SpaceX – 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.

Experiment devoted to neutron star research installed on space station

June 19, 2017

A NASA instrument built to help astronomers learn about the structure and behavior of neutron stars, super-dense stellar skeletons left behind by massive explosions, has been mounted to an observation post outside the International Space Station after delivery aboard a SpaceX supply ship earlier this month.

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.

Live coverage: Previously-flown Falcon 9 rocket fires engines on Florida launch pad

June 15, 2017

SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 rocket launch, using a previously-flown first stage booster, took a step closer to liftoff Thursday with a countdown rehearsal culminating in ignition of the launcher’s nine Merlin main engines in a hold-down firing at pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

SpaceX aims to restore damaged launch pad to service by end of summer

June 10, 2017

Construction crews at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad are busily repairing and upgrading the facility after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded there last year, with the pad’s return to service scheduled before the end of the summer, clearing the way for final preparations for the triple-core Falcon Heavy’s maiden flight late this year.

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.