SpaceX – Page 166 – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX successfully fires satellites into orbit, but loses booster on landing

June 15, 2016 Stephen Clark

Two pioneering communications satellites purely powered by plasma rocket thrusters lifted off from Cape Canaveral aboard a Falcon 9 launcher Wednesday, starting missions to broadcast video across Asia and Latin America, and improve navigation for airplanes crossing the United States.

Live coverage: Two telecom satellites launched by Falcon 9, booster recovery fails

June 15, 2016 Stephen Clark

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 10:29 a.m. EDT (1429 GMT) Wednesday with two Boeing-built communications payloads for Eutelsat and Asia Broadcast Satellite. A secondary objective to recover the first stage offshore in the Atlantic Ocean failed.

Mission events timeline for Falcon 9’s launch for ABS and Eutelsat

June 14, 2016 Stephen Clark

Follow the key events of the Falcon 9 rocket’s ascent into space from Cape Canaveral with the ABS 2A and Eutelsat 117 West B communications satellites.

SpaceX conducts static fire test for Wednesday’s Falcon 9 flight

June 13, 2016 Stephen Clark

Technicians planned to attach two Boeing-built communications satellites to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Monday, a day after launch controllers fueled the rocket and fired its nine Merlin first stage engines in a key preflight test.

SpaceX’s latest booster back home as company mulls pricing, proof tests

June 3, 2016 Stephen Clark

A Falcon 9 rocket core recovered after last week’s launch of a Thai communications satellite returned to port in Florida on Thursday as SpaceX preps a separate rocket structure for tests to prove it can withstand multiple missions and mulls pricing of a previously-flown rocket, targeting a re-flight of a used booster by the end of the summer.

Elon Musk hopes SpaceX will send humans to Mars in 2024

June 2, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s plan to send a Dragon capsule to Mars in 2018 will be the first in a sequence of unmanned commercial missions to the rust-colored world before the first voyage with humans as soon as 2024, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Wednesday.

Ride aboard the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage on descent

May 28, 2016 Stephen Clark

Take a virtual trip from space back to planet Earth with an sped up video clip showing the eye-popping on-board views from the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage booster as it plummeted back to Earth, opened aerodynamic steering fins and fired its engines for a final braking maneuver just before touchdown.

SpaceX logs successful late afternoon launch for Thaicom

May 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

A Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral and climbed into space Friday, propelling a Thai television relay satellite into orbit and achieving its third dramatic ocean landing in a row, adding to SpaceX’s growing inventory of recovered rocket boosters.

Stressing caution, SpaceX delays commercial satellite launch

May 26, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX scrubbed a launch Thursday to investigate a “tiny glitch” in an upper stage engine actuator on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, delaying liftoff from Florida of a Thai communications satellite at least 24 hours.

Photos: SpaceX prepares to launch 25th Falcon 9 rocket

May 26, 2016 Stephen Clark

A Thai communications satellite is fastened to the top of SpaceX’s 229-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket for launch Thursday. See photos of the Falcon 9 and Thaicom 8 being prepared for liftoff.