News
Two Airbus Earth-imaging satellites poised for launch on Vega C rocket
Two Pléiades Neo Earth observation satellites are set to join Airbus’s constellation of high-resolution optical imagers with a launch Tuesday night from French Guiana on the first commercial flight of Europe’s Vega C rocket, a mission delayed from November to change out suspect hardware on the launcher’s payload fairing.
Live coverage: Rocket Lab launch on hold due to unfavorable winds aloft
Unfavorable upper level winds kept Rocket Lab’s Electron launcher on the ground Sunday night in Virginia. Overnight the company announced it would not try again on Monday due to a continuing forecast for strong upper level winds. The Electron rocket is to carry into orbit three commercial radio frequency monitoring satellites for HawkEye 360.
FAA clears Rocket Lab for first launch from U.S. spaceport
Rocket Lab said Saturday that the company received final approval from NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration to launch their first mission from the United States on Sunday, clearing final regulatory and technical hurdles with a new autonomous range safety destruct unit that delayed the launch more than two years.
SpaceX booster launches for record 15th time on Starlink mission
SpaceX launched 54 more Starlink internet satellites Saturday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, using a Falcon 9 booster on its 15th flight to space, a record for the company’s reusable rocket fleet. The mission was also the third Falcon 9 rocket flight in less than 34 hours from SpaceX’s three active launch pads in less.
Live coverage: SpaceX launches U.S.-French environmental satellite
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 3:46 a.m. PST (6:46 a.m. EST; 1146 GMT) Friday, carrying the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite into orbit for NASA and the French space agency CNES. The Falcon 9’s first stage booster returned to the California launch base for landing.