Falcon 9

SpaceX launched a Dragon cargo capsule from Florida on a thundering predawn ascent into orbit early Sunday aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, kicking off the company’s 23rd commercial resupply flight to the International Space Station. The rocket’s reusable booster was the first to land on a new SpaceX drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

Forecasters on Friday predicted a 60% chance bad weather on Florida’s Space Coast could prevent the scheduled launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket early Saturday to begin an automated resupply mission to the International Space Station.

On the cusp of ending a two-month SpaceX launch drought, ground crews raised a Falcon 9 rocket vertical Wednesday on its launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for an engine test-firing and final cargo loading before liftoff Saturday on a resupply flight to the International Space Station.

After going through July with no launches, SpaceX is scheduled to resume missions in August with Falcon 9 rocket flights from California and Florida to commence deployment of the next generation of Starlink internet satellites.

A new SpaceX drone ship named “A Shortfall of Gravitas” was towed into Port Canaveral Thursday, completing a shuffling of SpaceX’s rocket landing platforms to support upcoming launches from Florida and California.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket and 88 small satellites from Cape Canaveral Wednesday, sending the rideshare payloads on a southerly track into a polar orbit and notching the eighth successful flight of a reusable booster that debuted exactly one year ago.

A private helicopter flew into restricted airspace near Cape Canaveral moments before the scheduled liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday. SpaceX chief Elon Musk said the keep out zone for launches is “unreasonably gigantic” and called for updated regulations.

A day after a last-minute scrub caused by an aircraft in restricted airspace, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 3:31 p.m. EDT (1931 GMT) Wednesday from Cape Canaveral. The rocket carried 88 small satellites into polar orbit. The vehicle’s first stage successfully returned to Cape Canaveral for landing about eight-and-a-half minutes after liftoff.