The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off Sunday with a dual-satellite payload destined for geosynchronous orbits 22,300 miles above the Earth.
Photo credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Scriptunas Images
Atlas 5
Live coverage: Launch readiness review gives approval for final Atlas 5 flight preps
United Launch Alliance and Boeing teams worked through the weekend on closeouts of the Starliner crew capsule, inspections and final outfitting of the Atlas 5 rocket. A launch readiness review Tuesday approved the continuation of final preparations for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Friday of the first Starliner spacecraft on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station.
News
SpaceX Starship prototype lost in test flight landing mishap
SpaceX launched a prototype Starship rocket Tuesday from its Boca Chica, Texas, flight facility, successfully sending the silver booster up to an altitude of about six miles as planned. But the unpiloted test flight ended with a spectacular explosion when the rocket failed to right itself and slow down enough for a tail-first landing.
Falcon 9
U.S. military to use previously-flown SpaceX rockets beginning next year
The U.S. Space Force says it will launch two GPS navigation satellites on reused Falcon 9 boosters next year through a restructured contract with SpaceX that saved taxpayers $52 million, the first time the military has agreed to fly operational national security payloads on previously-flown rockets.