Launch Pad 39A – Page 50 – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX may turn to other launch pads when rocket flights resume

September 6, 2016 Stephen Clark

Ground crews could face months of cleanup and repairs to SpaceX’s primary launch pad at Cape Canaveral after a rocket explosion wrecked the facility last week, but officials said that other pads in Florida and California could support Falcon 9 flights when the booster is ready to blast off again.

SpaceX ‘on track’ to launch astronauts in late 2017

May 25, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX is on schedule to fly two NASA astronauts on a test flight to the International Space Station by the end of 2017, but there is a lot of work to do to ensure the company’s new Crew Dragon spaceship is up to the task and ready in time, a SpaceX manager said Tuesday.

SpaceX undecided on payload for first Falcon Heavy flight

May 3, 2016 Stephen Clark

As SpaceX engineers put together the first model of the company’s new Falcon Heavy rocket, officials have not ruled out flying a paying customer’s satellite aboard the maiden flight of the humongous launcher scheduled later this year, the company’s president told Spaceflight Now.

SpaceX hopes to raise launch tempo after space station flight

March 20, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX is targeting April 8 for the launch of its first resupply run to the International Space Station in nearly a year, a mission that the company hopes will mark the start of a rapid-fire launch manifest full of payloads waiting to fly.

What’s next for SpaceX’s recovered Falcon 9 booster?

January 3, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX ground crews at Kennedy Space Center’s Apollo-era launch complex 39A are putting the 156-foot-tall Falcon 9 first stage booster that flew to space and back Dec. 21 through a thorough inspection, setting the stage for a hold-down test firing at the launch pad.

SpaceX delays next Crew Dragon abort test

July 8, 2015 Stephen Clark

The next test of a critical safety system on SpaceX’s human-rated Dragon spaceship will be delayed, likely until some time next year, as the company adjusts the development schedule for the new commercial crew capsule designed to take astronauts to the International Space Station.

SpaceX has ‘aggressive’ schedule leading up to crew flights

May 18, 2015 Stephen Clark

Staying true to a corporate philosophy that favors high-visibility flight tests, SpaceX plans to continue wringing out major parts of the company’s human-rated Dragon spaceship in a sequence of dramatic flights leading up to the capsule’s first crewed mission scheduled for 2017.

Falcon Heavy rocket hangar rises at launch pad 39A

February 25, 2015 Stephen Clark

SpaceX began erecting a new hangar at a former space shuttle launch pad in Florida last week, moving the historic facility closer to launching astronauts again.

SpaceX releases new animation of mighty Falcon Heavy

January 28, 2015 Stephen Clark

A new animation of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket set for a debut flight later this year shows how the powerful launcher will blast off from Kennedy Space Center’s famed Apollo-era launch pad 39A, and could eventually fly back to Florida’s Space Coast for refurbishment and reuse.