Category: SpaceX
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SpaceX launches Formosat 5
SpaceX completed another launch today with the deployment of the Formosat 5 satellite following an on-time launch from Vandenburg. Following separation of the first stage, the booster returned to land on the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship “Just Read the Instructions” in the Pacific ocean. This was the 12th launch for SpaceX this year and 9th landing.…
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SpaceX launches CRS-12 mission
SpaceX resumed their 2017 launch campaign today with the successful launch of the Dragon vehicle for the CRS-12 mission to the International Space Station. As with previous CRS launches the first stage returned to land at Landing Zone 1. This launch comes after a month break to allow the 45th Space Wing to perform maintenance…
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SpaceX launches Intelsat 35e
This evening SpaceX completed it third launch in twelve days as it successfully delivered the Intelsat 35e satellite to orbit. The expendable Falcon 9 launched at 7:37 pm EDT and successfully delivered the payload to its Geostationary Transfer Orbit. The launch was originally scheduled for the 2nd but was delayed due to a GNC criteria issue…
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SpaceX Dragon completes visit to ISS
In what looks to become another busy day for SpaceX the Dragon cargo vehicle that spent a month at the station following its successful launch last month was released by the station this morning and completed a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at 8:12 EDT. This was the second mission for this vehicle and…
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SpaceX launches second set of Iridium® NEXT satellites
In the second launch in two days SpaceX successfully deployed ten more Iridium® NEXT satellites. The Falcon 9 booster lifted off from Vandenberg, CA carrying the ten satellites at 4:25 PM EDT and 57 minutes later started deploying the individual satellites. The first stage landed back on the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship “Just Read The…
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SpaceX launches BulgariaSat-1
This afternoon at 3:10 pm EDT SpaceX successfully delivered the BulgariaSat-1 satellite to orbit. Originally scheduled to launch on Monday the flight was delayed to give SpaceX time to replace a valve on the payload fairing that, while it had a redundant system, wasn’t worth risking the launch for. This is the eighth launch of…
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SpaceX launches CRS-11 to ISS
SpaceX passed another important milestone, on their route to reusability, with the successful launch of the CRS-11 Dragon mission to the International Space Station. The Dragon capsule used for this launch previously flew to the ISS on the CRS-4 mission in September 2014 and following some refurbishment and re-certification was approved for this current mission.…
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SpaceX launches Inmarsat-5 F4 satellite
SpaceX continued its busy launch campaign today with the successful delivery to orbit of the Inmarsat-5 F4 communications satellite. The payload was originally planned to be launched using the companies Falcon Heavy Rocket due to the weight of the satellite. However, with the upgrades to the Falcon 9 over the years it is was powerful…
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SpaceX launches NROL-76 satellite
This morning SpaceX completed another important milestone in their history as they launched the first National Reconnaissance Office Payload the NROL-76 satellite. As with all NROL launches the exact details of the payload and its final orbit were not released however Elon Musk tweeted that Launch and Landing of the payload were good if we get…
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SpaceX vs NASA progress since 2010
In 2010 Senator Richard Shelby made the following statement “This request represents nothing more than a commercially-led, faith-based space program. Today, the commercial providers that NASA has contracted with cannot even carry the trash back from the space station much less carry humans to or from space safely. “These providers have yet to live up…