Depending on how you count it, SpaceX launched its 100th kerosene-fueled Merlin 1D rocket engine on a Falcon 9 rocket Feb. 11, underscoring what it says is an accelerated flight regime for the centerpiece of the company’s propulsion shop.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral on its 15th flight just before sunset Wednesday, putting on a spectacular sky show en route to space with a NOAA satellite to measure the solar wind.
Unfavorable high-altitude winds above Cape Canaveral on Tuesday kept a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket loaded with a NOAA space weather observatory on the ground another day.
A problem with a U.S. Air Force tracking radar kept a Falcon 9 rocket crowned with a NOAA space weather observatory grounded Sunday, forcing a long-delayed mission to stay on Earth an extra day.
The world’s most distant weather outpost is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launching to a point a million miles from Earth to warn forecasters of solar storms that could disrupt global air traffic, satellite navigation and power grids.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Wednesday carrying NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory, the world’s most distant weather satellite heading for a point a million miles from Earth. Launch from Cape Canaveral occurred at 6:03 p.m. EST (2303 GMT).