Author: ChrisDMarshall

  • SpaceX launches Merah Putih satellite

    SpaceX continued their 2018 launch campaign with the successful deployment of the Merah Putih communications satellite for Telkom Indonesia this morning. The 5000 kg satellite was successfully deployed to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit and is now making its way to its operating orbit. This was the first reflight for a Block 5 Falcon 9 booster…

  • Arianespace launches four Galileo satellites

    In the first of two launches today Arianespace successfully delivered four Galileo satellites to add to the constellation already orbiting the Earth. There were a lot of lasts for this mission as shown below Many Lasts for this launch #VA244: 1. Last Ariane 5 ES model 2. Last Medium fairing 3. Last EPS upper stage…

  • SpaceX successfully launches another 10 Iridium Next satellites

    This morning SpaceX completed their 14th launch of the year and second of the week with the successful deployment of another 10 Iridium Next satellites.  This was the second launch of the morning coming just 14 minutes after the Arianespace launch, however, the mission completed first due to the shorter coast phase before deployment. Launching…

  • SpaceX successfully launches Telstar 19V satellite

    Early this morning SpaceX completed their 13th launch of the year with the successful deployment of the Telstar 19V satellite to its Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). This was the 2nd flight of the new Block 5 version of the Falcon 9 and was also the heaviest payload SpaceX has deployed to GTO weighing in at…

  • Blue Origin completes 9th New Shepard Test Flight

    Blue Origin completed their 9th test flight of New Shepard from their launch site in West Texas. For this test, Blue Origin tested the Capsule Escape Motor approximately 20 seconds after separation to determine how the Solid Rocket Motor operates at that attitude. There was some concern that the test could cause issues for the booster…

  • Russia launches Progress 70 and completes fastest docking ever

    Today Russia launched their latest Progress spacecraft to the International Space Station. The spacecraft lifted off at 17:51 EDT and then used an accelerated approach to dock just 3h 40m later making this the fastest launch to docking ever for Progress. This was the third time Russia had attempted this, however, the previous two times…

  • Further delays to JWST

    This week NASA announced further delays to the James Webb Space Telescope which was originally supposed to launch this year and has now been delayed to Now Earlier Than (NET) 2021. The delays which have been caused by several factors from human error during construction/testing, design complexity and basically poor management of the project are…

  • My first live launch – SpaceX CRS-15

    Today my family and I were able to see our first live rocket launch with the successful liftoff of the Falcon 9 carrying the Dragon Spacecraft to orbit for SpaceX’s CRS-15 mission to the International Space Station. Originally the plan was to get up a 2 in the morning and drive from Davenport, FL to…

  • SpaceX successfully launches SES-12 satellite

    Early this morning SpaceX successfully launched the SES-12 satellite, the launch was originally scheduled for May 31st but was delayed to allow SpaceX additional time to check the rocket’s second stage to ensure mission success. The nine Merlin 1D engines came to life at 12:45 am EDT following a smooth countdown and propelled the payload…

  • SpaceX launches Iridium and NASA Satellites

    SpaceX continued their 2018 campaign with the successful launch of five more Iridium Next satellites as well as two for NASA. The NASA satellites consisted of two Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-on (GRACE-FO) satellites which will measure variations in gravity over Earth’s surface. The two Grace satellites were deployed shortly after the second stage reached…