Items tagged with falcon 9
If you are in or around Washington State, did you happen to see what looked like a meteor shower around 9 PM ET last night? If so, what you saw was not actually a meteor shower but a SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage burning up in the atmosphere. Wild, right? Late last night, many people in the pacific northwest were tweeting that they had caught a meteor shower on camera. Many of these tweets, such as @vincelavecchia’s below, include a video of the event, which looks absolutely stunning. Ummm... just caught this flying over my home in SW Portland. pic.twitter.com/CvQJwvWsyj— Vince LaVecchia (@vincelavecchia) March 26, 2021 After the hullaballoo began, National Weather Service Seattle...
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It has been several decades since the first rocket was launched into space, but most would agree that each rocket launch is still fascinating, awe-inspiring, and just plain fun to watch. Today’s launch is a particularly major milestone for the American space program. Here is how you can watch NASA and SpaceX’s historic astronaut launch. Both NASA and SpaceX will stream the launch on their respective YouTube channels. You can also find the livestreams on both of their websites. The stream began today at 12:15pm EST, but the launch will hopefully occur at 4:33pm. The stream right now features information about the astronauts as well as a stream of what is going on at the Kennedy Space...
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It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly a decade since the Space Shuttle was officially retired, effectively putting an end to a 50-year-long streak in which the United States ferried its own astronauts into orbit around the Earth and Moon. Starting with the Mercury program, and then advancing through Gemini, Apollo, and finally the Space Shuttle, NASA was at the forefront of manned spaceflight. However, budgetary considerations and a redirection of resources for the future of NASA’s manned spaceflight program meant that U.S. astronauts had to hitch a ride to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard Russian rockets for the past 9 years. That all ends next month, however....
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Image via SpaceX livestream SpaceX lost a rocket today and they could not be happier. The company just successfully tested out its emergency escape system and its ability to keep astronauts safe. The test is an important step to take before NASA will allow SpaceX to carry astronauts into space. It is important to note that the test was unmanned. SpaceX launched the Crew Dragon capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket from the historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch window opened at 8am EST, but the launch itself was postponed due to weather conditions. The rocket was successfully launched at 10:30am EST. The Dragon Crew capsule...
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Elon Musk loves a good Twitter tease. The CEO of SpaceX recently posted a few photos of their Starlink satellites that have been loaded into a Falcon fairing. Musk remarked that the first 60 satellites are expected to launch on Wednesday. Starlink is a satellite constellation project that is intended to bring 1 Gbps speeds to users. Musk hopes to launch a total of 12,000 satellites. The satellites will be launched into three different orbital shells. Some of the satellites will form network that will use the V band or a band of frequencies ranging between 40 to 75 GHz. Other satellites will access the Ka band (26.5- 40 GHz) and Ku band (12-18 GHz). Musk noted on Twitter that SpaceX will...
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At this point, we tend to take it for granted that SpaceX will stick its landings. However, the company's latest landing is one for the books. SpaceX's unmanned Crew Dragon capsule landed off the coast Florida after a trip to the International Space Station. This was the first time in fifty years that an astronaut capsule landed in the Atlantic Ocean and SpaceX’s first orbital test mission. The Crew Dragon capsule successfully detached from the International Space Station (ISS) at 2:30 am EST. It burned its thrusters several times before its final descent. The capsule deployed several parachutes before successfully landing 200 miles off of the coast of Florida at 8:45am EST. SpaceX’s...
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There's a brewing controversy surrounding SpaceX's recent launch from Cape Canaveral late Sunday night. The flight seemed to go off without a hitch, although we weren’t given full access to video throughout the entirety of the flight or detailed telemetry data considering that this was a classified mission for the U.S. Military. The Falcon 9 rocket was able to make a successful powered landing back on the ground after separating from the upper stage. However, SpaceX censored critical portions of the launch, including the separation of the nose cone surrounding the top-secret Zuma satellite, and the satellite’s actual deployment into earth's orbit. However, these censored bits are...
