Reusability – Spaceflight Now

Falcon 9 launch timeline with BulgariaSat 1

June 23, 2017

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Thursday evening, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the BulgariaSat 1 communications satellite into orbit 35 minutes later.

Live coverage: SpaceX prepares to boost Bulgarian broadcasting satellite into orbit

June 23, 2017

One of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket boosters will make its second trip into space Friday, lofting a Bulgarian television broadcasting satellite from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Liftoff is set for 2:10 p.m. EDT (1410 GMT) at the opening of a two-hour window.

Head of BulgariaSat says satellite project would be impossible without SpaceX

June 22, 2017

On the eve of the launch of his country’s first communications satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket, the chief executive of BulgariaSat credited SpaceX’s cost-cutting ways with making space accessible for small nations and money-conscious companies like his own.

SpaceX rocket passes key preflight test before liftoff from California

June 20, 2017

Juggling simultaneous launch campaigns on both coasts, a team of SpaceX engineers put a Falcon 9 rocket through a customary countdown rehearsal and hold-down firing Tuesday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California ahead of a scheduled liftoff Sunday.

Falcon 9 launch delay sets up potential SpaceX ‘doubleheader’ next weekend

June 18, 2017

SpaceX has pushed back the liftoff of a Bulgarian television broadcast satellite on the company’s second previously-flown Falcon 9 rocket until at least Friday, giving ground crews time to replace a valve on the launcher inside a hangar at its Florida launch pad.

Falcon 9 launch scheduled for Monday after hold-down engine firing

June 15, 2017

The launch of a commercial Bulgarian television broadcast satellite from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is set for Monday after SpaceX ran through a mock countdown Thursday and test-fired a previously-flown Falcon 9 rocket’s Merlin main engines.

Video: SpaceX’s second reused Falcon 9 rocket test-fired in Florida

June 15, 2017

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket ignited its nine Merlin main engines for several seconds Thursday at launch pad 39A in Florida, moving the previously-flown booster closer to a scheduled blastoff Monday with a Bulgarian communications satellite.

Boeing, DARPA to base XS-1 spaceplane at Cape Canaveral

June 13, 2017

A reusable suborbital spaceplane the size of a business jet being developed by Boeing and the Defense Department’s research and development arm could be launching and landing at Cape Canaveral in 2020, officials said after the defense contractor won a competition last month to design and test the vehicle.

U.S. Air Force taps SpaceX to launch next X-37B spaceplane mission

June 6, 2017

A month after an X-37B mini-space shuttle glided to a landing on Kennedy Space Center’s runway in Florida, the U.S. Air Force announced Tuesday that the spaceplane’s next mission will launch in August aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for the first time.

Photos: Falcon 9 rocket takes flight with station-bound cargo craft

June 6, 2017

Here’s another batch of photos from Saturday’s Falcon 9 launch from Florida’s Space Coast with nearly 6,000 pounds of supplies heading for the International Space Station.