Month: September 2021

Photographers visited launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center early Wednesday to set up remote cameras. Photographer Michael Cain captured these views of the 215-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft ahead of liftoff on the Inspiration 4 private crew mission.

Four private citizens strapped into a Crew Dragon spacecraft Wednesday for the ride of their lives. The Inspiration4 mission, the first all-private, non-government human spaceflight ever to travel into orbit, blasted off from Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 8:02 p.m. EDT Wednesday (0002 GMT Thursday). The crew members gave a live update on their mission at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) Friday.

SpaceX delivered 51 more Starlink internet spacecraft to orbit Monday night with a successful Falcon 9 rocket launch from California, introducing new inter-satellite optical laser links to improve how the network relays broadband signals around the world.

An all-civilian, non-astronaut crew, including a childhood cancer survivor, is ready for blastoff this week on a history-making SpaceX flight. Launch is scheduled for Wednesday evening for the first fully commercial, non-government flight to orbit, a charity-driven mission proponents say will open the door for “everyday people” to fly in space.

SpaceX began launching its next series of Starlink internet satellites Monday, when a Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Liftoff with 51 Starlink satellites occurred at 8:55 p.m. PDT (11:55 p.m. EDT) Monday, or 0355 GMT Tuesday.