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Live coverage: Falcon 9 launches with Thai satellite and first stage lands at sea
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Friday at 5:39 p.m. EDT (2139 GMT). The commercial booster is hauling up the Thaicom 8 television broadcasting satellite from Cape Canaveral. The rocket's first stage successfully landed on SpaceX's recovery platform in the Atlantic Ocean.
Timeline for Falcon 9’s launch of the Thaicom 8 satellite
The Falcon 9 rocket's fifth flight of the year will take off from Cape Canaveral on Thursday, heaving the Thaicom 8 communications satellite into orbit on an easterly trajectory from Florida's Space Coast.
Bigelow’s station habitat to be expanded Thursday
Space station flight engineer Jeff Williams will send commands Thursday to pump air into an experimental soft-sided module developed by commercial space habitat builder Bigelow Aerospace, expanding the structure to four times its current size in a stepping stone to future orbital destinations. Live video begins at 5:30 a.m. EDT (0930 GMT).
SpaceX ‘on track’ to launch astronauts in late 2017
SpaceX is on schedule to fly two NASA astronauts on a test flight to the International Space Station by the end of 2017, but there is a lot of work to do to ensure the company's new Crew Dragon spaceship is up to the task and ready in time, a SpaceX manager said Tuesday.
Falcon 9 sails through customary preflight engine firing
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ignited its nine kerosene-fueled Merlin engines on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral on Tuesday evening in a critical milestone before liftoff with a commercial Thai communications satellite later in the week.
SpaceX pencils in July for next Falcon 9 landing at Cape Canaveral
The next chance for SpaceX to return a Falcon 9 booster to landing at Cape Canaveral will come in mid-July, when the company plans to launch a Dragon supply ship to the International Space Station, a company official said Tuesday.
First German commander among astronauts named for station flights
International Space Station managers have named crew members to future expeditions to the research lab in 2017 and 2018, including the first German commander of a space mission and Canada's third astronaut to fly a long-duration residency on the complex.
Upgraded Antares rolls out to launch pad for tests
An Antares booster emerged from its hangar on Virginia's Eastern Shore and rolled out to its launch pad Thursday for the first time since a rocket failure grounded Orbital ATK's cargo launcher in 2014.
Shuttle skipper, mountaineering spacewalker going into Hall of Fame
Commander of the 100th space shuttle flight and a spacewalker who later climbed Mount Everest will be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame at the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday.
Cargo-carrying Dragon spaceship returns to Earth
SpaceX's Dragon supply ship departed the International Space Station on Wednesday, fired rocket thrusters to brake out of orbit, and parachuted to a picture-perfect splashdown in the Pacific Ocean with approximately 3,461 pounds of experiment samples and equipment.