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SpaceX test-fires rocket ahead of record-setting Starlink launch
SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday at Cape Canaveral, two days before a scheduled launch Monday with 60 Starlink broadband relay stations that will make SpaceX the owner of the world’s largest fleet of commercial satellites.
Watch as SpaceX test-fires Falcon 9 ahead of Starlink launch (members only)
Watch as SpaceX test fires a Falcon 9 rocket ahead of the planned launch of 60 more Starlink satellites.
VideoLive coverage: Falcon 9 rocket launches on first mission of 2020
SpaceX launched its first mission of the year Monday at 9:19 p.m. EST (0219 GMT Tuesday), when a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral with SpaceX's third batch of 60 Starlink broadband satellites.
SpaceX drawing up plans for mobile gantry at launch pad 39A
With construction already underway at Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A on facilities for SpaceX's next-generation Starship vehicle, another new fixture could soon rise at the seaside launch complex to satisfy U.S. military requirements to vertically integrate sensitive top secret spy satellites with Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
Good weather predicted for Cape Canaveral’s first launch of 2020
Forecasters predict near-ideal weather conditions Monday night for the first launch at Cape Canaveral this year, when SpaceX plans to send another 60 Starlink broadband satellites into orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
SpaceX poised to accelerate launch cadence with series of Starlink missions
SpaceX teams across the United States are readying for what the company's chief operating officer predicts will be a record number of launches in 2020. Before the end of January, SpaceX aims to perform four Falcon 9 launches from Florida's Space Coast -- three for the company's Starlink broadband network, and a crucial in-flight abort test for the Crew Dragon spacecraft no earlier than Jan. 11.
SpaceX to experiment with less-reflective satellite coatings on next Starlink launch
SpaceX's next launch of satellites for the company's Starlink broadband network -- planned in the final days of 2019 -- will carry one spacecraft with an experimental coating designed to make it less reflective in orbit, a first step in assuaging concerns from scientists who say the deployment of thousands more Starlink stations would impede some astronomical observations.
After quiet autumn, SpaceX preps for busy December launch schedule
After a lull in launch activity this fall, SpaceX teams at Cape Canaveral are preparing for up to four Falcon 9 missions in December to close out 2019 with a surge of launches.
Starlink ‘train’ traces path across twilight skies
The 60 Starlink satellites deployed Monday by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket have traced paths across twilight skies around the world this week, but their brightness is expected to dim as the spacecraft -- designed to beam broadband signals down to Earth -- spread out and climb to higher altitudes.
Photos: Falcon 9 launches with 60 Starlink satellites
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the heaviest payload ever launched by SpaceX took off Monday morning from Cape Canaveral with 60 satellites for then company's Starlink broadband network.