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SpaceX has had considerable success in 2017 with numerous launches of its Falcon 9 rocket. The company has managed to survive through [most of] 2017 without any mishaps, and has successfully recovered every Falcon 9 rocket [for missions where this parameter was stipulated] either by land or by sea. However, one thing that SpaceX hasn’t done so far this year, which it originally promised, was to launch its Falcon Heavy rocket. Elon Musk said earlier this year that Falcon Heavy would make its maiden flight in November. However, November has come and gone and we haven’t heard much from SpaceX with regards to how Falcon Heavy is progressing. Well, Musk decided to break the silence this...
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When Elon Musk isn’t forecasting the downfall of humanity due to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) or moving in the mainstream market with Tesla’s Model 3 electric vehicle (EV), he has his mind on SpaceX. SpaceX has been at the forefront of space vehicle reusability with its Falcon 9 boosters, but now it is stepping up its game with the Falcon Heavy. Falcon Heavy in essence straps together three Falcon 9 boosters (with a total of 27 engines) as a single, first-stage unit. The company revealed over the weekend that it has successfully completed a critical test in the development of Falcon Heavy, which it calls the “world’s most powerful rocket”. Falcon Heavy’s 3 first stage cores have all...
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SpaceX has had a lot of success during the past year with its Falcon 9 rocket launches, and things are starting to seem a bit routine. The company regularly launches payloads into space, returning the Falcon 9 boosters either back on dry land or at sea on autonomous drone ships. The company has even launched previously used rockets and landed them again with success. SpaceX is looking for a new, more formidable challenge, and that will come with Falcon Heavy. Thanks to CEO Elon Musk, we now have a general timeframe for the first launch of its hulking Falcon Heavy. Musk took to Twitter to confirm that the first launch will take place sometime in November:Falcon Heavy maiden launch this...
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SpaceX swung for the fences this weekend, and it came up with a homerun -- twice. The company successfully launched and recovered two rockets within a 48-hour period span of time. The first launch occurred on Friday, when SpaceX’s second ever recycled Falcon 9 booster was used to put a satellite into orbit for Bulgarian TV service provider Bulsatcom. This particular booster was first used in January to put 10 Iridium satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO). Considering that the initial launch occurred in January and we are now in June, SpaceX is getting much better at its refurbishment process for the Falcon 9 booster (there was roughly a year between the first and second launches of the...
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SpaceX just hit another milestone. SpaceX yesterday launched its first recycled Dragon capsule with the Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station (ISS). This was also the eleventh successful Falcon 9 booster landing. The spacecraft was launched June 3rd after a two-day delay due to thunderstorms. SpaceX launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This was the 100th launch from 39A, the launch site of the Apollo moon missions as well as NASA’s last shuttle. The Falcon rocket was brand new, but will be reused. It returned to Kennedy Space Center with a stellar vertical touchdown. SpaceX launched its first recycled booster two months ago and...
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SpaceX has pulled it off again. The company had another successful rocket launch as part of its NROL-76 mission. The Falcon 9 blasted off from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with a top-secret spy satellite in its payload compartment that was commissioned by the National Reconnaissance Office. Given the classified nature of the launch, we were denied access to many specific details relating to the launch, and the feed of the second stage was cut shortly after it separated from the Falcon 9 first stage. We should also note that this was first big U.S. Department of Defense contract for SpaceX, and given the successful launch, we expect that SpaceX’s launch schedule will...
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Elon Musk and SpaceX continue to defy the odds and give us all hope for the future of manned space travel. Back in early April 2016, a Falcon 9 booster rocket was used for CRS-8, a resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The Falcon 9 used in that mission was the second successful recovery of a booster rocket by SpaceX, as it landed without incident on a floating drone ship recently. Over the past year, SpaceX has been refurbishing the booster, preparing it for a return-to-flight. The booster rocket was stress tested and its engines were test-fired on a number of occasions to ensure that it could successfully launch cargo into space (again). Today, SpaceX made us all believers...
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SpaceX is taking the concept of “reduce-reuse-recycle” to another level. The aerospace manufacturer plans to reuse one of its previously-flown Falcon 9 stage one boosters for an upcoming launch. SpaceX has so far returned seven boosters to Earth, but has yet to reuse any of them in a subsequent mission. Elon Musk stated last April that, “In order for us to really open up access to space, we’ve got to achieve full and rapid reusability. And being able to do that for the primary rocket booster is going to be a huge impact on cost.” SpaceX’s latest customer is Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES. The plan is to launch its geostationary satellite, the SES-10. It has taken SpaceX eleven months...
