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Pentagon opens investigation into contracts with ULA
The U.S. Defense Department's internal watchdog has opened a probe into whether the Pentagon's contracts with United Launch Alliance were properly awarded after a former ULA executive implied the government rigged a recent procurement in favor of the company.
SpaceX hopes to raise launch tempo after space station flight
SpaceX is targeting April 8 for the launch of its first resupply run to the International Space Station in nearly a year, a mission that the company hopes will mark the start of a rapid-fire launch manifest full of payloads waiting to fly.
Florida spaceport tallies highest launch rate in more than a decade
Cape Canaveral was the departure point for more space launches in 2015 than in any year since 2003, with 17 takeoffs by Atlas, Falcon and Delta rockets hoisting U.S. military satellites, commercial payloads and cargo for the International Space Station.
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.
ULA sits out Air Force launch competition
United Launch Alliance said Monday it did not submit a proposal in a competition to launch a U.S. Air Force GPS navigation satellite, apparently relinquishing the contract to rival SpaceX, the only other company certified to launch the mission.
Planet Labs takes rash of launch failures in stride
No one had ever lost 26 satellites at once until a launch failure bit Planet Labs last year, temporarily setting back the San Francisco startup's ambition to map the globe every day.
VideoSupport strut probable cause of Falcon 9 failure
A faulty support strut inside the Falcon 9 rocket's second stage liquid oxygen tank likely broke free during a June 28 space station resupply launch, destroying the booster minutes after liftoff in a cloud of debris over the Atlantic Ocean, SpaceX chief Elon Musk said Monday.
Musk: Falcon 9 rocket failure a “huge blow” to SpaceX
Speaking publicly for the first time since a Falcon 9 rocket failure that destroyed a Dragon cargo capsule for the International Space Station, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Tuesday that engineers are still piecing together what happened during the June 28 accident in hopes of announcing more details within a few days.
VideoData, not debris, takes spotlight in Falcon 9 failure investigation
Although recovery teams in the Atlantic Ocean have retrieved wreckage from Sunday's Falcon 9 launch failure, the best clues to the cause of the crash lie in raw data transmitted from the rocket as it disintegrated, SpaceX officials said Wednesday.
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.