Falcon 9

A nearly five-ton satellite for the Spanish company Hispasat is ready for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Monday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, beginning a mission to provide in-flight internet and other communications services over the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean.

A Falcon 9 rocket launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Thursday with 53 more Starlink satellites for SpaceX’s global internet network.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday from California’s Central Coast with 49 Starlink internet satellites and a rideshare space tug for the Italian company D-Orbit, itself carrying tech demo experiments and cremated human remains for customers in the United States, Germany, New Zealand, and Switzerland.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday with 49 Starlink internet satellites and a rideshare payload for the Italian company D-Orbit. Liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California occurred at 8:15 a.m. PST (11:15 a.m. EST; 1615 GMT) after delays over the last two days to allow SpaceX to complete pre-launch preparations on the vehicle.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

SpaceX plans to launch its first Starlink mission of 2023 no earlier than Jan. 19 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, following delays caused by bad weather and to examine data from the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage. The Falcon will head southeast over the Pacific Ocean, targeting an orbit inclined 70 degrees to the equator to deploy the payloads into “Group 2” of the Starlink constellation.