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All eyes were on SpaceX yesterday as the private space firm attempted to return to flight following a high-profile explosion in September. The September incident saw a Falcon 9 rocket explode while being fueled on the launch pad, burning Facebook’s first satellite project to a crisp. However, the space gods were definitely with SpaceX yesterday, as the Falcon 9 successfully put 10 Iridium satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO). This was the first of a seven-launch contract that SpaceX has with Iridium to deploy a “constellation” of at least 70 satellites into LEO, forming the Iridium Next network. Not only did SpaceX complete its primary mission for Iridium, but its secondary goal of successfully...
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SpaceX has been flying so high in 2016 that its spectacular Falcon 9 explosion came as quite a shock to many in the space industry. There has been much conjecture regarding the explosion, including several conspiracy theories. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently stated that his company has discovered the root cause of the failure, solving the “toughest puzzle” it has ever encountered. The explosion occurred on September 1st in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket was supposed to launch Facebook's first satellite for use with its Internet.org initiative. Although the craft was destroyed, thankfully no one was injured. SpaceX has sifted through 3,000 different channels of telemetry and video data in order...
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 static fire test went horribly wrong earlier this week -- what was supposed to be a routine test run before today's scheduled launch ended in a massive fireball. The explosion, which occurred while fueling the liquid oxygen tanks, resulted in the destruction of Facebook's first satellite for use with its Internet.org initiative. Luckily for SpaceX, it has a lot of data to pore over this weekend. In a blog post, SpaceX says that the anomaly occurred eight minutes prior to the expected test fire at Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral. Fortunately, the launch pad was clear of all personnel, so while the craft was destroyed, there were absolutely no injuries to report....
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We think it’s pretty safe to say that SpaceX has pretty much gotten this whole “let’s land a multi-million-dollar rocket back on earth after blasting it into space” thing mastered by now. After some rather spectacular failures and some extremely close calls, SpaceX completed its first successful powered Dragon 9 recovery in late December 2015. Early this morning, the company accomplished its fourth successful Falcon 9 landing in the Atlantic Ocean on the “Of Course I Still Love” drone ship. This was the sixth successful landing overall if you count the two previous landings on solid ground. Of course, the successful landing on the drone ship was just the icing on the cake. SpaceX’s primary mission...
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SpaceX has done it again. Earlier this morning the company achieved a successful launch and landing of its Falcon 9 main stage booster. This is the second time SpaceX has landed its rocket on land and the the fifth booster the company has [successfully] returned from space. The Dragon capsule that sat on top of the Falcon 9 safely made it into Earth orbit at around 1AM ET. NASA astronaut Jeff Williams will use the International Space Station's robotic arm to capture the spacecraft on Wednesday morning. You can check out the launch and landing in the below video (landing happens around the 25 minute mark). The Dragon capsule is loaded with 5,000 lbs. of supplies for the ISS and its crew. The capsule...
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SpaceX is just making this look way too easy now. Yesterday, the company landed yet another Falcon 9 rocket successfully on its floating “drone ship” in the Atlantic Ocean. This was the third straight “at sea” landing and the fourth overall successful landing for SpaceX (the first occurred on a landing pad at Cape Canaveral back in December). The primary mission of SpaceX’s launch was to deliver the THAICOM 8 commercial satellite into a supersynchronous transfer orbit. The satellite will eventually be “reduced” to a circular geostationary orbit of about 35,800 kilometers. THAICOM 8 weighs approximately 3,000 kg and has been designed to last at least 15 years. After successfully completing its...
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SpaceX has made three successful landings of its Falcon 9 boosters in the past six months — one via land and two at sea. The first landing occurred on December 21st, when a Falcon 9 touched down on its landing pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida after launching 11 ORBCOMM satellites into orbit. Its second and third successful landings occurred in early April and early May respectively, with each landing on an autonomous drone ship at sea. Now SpaceX has a problem — it’s soon going be running out of space to store its returned Falcon 9 boosters. The company just delivered the third Falcon 9 to its Cape Canaveral hanger; a hanger that was only designed to house five rockets at a time (just look as these...
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