SpaceX – Page 181 – Spaceflight Now

Orbital ATK, SpaceX nab U.S. Air Force propulsion contracts

January 14, 2016 Stephen Clark

Orbital ATK and SpaceX won Pentagon contracts worth a combined value of up to $241 million Wednesday in public-private partnerships crafted to hasten the U.S. military’s move away from Russian-supplied propulsion to deliver national security satellites to orbit.

Photos: Jason 3 oceanography satellite encapsulated

January 13, 2016 Stephen Clark

The Jason 3 oceanography satellite, a joint project between U.S. and European weather agencies, is closed up inside the nose cone of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket awaiting launch from California’s Central Coast on Sunday.

Hold-down firing completed ahead of Sunday’s Falcon 9 launch

January 12, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s launch team ran through a traditional preflight test Monday, putting a Falcon 9 rocket through a mock countdown, loading it with propellant and briefly firing its nine engines on a launch pad in California ahead of this weekend’s liftoff with a U.S.-European oceanography satellite.

Offshore barge landing targeted after next Falcon 9 launch

January 11, 2016 Stephen Clark

Nearly a month after nailing a landing a rocket landing at Cape Canaveral, SpaceX plans to steer the next flight of a Falcon 9 booster toward a recovery vessel in the Pacific Ocean after a Jan. 17 blastoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Florida spaceport tallies highest launch rate in more than a decade

January 4, 2016 Stephen Clark

Cape Canaveral was the departure point for more space launches in 2015 than in any year since 2003, with 17 takeoffs by Atlas, Falcon and Delta rockets hoisting U.S. military satellites, commercial payloads and cargo for the International Space Station.

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 rocket landing applauded, but experts say implications TBD

December 23, 2015 William Harwood

The successful launch and landing by the first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Monday was a significant step toward achieving reusability and, eventually, lowering launch costs, but turning that success into operational reality poses a significant challenge for company founder Elon Musk.

Photos: Falcon 9 booster stands upright after landing

December 22, 2015 Stephen Clark

SpaceX took a group of reporters and photographers just offshore the Falcon 9 rocket’s landing point Tuesday, a day after the 15-story booster made a pinpoint touchdown after helping send 11 communications satellites into orbit.

Round-trip rocket flight gives SpaceX a trifecta of successes

December 22, 2015 Stephen Clark

Flying through the sky at supersonic speed, a Falcon 9 rocket stage descended to a historic landing at Cape Canaveral on Monday, returning to the spaceport minutes after boosting 11 Orbcomm communications satellites toward orbit on SpaceX’s first mission since a major failure in June.

Q&A with Elon Musk after SpaceX’s first rocket landing

December 22, 2015 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s billionaire founder and chief executive Elon Musk spoke with reporters just after successfully landing a Falcon 9 booster for the first time.