August 2024 – Page 2 – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX launches new Falcon 9 rocket on Starlink mission following ‘water intrusion’ issue

August 20, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

The mission came a little more than 12 hours after SpaceX performed a static fire test of the rocket Monday night. Liftoff of the Starlink 10-5 mission happened at 9:20 a.m. EDT (1320 UTC).

SpaceX completes static fire of Falcon 9 rocket ahead of Starlink and Crew 9 missions

August 19, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

The booster will first launch the Starlink 10-5 mission no earlier than the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 20. The static fire test happened Monday evening shortly after 7 p.m. EDT (2300 UTC).

SpaceX launches 116 payloads on Falcon 9 rideshare mission, Transporter-11

August 16, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

SpaceX’s rideshare program has launched more 1,000 smallsats for more than 130 customers. Liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 11:56 a.m. PDT (2:56 p.m. EDT, 1856 UTC).

Rocket Lab’s Mars-bound twin satellites – Blue and Gold – hit the road ahead of Blue Origin launch

August 16, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

The twin spacecraft, named Blue and Gold, left Rocket Lab’s Long Beach facilities on Thursday to begin the trip to Florida. The EscaPADE mission will launch aboard Blue Origin’s first New Glenn rocket.

SpaceX launches 2nd pair of Maxar’s WorldView Legion satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral

August 14, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

The mission marked the 200th Falcon 9 launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff happened at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 UTC).

As it happened: NASA officials discuss latest on Boeing Crew Flight Test

August 14, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

This media briefing comes as NASA is potentially within a week of making its final decision on how to bring the Starliner CFT crew home. The agency is debating on if Starliner is determined to be safe or if NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmroe and Sunita “Sunni” Williams will return on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.

SpaceX to launch privately-financed international crew of four around Earth’s poles

August 12, 2024 William Harwood

A blockchain entrepreneur, a cinematographer, a polar adventurer and a robotics researcher plan to fly around Earth’s poles aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule by end of year, becoming the first humans to observe the ice caps and extreme polar environments from orbit, SpaceX announced Monday.

SpaceX launched twin communications satellites for Space Norway

August 11, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

The satellites were manufactured by Northrop Grumman and will provide both commercial broadband connectivity and military satellite communications in the northern polar region. Liftoff happened Sunday, Aug. 11, at 7:02 p.m. PDT (10:02 p.m. EDT 0202 UTC).

SpaceX launches Falcon 9 at sunrise with 23 Starlink satellites

August 11, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink satellites at sunrise Monday, capping a busy long-weekend for the launch company that saw three launches and two scrubbed countdowns over four days.

NASA sends final command to its NEOWISE spacecraft, ending more than a decade of asteroid observations

August 9, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

The spacecraft launched in 2009 as the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission before making the pivot to become NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) in 2010. NEOWISE is expected to safely burn up in the atmosphere by late 2024.