Drone Ship – Page 17 – Spaceflight Now

Live coverage: Two telecom satellites launched by Falcon 9, booster recovery fails

June 15, 2016 Stephen Clark

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 10:29 a.m. EDT (1429 GMT) Wednesday with two Boeing-built communications payloads for Eutelsat and Asia Broadcast Satellite. A secondary objective to recover the first stage offshore in the Atlantic Ocean failed.

Mission events timeline for Falcon 9’s launch for ABS and Eutelsat

June 14, 2016 Stephen Clark

Follow the key events of the Falcon 9 rocket’s ascent into space from Cape Canaveral with the ABS 2A and Eutelsat 117 West B communications satellites.

SpaceX conducts static fire test for Wednesday’s Falcon 9 flight

June 13, 2016 Stephen Clark

Technicians planned to attach two Boeing-built communications satellites to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Monday, a day after launch controllers fueled the rocket and fired its nine Merlin first stage engines in a key preflight test.

SpaceX’s latest booster back home as company mulls pricing, proof tests

June 3, 2016 Stephen Clark

A Falcon 9 rocket core recovered after last week’s launch of a Thai communications satellite returned to port in Florida on Thursday as SpaceX preps a separate rocket structure for tests to prove it can withstand multiple missions and mulls pricing of a previously-flown rocket, targeting a re-flight of a used booster by the end of the summer.

Ride aboard the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage on descent

May 28, 2016 Stephen Clark

Take a virtual trip from space back to planet Earth with an sped up video clip showing the eye-popping on-board views from the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage booster as it plummeted back to Earth, opened aerodynamic steering fins and fired its engines for a final braking maneuver just before touchdown.

SpaceX logs successful late afternoon launch for Thaicom

May 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

A Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral and climbed into space Friday, propelling a Thai television relay satellite into orbit and achieving its third dramatic ocean landing in a row, adding to SpaceX’s growing inventory of recovered rocket boosters.

Stressing caution, SpaceX delays commercial satellite launch

May 26, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX scrubbed a launch Thursday to investigate a “tiny glitch” in an upper stage engine actuator on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, delaying liftoff from Florida of a Thai communications satellite at least 24 hours.

Live coverage: Falcon 9 launches with Thai satellite and first stage lands at sea

May 26, 2016 Stephen Clark

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

May 25, 2016 Stephen Clark

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.

Falcon 9 sails through customary preflight engine firing

May 25, 2016 Stephen Clark

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.