2020 – Page 78 – Spaceflight Now

China publishes Chang’e 4 data one year after first landing on far side of the moon

January 6, 2020 Stephen Clark

Chinese officials marked the one-year anniversary of the Chang’e 4 mission’s historic first soft landing on the far side of the moon Friday with the public release of data collected by scientific instruments and cameras on the lunar lander and rover.

SpaceX test-fires rocket ahead of record-setting Starlink launch

January 4, 2020 Stephen Clark

SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday at Cape Canaveral, two days before a scheduled launch Monday with 60 Starlink broadband relay stations that will make SpaceX the owner of the world’s largest fleet of commercial satellites.

Watch as SpaceX test-fires Falcon 9 ahead of Starlink launch (members only)

January 4, 2020 Spaceflight Now

Watch as SpaceX test fires a Falcon 9 rocket ahead of the planned launch of 60 more Starlink satellites.

Watch a live view of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch pad (members only)

January 4, 2020 Stephen Clark

Spaceflight Now members can watch a live view of the Falcon 9 rocket on pad 40 at Cape Canaveral as SpaceX prepares for launch of its first mission of 2020 on Monday at 9:19 p.m. EST (0219 GMT Tuesday).

Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket launches on first mission of 2020

January 4, 2020 Stephen Clark

SpaceX launched its first mission of the year Monday at 9:19 p.m. EST (0219 GMT Tuesday), when a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral with SpaceX’s third batch of 60 Starlink broadband satellites.

SpaceX drawing up plans for mobile gantry at launch pad 39A

January 3, 2020 Stephen Clark

With construction already underway at Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A on facilities for SpaceX’s next-generation Starship vehicle, another new fixture could soon rise at the seaside launch complex to satisfy U.S. military requirements to vertically integrate sensitive top secret spy satellites with Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.

Long March, Soyuz and Falcon rockets topped 2019’s launch leaderboard

January 2, 2020 Stephen Clark

China led the world with 34 orbital launch attempts in 2019 — including two failures — followed by 22 flights from Russian-operated launch pads and 21 satellite delivery missions originating from U.S. spaceports, all of which were successful.

Good weather predicted for Cape Canaveral’s first launch of 2020

January 2, 2020 Stephen Clark

Forecasters predict near-ideal weather conditions Monday night for the first launch at Cape Canaveral this year, when SpaceX plans to send another 60 Starlink broadband satellites into orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket.

NASA’s next Mars rover will soon ship to Cape Canaveral launch site

January 2, 2020 Stephen Clark

Fresh off its first terrestrial test drive, NASA’s Mars 2020 rover was displayed to media last week at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California before it’s packed up and flown across the country to Cape Canaveral in February to begin final launch preparations for liftoff in July.