launch | Common News Update

Oct72022 by adminNo Comments

Satellite launch marks SpaceX’s third liftoff in 3 days

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Oct. 6 (UPI) -- SpaceX is scheduled to launch two communication satellites into orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Friday in its third liftoff in three days. The 7 p.m. blastoff is slated to deliver the Galaxy 33 and 34 satellites into geosynchronous orbit, where they will help the telecommunications company Intelsat maintain service in North America. The launch had been set for Thursday night but was scrubbed at 30 seconds to blastoff due to a small helium leak, which triggered the Falcon 9 rocket to automatically abort. The planned launch follows two others on Wednesday: the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 52 Starlink satellites in the evening and NASA's Crew 5 mission, carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station, in the afternoon. The Crew 5 mission s...

Sep82022 by adminNo Comments

NASA eyeing another attempted launch for Artemis I moon mission in 2 weeks

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Sept. 8 (UPI) -- NASA said on Thursday that after two failed attempts last week, the next launch attempt for the first Artemis moon mission and first flight of the massive SLS rocket is at least two weeks away. The first attempt on Aug. 29 was canceled due to a fuel leak and a bad sensor on one of the main engines. The next, last Saturday, was scrubbed again due to a fuel leak. In a briefing Thursday, the space agency said it's shooting for the next attempt on Sept. 23. If that doesn't work, there's also a window on Sept. 27. NASA Associate Director Jim Free said those dates were chosen because they don't conflict with other activities at the Kennedy Space Center on those days. Free and NASA officials Mike Bolger and John Blevins stressed during the briefing Thursday that the type of hyd...

Jul312022 by adminNo Comments

Blue Origin to launch space tourist flight next week

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July 29 (UPI) -- Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin plans to launch its sixth space tourism flight next week with six people, including the first Egyptian and Portuguese crew members to reach suborbital space. Blue Origin said in a news release that NS-22 will lift off at 8:30 a.m. from Launch Site One at the company's site in West Texas on Thursday. The flight will make Sara Sabry, an Egyptian mechanical and biomedical engineer, and Portuguese entrepreneur Mário Ferreira the first of their respective countries to reach space, according to Engadget. The other four members of the crew include Coby Cotton, a cofounder of the popular YouTube channel Dude Perfect, as well as British-American explorer Vanessa O'Brien and telecom CEO Steve Young. The sixth passenger, Clint Kelly III, started the Autonomou...

May22022 by adminNo Comments

Watch live: Rocket Lab plans launch, booster catch with helicopter after days of delays

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ORLANDO, Fla., May 2 (UPI) -- Unfavorable weather conditions pushed Rocket Lab's 26th launch of an Electron booster to the end of last week, and the company decided to wait for Monday to take a shot at catching the rocket with a helicopter for the first time. With final checks on its recovery system under way, the company now plans for liftoff around 6:41 p.m. EDT from Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. The mission, called "There and back again," will mark the first time Rocket Lab has attempted to recover one of its first stage boosters. If recovery with the helicopter is successful, the company also plans to conduct it's first booster offloading, with the aircraft dropping the rocket on to a waiting ship. "We don't usually give mother nature quite so much power over launch timing, but fo...

Jan72022 by adminNo Comments

SpaceX successfully completes first launch of 2022 from Florida

Science

ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 6 (UPI) -- SpaceX kicked off a surge in launch activity Thursday with the successful launch of 49 of the company's Starlink communications satellites from Florida, heading south along the state's coastline. Five SpaceX missions may launch in the next month on the southern polar trajectory, flying closer to the Florida coast toward Miami than most launches, according to the U.S. Space Force. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off as planned at 4:49 p.m. EST from Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Nine minutes after launch, the first-stage booster landed successfully on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean. "Starlink is now live in 25 countries and regions currently servicing over 145,000 users worldwide," SpaceX engineer Jessie Anderson said during a live broadcast of the launch. "...