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Ideal weather predicted for Falcon 9 launch Sunday
Meteorologists predict mostly sunny skies, mild temperatures and light winds Sunday for the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from California's Central Coast with a $364 million oceanography satellite for U.S. and European science institutions.

Jason 3 pre-launch news conference
The pre-launch news conference for the Jason 3 ocean altimetry mission, scheduled for launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. (Membership required.)

Photos: Jason 3 oceanography satellite encapsulated
The Jason 3 oceanography satellite, a joint project between U.S. and European weather agencies, is closed up inside the nose cone of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket awaiting launch from California's Central Coast on Sunday.

Hold-down firing completed ahead of Sunday’s Falcon 9 launch
SpaceX's launch team ran through a traditional preflight test Monday, putting a Falcon 9 rocket through a mock countdown, loading it with propellant and briefly firing its nine engines on a launch pad in California ahead of this weekend's liftoff with a U.S.-European oceanography satellite.

Offshore barge landing targeted after next Falcon 9 launch
Nearly a month after nailing a landing a rocket landing at Cape Canaveral, SpaceX plans to steer the next flight of a Falcon 9 booster toward a recovery vessel in the Pacific Ocean after a Jan. 17 blastoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Falcon 9’s near-term manifest coming into focus
SpaceX's launch of a cluster of communications satellites for Orbcomm, set for as soon as next weekend, holds the headlines, but the company's Falcon 9 rocket could fly at least four times in the next two months, assuming smooth launch campaigns and no glitches.

Satellite owners among bystanders in Falcon 9 accident
The long queue of satellites waiting on launches aboard SpaceX's Falcon rockets -- a backlog the company says is worth $7 billion -- will stay grounded while investigators determine what caused a Falcon 9 booster to disintegrate after liftoff Sunday.

Jason 3 satellite shipped to Vandenberg for SpaceX launch
An international oceanography satellite arrived at its California launch base from a factory in France on Thursday for fueling, testing and other final preps before its scheduled Aug. 8 blastoff on a Falcon 9 rocket.

Launch of U.S.-French oceanography satellite postponed
The launch of a U.S.-French oceanography satellite from California has been postponed from July 22 after engineers discovered contamination in one of the spacecraft's thrusters at its factory in France.

Space weather observatory blasts off after 17-year wait
An interplanetary space weather station rocketed away from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday, speeding toward a remote operating post a million miles from Earth to help forecasters warn of intense solar storms.