September 2024 – Page 2 – Spaceflight Now

Polaris Dawn crew returns to Earth with splashdown in Gulf of Mexico

September 15, 2024 William Harwood

The Polaris Dawn crew closed out a record-setting commercial spaceflight with a pre-dawn splashdown early Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico northwest of Key West, Florida. Splashdown occurred at 3:37 a.m. EDT (0737 UTC).

SpaceX launches 21 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from West Coast

September 12, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

The launch comes as the commercial astronaut mission, Polaris Dawn, is preparing for an on-orbit demonstration of the satellite internet service. Liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 6:45 p.m. PDT (9:45 p.m. EDT, 0145 UTC).

First non-government spacewalk goes off without a hitch for Polaris Dawn crew

September 12, 2024 William Harwood

In another SpaceX milestone, billionaire Jared Isaacman and company crew trainer Sarah Gillis took turns floating just outside their Crew Dragon capsule early Thursday in the first privately-financed spacewalk in the history of space exploration.

SpaceX launches five BlueBird satellites on Falcon 9 flight from Cape Canaveral

September 12, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

This was the first of the company’s first five commercial satellites for the BlueBird constellation. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 4:52 a.m. EDT (0852 UTC).

Polaris Dawn crew gears up for Thursday spacewalk

September 12, 2024 William Harwood

Billionaire Jared Isaacman and SpaceX crew trainer Sarah Gillis prepared to open the forward hatch of their Polaris Dawn spacecraft early Thursday to take turns floating outside in the first non-government spacewalk in the history of space exploration. Depressurizing the spacecraft will begin around 2:23 a.m. EDT (0623 UTC) and a scaffold-like “Skywalker” assembly extending just above the hatch will be used for stability.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit makes fourth trip to the International Space Station

September 11, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

Pettit will fly to the orbiting outpost alongside Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner on the Soyuz MS-26 mission. Liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome is set for 12:23 p.m. EDT (1623 UTC).

SpaceX surmounts challenging weather, launches Polaris Dawn astronaut mission

September 9, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

Poor weather forced SpaceX to skip over its first launch opportunity, but it managed to launch on the second go around. Liftoff happened at Tuesday at 5:23 a.m. EDT (0923 UTC).

Starliner lands safely in New Mexico

September 7, 2024 William Harwood

Despite NASA’s concerns about earlier thruster problems and multiple helium leaks in the ship’s propulsion pressurization system, the Starliner had no trouble undocking and moving away from the station at 6:04 p.m. EDT and executing a critical 59-second deorbit braking maneuver at 11:17 p.m. to drop out of orbit.

As it happened: Boeing’s Starliner returned to Earth, marking the end of the Crew Flight Test mission

September 6, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

The spacecraft will journey back to Earth without the two astronauts it launched with back on June 5. Undocking is set for 6:04 p.m. EDT (2204 UTC) with landing just after midnight on Saturday.

SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket on national security mission for the NRO

September 6, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

Liftoff of the NROL-113 mission was at 8:20 p.m. PDT (11:20 p.m. EDT, 0320 UTC). The Falcon 9 was believed to be carrying the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.