Falcon 9 – Page 3 – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX launch for SDA aborted at T-minus 3 seconds

March 30, 2023 Stephen Clark

SpaceX aborted a launch attempt Thursday just three seconds before liftoff at the start of the engine ignition sequence, delaying the flight of a Falcon 9 rocket from California with 10 satellites for the U.S. military’s Space Development Agency.

Live coverage: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off on first SDA mission

March 30, 2023 Stephen Clark

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 7:29 a.m. PDT (10:29 a.m. EDT; 1429 UTC) Sunday from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California with 10 missile tracking and data relay satellites for the U.S. military’s Space Development Agency. The launch occurred three days after SpaceX aborted the first launch attempt at T-minus 3 seconds to examine data from one of the Falcon 9’s main engines.

First launch for Pentagon’s own mega-constellation set for Thursday

March 29, 2023 Stephen Clark

The U.S. military’s Space Development Agency, established in 2019 to fast-track new national security capabilities in orbit, plans to launch the first 10 satellites for a constellation of hundreds of missile tracking and data relay spacecraft Thursday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from California.

SpaceX launches another bundle of Starlink internet satellites

March 29, 2023 Stephen Clark

SpaceX delivered 56 more Starlink internet satellites into the company’s global internet constellation after liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Wednesday, bringing the total number of Starlinks launched to 4,217 spacecraft.

Falcon 9 deploys 56 Starlink satellites on SpaceX’s 20th launch of the year

March 24, 2023 Stephen Clark

SpaceX continued launching satellites for the Starlink internet network Friday, sending a Falcon 9 rocket aloft from Cape Canaveral with 56 more older-generation broadband spacecraft as ground teams troubleshoot problems with a batch of upgraded Starlinks launched last month.

Live coverage: SpaceX launches 56 more Starlink internet satellites

March 24, 2023 Spaceflight Now

SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 rocket Friday, this time to deliver 56 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 11:43 a.m. EDT (1543 UTC). The first stage booster landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX pausing launches of new-generation Starlink satellites

March 23, 2023 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s next two missions will revert to launching older versions of the company’s Starlink internet satellites, instead of new second-generation Starlink platforms as originally planned, while ground teams work out unspecified problems with the first batch of upgraded Starlinks launched in February.

Live coverage: SpaceX launches 52 Starlink satellites from California

March 17, 2023 Stephen Clark

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 12:26 p.m. PDT (3:26 p.m. EDT; 1926 GMT) Friday with another batch of 52 Starlink internet satellites. The mission is the first of two SpaceX launches scheduled Friday, with another Falcon 9 poised for liftoff from Florida a little more than four hours later.

Tyvak smallsat launched by SpaceX to validate miniature space debris telescope

May 18, 2021 Stephen Clark

Tyvak, a manufacturer of small satellites, disclosed new details Monday about an experimental spacecraft launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Saturday, revealing plans to validate compact optical telescopes that could offer a new way to monitor space traffic and orbital debris.

SpaceX ramps up launch rate with fifth Falcon 9 mission in three weeks

May 16, 2021 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s fifth Falcon 9 launch in a little more than three weeks delivered 52 more Starlink internet satellites and two small hitchhiker payloads to orbit after a booming blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday evening.