Commercial Space – Page 103

Video: Falcon 9 joins rising moon in the sky during middle-of-the-night launch

June 4, 2018 Stephen Clark

Flying with a reused first stage booster, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket climbed into orbit from Florida’s Space Coast early Monday with a commercial communications satellite for the Luxembourg-based operator SES.

Falcon 9 launch timeline with SES 12

June 3, 2018 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Monday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the SES 12 communications satellite into orbit around 32 minutes later.

Live coverage: SpaceX rocket launches with SES 12 communications satellite

June 3, 2018 Stephen Clark

SpaceX has launched a Falcon 9 rocket with a previously-flown first stage booster carrying the SES 12 communications satellite, an all-electric, multi-band video and data relay platform to serve the Asia-Pacific region. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral occurred at 12:45 a.m. EDT (0445 GMT), and SpaceX did not plan to recover the first stage.

New photos illustrate progress in SpaceX’s fairing recovery attempts

June 1, 2018 Stephen Clark

Photos released by SpaceX this week show how close the company’s payload fairing retrieval ship got to catching two halves of a nose shroud jettisoned from a Falcon 9 rocket that launched May 22 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

SpaceX delays launch to run additional tests on rocket

May 31, 2018 Stephen Clark

SpaceX has delayed the launch of the SES 12 commercial communications satellite from Cape Canaveral until Monday to conduct additional tests on the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage, officials said Thursday.

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo completes second powered test flight

May 30, 2018 Stephen Clark

Helmed by two test pilots, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane set new altitude and speed records for the company’s test program Tuesday during a powered flight over California’s Mojave Desert.

Rocket Lab updates launch window for first commercial mission

May 25, 2018 Stephen Clark

After a two-month delay to resolve a technical concern, Rocket Lab plans to launch its first commercial mission as soon as June 22, U.S. time, from the company’s rocket base in New Zealand, the company announced Friday.

SpaceX test-fires previously-flown rocket for May 31 launch

May 25, 2018 Stephen Clark

The nine Merlin main engines at the base of a recycled Falcon 9 rocket booster ignited Thursday night for several seconds during a pre-flight test-firing on a Cape Canaveral launch pad, clearing a major hurdle ahead of a scheduled May 31 liftoff with a high-power communications satellite for SES.

Video: Falcon 9 rocket ignites for hold-down test at Cape Canaveral

May 25, 2018 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket ignited its main engines at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad Thursday night, clearing a major hurdle before liftoff May 31 with the SES 12 communications satellite.

Watch a live view of SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral launch pad (members only)

May 24, 2018 Stephen Clark

Spaceflight Now members can watch a live view of Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad, where a Falcon 9 rocket is set to undergo a static fire test Thursday in advance of a commercial satellite launch May 31.