Falcon 9 Flight 18 – Spaceflight Now

Throttle valve blamed for Falcon 9’s unsuccessful landing

April 21, 2015 Stephen Clark

SpaceX engineers have narrowed the cause of last week’s unsuccessful landing of a Falcon 9 rocket booster on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean on a commanding issue with an engine throttle valve, according to Elon Musk, the company’s founder and chief executive.

Photos: SpaceX’s debris-strewn landing barge back in port

April 17, 2015 Stephen Clark

Returning to port late Thursday under the cover of darkness, SpaceX’s rocket recovery platform has moored at a dock in Jacksonville, Florida, for unloading of charred debris from Tuesday’s crash landing of a Falcon 9 booster.

New, longer video hits Internet and shows Falcon’s landing demise

April 15, 2015 Justin Ray

New video released from SpaceX on Wednesday shows a longer sequence of events during the failed landing reusability attempt on Tuesday.

Photos: Tuesday’s SpaceX launch from Cape Canaveral

April 15, 2015 Stephen Clark

A sun-splashed Florida afternoon was the setting for Tuesday’s liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket, which fired its nine-engine booster stage and climbed into space with a commercial cargo spacecraft en route to the International Space Station.

Video: SpaceX rocket booster crash lands on barge

April 15, 2015 Stephen Clark

A Falcon 9 rocket booster — under the power of a single Merlin 1D engine — descends toward a specially-outfitted ocean landing platform off Florida’s East Coast on Tuesday in a brief video clip released by SpaceX.

Falcon 9 successfully launches, descends to off-balance landing

April 14, 2015 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched from Cape Canaveral with a 2.2-ton package of supplies and experiments for the International Space Station on Tuesday, but the booster toppled over after descending to a barge parked in the Atlantic Ocean.

Images from Falcon 9’s launch and landing

April 14, 2015 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday, powering a commercial Dragon cargo ship into orbit while trying a dicey descent maneuver to return to landing on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX says the booster touched down hard and tipped over after landing.

SpaceX swaps order of next two Falcon 9 launches

March 21, 2015 Stephen Clark

Confronted with pesky problems in the Falcon 9 rocket’s helium pressurization system, SpaceX has shuffled the order of the next two launches, choosing to go ahead with the liftoff of a Dragon supply ship on a cargo delivery flight to the International Space Station around April 10.