Falcon 9

SpaceX launched a refrigerator-sized NASA X-ray observatory from Kennedy Space Center into an unusual orbit hugging the equator Thursday, beginning a $214 million mission to study black holes and super-compact neutron stars.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 1 a.m. EST (0600 GMT) Thursday from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Falcon 9 deployed into orbit NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer spacecraft, an X-ray astronomy mission to study black holes and neutron stars.

A NASA astronomy satellite will be the smallest payload to ever get a dedicated ride on a Falcon 9 rocket when it takes off from Florida this week, but the SpaceX launcher will need to flex its muscles to reach the mission’s unusual orbit hugging the equator.

SpaceX completed a static fire test of a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in preparation for a launch Dec. 9 with the space agency’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer science mission.

SpaceX set a new record Thursday for the most missions by the company’s Falcon rocket family in a year, successfully sending a cargo of 48 Starlink internet satellites and two BlackSky optical Earth-imaging spacecraft into orbit from Cape Canaveral.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Thursday night carrying 48 Starlink internet satellites and two BlackSky Earth-imaging payloads into orbit. The mission took off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral at 6:12 p.m. EST (2312 GMT), and the first stage landed on SpaceX’s offshore drone ship, completing its ninth trip to space and back.

BlackSky said Tuesday it is launching two optical Earth observation satellites as rideshare payloads on a SpaceX Starlink mission planned for liftoff this week from Cape Canaveral. The mission is set for launch Thursday, one day later than the previous schedule.

Forecasters predict a 90% chance of good weather Wednesday night at Cape Canaveral for launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a fresh group of Starlink internet satellites.

A small NASA space probe blasted off from California early Wednesday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a first-of-its-kind mission to change the orbit of an asteroid, pioneering a technique that may one day be used to divert an asteroid off of a collision course with Earth.

These photos show SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket standing on Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, hours before liftoff with NASA’s DART mission, an experiment to test how a spacecraft might deflect a hazardous asteroid away from Earth.