Tag: Falcon 9

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Next-gen SpaceX rocket engine goes up in flames

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A Merlin rocket engine undergoes testing at SpaceX’s facility in McGregor, Texas. (SpaceX Photo)

SpaceX says its next-generation Merlin rocket engine experienced a fiery anomaly during preparations for testing at its facility in McGregor, Texas, but the flare-up isn’t expected to have an effect on the company’s ambitious launch schedule.

No injuries were reported in the wake of the Nov. 4 explosion, which occurred while engineers were running liquid oxygen through an engine that’s designed to be used on the next iteration of SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, known as Block 5.

Engineers use the procedure, which is called a LOX drop, to look for leaks in the engine’s supply lines. It serves as part of the setup for qualification tests of the Block 5 engine, which is destined to be more powerful than the current Block 4 version of the Falcon 9.

It’s not yet fully clear why the explosion occurred during the LOX drop. In a statement emailed to GeekWire today, SpaceX said “all safety protocols were followed during the time of this incident.”

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SpaceX executes Sweet 16 launch (plus landing)

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rises from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A in Florida, sending the Koreasat-5A telecommunications satellite into space. (SpaceX Photo)

SpaceX executed its 16th Falcon 9 rocket launch of the year today, sending the Koreasat-5A telecommunications satellite into orbit and then having the first-stage booster fly itself back to an oceangoing launch pad.

The mission marked a doubling of SpaceX’s launch tally from last year and signaled that the California-based launch company is hitting its stride, 14 months after a launch pad accident dealt a setback to the Falcon 9 program.

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SpaceX aces its second launch in three days

SpaceX Falcon 9 launch
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket rises from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the SES-11/Echostar-105 telecommunications satellite. (SpaceX via YouTube)

Good things came in threes for SpaceX today: For the third time, it used a previously flown Falcon 9 rocket booster to send a payload into space, and had that booster land itself on an oceangoing platform.

Successful recovery of the first-stage booster after launching the Echostar 105/SES-11 telecommunications satellite could even set the double-flown stage for a third go-round.

It was the second Falcon 9 liftoff this week, coming after a launch from California on Oct. 9 that successfully put 10 Iridium Next telecom satellites in orbit.

Today’s flight was similarly successful, starting with the 6:53 p.m. ET (3:53 p.m. PT) launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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SpaceX launches Air Force X-37B space plane

SpaceX Falcon 9 launch
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, sending the Air Force’s X-37B space plane into space. (SpaceX via YouTube)

SpaceX launched the Air Force’s X-37B robotic space plane on its latest months-long, classified mission today – marking another first for the company, with an oncoming hurricane adding to the pressure.

Evacuations in advance of Hurricane Irma’s Florida landfall have already begun, but SpaceX managed to get its Falcon 9 rocket launched, and its first-stage booster landed, at the end of a smooth countdown.

“Everything proceeded nominally,” SpaceX launch commentator Michael Hammersley said. “Weather was looking potentially a bit tricky with those clouds, but ended up being a ‘go.’”

The Falcon 9 rose from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 10 a.m. ET (7 a.m. PT), sending the X-37B spaceward for the fifth mission of the test program. The four earlier launches were executed using United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket.

In a tweet, Gen. Jay Raymond, who heads the Air Force Space Command, said the launch was a success.

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SpaceX launches Formosat-5 satellite

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rises from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. (SpaceX via YouTube)

SpaceX chalked up another successful satellite launch and booster landing today, putting Taiwan’s Formosat-5 Earth observation satellite into orbit in the process.

The company’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 11:51 a.m. PT from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base at the opening of a 44-minute launch window.

Minutes later, the rocket’s second stage separated to send the 1,050-pound Formosat-5 satellite into a nearly pole-to-pole orbit for Taiwan’s National Space Organization.

The satellite, a successor to Formosat-2, is designed to send down high-resolution Earth imagery for five years. Formosat-5 also carries a plasma sensor that will monitor the effect of space weather on Earth’s ionosphere.

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SpaceX sends supercomputer to space station

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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket rises from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as spectators watch from Florida’s Space Coast. (NASA via YouTube)

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has sent a robotic Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station with three tons of supplies and scientific experiments, including a supercomputer that could help blaze the trail to Mars.

The Spaceborne Computer project, pioneered by NASA and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, will subject off-the-shelf computer hardware to a yearlong test under the challenging conditions of spaceflight. It’s one of more than 250 science experiments and investigations that will get a boost from the payloads packed on the Dragon.

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Third time’s the charm for SpaceX launch

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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket rises from its Florida launch pad, carrying the Intelsat 35e satellite into orbit. (SpaceX via YouTube)

SpaceX finally launched the Intelsat 35e telecommunications satellite today atop a Falcon 9 rocket after two earlier attempts were aborted at T-minus-9 seconds.

Those two attempts, on July 2 and 3, were called off by SpaceX’s computer system when the parameters it had didn’t match up with what it expected. But when the engineers checked, it turned out there was nothing wrong with the rocket.

The computer’s go/no-go parameters were tweaked to be more forgiving, SpaceX launch commentator John Insprucker said today.

This time, the countdown ticked past the 9-second mark and the Falcon 9 rose smoothly from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:38 p.m. ET (4:38 p.m. PT).

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SpaceX aces a rocket doubleheader

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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket blasts its way into orbit. (SpaceX via YouTube)

Two days after launching a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida and landing it again, SpaceX accomplished the same feat in California, bringing 10 satellites to low Earth orbit for Iridium’s next-generation communications network.

Liftoff came at 1:25 p.m. PT from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and the booster landing on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean took place a little less than eight minutes later. A little more than an hour after that, SpaceX confirmed that all 10 satellites were successfully deployed.

This was the second launch in SpaceX’s campaign to put 75 Iridium NEXT spacecraft into a constellation that’s designed to provide global high-speed satellite data transmission as well as aircraft tracking and surveillance.

The new constellation should be ready to replace Iridium’s existing network next year, representing one of the biggest satellite tech upgrades in history.

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SpaceX re-launches and re-lands a rocket

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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from its Florida launch pad, sending the BulgariaSat-1 satellite into space. (SpaceX via YouTube)

For the second time ever, SpaceX has sent a telecommunications satellite into orbit on a previously flown Falcon 9 rocket – but today’s launch of BulgariaSat-1 is notable for other reasons as well.

The first-stage booster landed successful at sea after liftoff, marking the first time the same rocket has made successful touchdowns off America’s East Coast as well as the West Coast.

And if the schedule holds, yet another SpaceX launch will take place two days from now, to put 10 more satellites into orbit for the Iridium NEXT telecom constellation.

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SpaceX launches its first reused cargo ship

SpaceX Falcon 9 launch
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Florida. (NASA TV)

SpaceX took one more step in its campaign for rocket reusability today by sending a previously flown Dragon cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station for the first time.

If all goes well, it should mark the first space station rendezvous for a reused spaceship since the retirement of NASA’s space shuttle fleet in 2011.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 5:07 p.m. ET (2:07 p.m. PT) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. An earlier countdown on Thursday had to be called off when a lightning storm struck too close to the launch pad.

It was the 100th launch from Pad 39A, which has been the starting point for space journeys going back to the Apollo moon shots.

Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX’s vice president of mission assurance, said that he was “super-happy, as always, after a good launch” – and that it felt great to be a part of Pad 39A’s 100th launch.

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