January 2023 – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX launches heaviest payload on Falcon 9 rocket

January 26, 2023

A Falcon 9 rocket thundered off a launch pad at Cape Canaveral before dawn Thursday with another batch of 56 Starlink satellites, setting a record for the heaviest payload ever launched on a SpaceX rocket at more than 38,000 pounds.

Rocket Lab primed for busy year after first launch from Virginia

January 24, 2023

Rocket Lab’s first mission from a launch pad in Virginia delivered three small commercial satellites into orbit Tuesday night, starting what the company hopes will be a banner year with at least 15 flights from the new U.S. launch site and a spaceport in New Zealand.

Live coverage: Rocket Lab launches first mission from Virginia

January 24, 2023

Rocket Lab launched its first mission from a new launch site in Virginia Tuesday. The company’s small satellite launcher took off from Virginia’s Eastern Shore at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT), carrying three small commercial satellites into orbit for HawkEye 360.

Another countdown begins for Rocket Lab’s first launch from Virginia

January 23, 2023

Rocket Lab is set to fill up its small Electron launcher with propellant fire it into space from Virginia Tuesday evening with three commercial satellites, the company’s second try to launch its first mission from U.S. soil after bad weather thwarted attempts last month.

Astronauts complete spacewalk to prep for new ISS solar arrays

January 20, 2023

Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and NASA astronaut Nicole Mann suited up and floated outside the International Space Station Friday for a spacewalk to prepare the lab for arrival of another pair of new solar arrays later this year.

SpaceX orbits 51 more Starlink satellites in year’s first launch from Vandenberg

January 19, 2023

SpaceX’s first launch of the year from California, and fourth mission overall in 2023, added 51 more satellites to the Starlink internet constellation, keeping pace with the company’s goal of 100 Falcon rocket launches this year.

Live coverage: SpaceX launches 51 Starlink satellites from California

January 19, 2023

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, at 7:43 a.m. PST (10:43 a.m. EST; 1543 GMT) Thursday with 51 more Starlink internet satellites. The mission was delayed more than a week due to bad weather.

SpaceX delivers GPS satellite to 12,000-mile-high orbit

January 18, 2023

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket just after sunrise Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, hauling a GPS navigation satellite into orbit to replace an aging 16-year-old spacecraft in the global positioning network trusted to guide everything from military weapons to civilian commuters.

GPS navigation satellite set for launch on SpaceX rocket

January 17, 2023

SpaceX’s second launch for the U.S. military in three days is set to blast off from Florida and deliver a GPS navigation satellite into orbit Wednesday, reinforcing the global positioning and timing network as four more GPS spacecraft are in storage at a Lockheed Martin factory in Colorado to be launched as needed over the next few years.

Falcon Heavy hauls military satellites to high orbit after spectacular sunset launch

January 16, 2023

A U.S. military data relay satellite and a rideshare platform with its own suite of payloads rocketed into a sunset sky over Florida’s Space Coast Sunday on a Falcon Heavy launcher, putting on a dazzling show for local residents and visitors as the rocket’s two side boosters returned to Cape Canaveral for landing.