 3:11 p.m. PDT (6:11 p.m. EDT, 2211 UTC).
These first eight satellites are part of OroraTech’s plan to deploy up to 100 satellites by 2028. Liftoff from Mahia, New Zealand happened at 4:30 a.m. NZT on March 27 (11:30 a.m. EDT, 1530 UTC on March 26).
The NROL-57 mission was the eighth launch supporting the National Reconnaissance Office’s proliferated architecture satellite constellation. Liftoff happened at 11:49 p.m. PDT (2:49 a.m. EDT, 0649 UTC).
Dragon Freedom undocked from the space station at 1:05 a.m. EDT (1705 UTC) on Tuesday to begin its roughly 17-hour trip to splash down along Florida’s Gulf Coast. The parachute-supported splash down happened at 5:57 p.m. EDT (2157 UTC).
The launch came amid the return of three astronauts and a cosmonaut from the International Space Station. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station 3:57 p.m. EDT (1957 UTC).
The lunar operation marks the longest commercial mission on the Moon to date. Firefly Aerospace is in the midst of preparing for its next trip to the Moon, which is set to launch in 2026.
The Saturday morning launch broke the pad turnaround record at Space Launch Complex 40 by at nearly six hours. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 7:35 a.m. EDT (1135 UTC).
The mission will be the 14th time that a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carries humans to the International Space Station. The mission launched on Friday, March 14, at 7:03 p.m. EDT (2303 UTC).
The last Falcon 9 launch from Florida was back on March 2 marking the longest stretch between Florida launches since an upper stage anomaly caused a launch halt from July 13 through July 27. Liftoff of the Starlink 12-21 mission happened Wednesday, March 12 at 10:35 p.m. EDT (0235 UTC).
SpaceX hasn’t launched a Falcon 9 rocket since the March 2 flight of Starlink 12-20. It’s return to flight mission is set to be the rideshare launch of NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH missions on Monday night.
The infrared space telescope and Sun-centric missions will launch on a rideshare Falcon 9 flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Monday, March 10. Liftoff happened Tuesday, March 11, at 8:10 p.m. PDT (11:10 p.m. EDT, 0310 UTC).