Falcon 9 – Page 116 – Spaceflight Now

NASA, SpaceX clear Crew Dragon for critical March 2 test flight

February 23, 2019 William Harwood

NASA managers held a flight readiness review Friday and cleared SpaceX to press ahead with work to ready a Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon commercial ferry ship for launch March 2 on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station.

Israeli moon lander hitches ride on SpaceX launch with Indonesian comsat

February 22, 2019 Stephen Clark

An Israeli-built moon lander aiming to become the first privately-funded mission reach another planetary body rocketed away from Cape Canaveral on Thursday night aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, riding piggyback with an Indonesian communications spacecraft and an experimental U.S. Air Force space surveillance microsatellite.

Photos: Beresheet lander tested for historic moon mission

February 21, 2019 Stephen Clark

The Beresheet moon lander will attempt to become the first privately-funded spacecraft to reach the moon, and these photos show the robotic probe’s journey through testing inside a clean room at Israel Aerospace Industries, followed by its attachment to a multi-satellite stack for launch on a Falcon 9 rocket.

Israeli moon lander prepared for launch

February 21, 2019 Stephen Clark

The privately-funded Israeli Beresheet lunar lander is ready for its historic mission to the moon, aiming to become the first space probe to land on another planetary body without government funding.

Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket blasts off with Israeli moon lander, Indonesian comsat

February 21, 2019 Stephen Clark

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 8:45 p.m. EST Thursday (0145 GMT Friday) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The commercial launcher, featuring a reused first stage booster flying for the third time, hauled into orbit Indonesia’s Nusantara Satu communications satellite, the Beresheet lunar lander for SpaceIL, and the S5 space surveillance payload for the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Falcon 9 launch set for Thursday at Cape Canaveral

February 19, 2019 Stephen Clark

SpaceX is set to end a two-month launch drought at Cape Canaveral with a blastoff Thursday night carrying a privately-funded Israeli moon lander, an Indonesian communications satellite and a U.S. Air Force surveillance payload into orbit.

First unpiloted test flight of SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule reset for March 2

February 6, 2019 William Harwood

As expected, NASA announced Wednesday that the first unpiloted test flight of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and a Crew Dragon astronaut ferry ship has slipped from later this month to March 2. The first unpiloted flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule is now targeted for the April timeframe.

Falcon 9 rocket fires engines in key test ahead of Crew Dragon demo flight

January 25, 2019 Stephen Clark

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sporting human-rating upgrades such as new composite pressurant tanks briefly ignited its nine Merlin engines Thursday afternoon on a launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and SpaceX later declared the pre-launch milestone complete in preparation for a critical test flight with a commercial crew capsule as soon as late February.

Video: Zoomed in view of ignition of Falcon 9 engines in prelaunch test (members only)

January 25, 2019 Spaceflight Now

Watch a zoomed in view of the Falcon 9 rocket with the first Crew Dragon capsule atop, briefly fire its engines for a crucial pre-launch test on Jan. 24, 2019 at launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

Video: Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon briefly ignites engines (members only)

January 24, 2019 Spaceflight Now

Watch as a Falcon 9 rocket with the first Crew Dragon capsule atop, briefly fired its engines for a crucial pre-launch test on Jan. 24, 2019.