Tag: Spacex

‘Dragon back’ as cargo reaches space station

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — SpaceX’s unmanned Dragon cargo ship docked on Sunday with the International Space Station, bringing supplies and experiments for the astronauts in orbit. “Dragon installed,” a NASA commentator said at 1326 GMT after the delicate, hours-long process of sealing 16 bolts joining the two craft was complete. At that moment, they were flying 250 miles above the North Atlantic. Earlier, as the Dragon arrived, the space station’s robotic arm, operated by […]

SpaceX postpones launch of secretive Zuma mission

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — SpaceX on Thursday postponed the launch of a secretive US government payload known as Zuma, a mission whose nature — and the agency behind it — is a mystery. “We have decided to stand down and take a closer look at data from recent fairing testing for another customer,” SpaceX said in a statement issued late Thursday about two hours before the planned launch window was to open. The fairing is the […]

SpaceX launches Korean satellite, sticks rocket landing

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Monday carrying a South Korean communications satellite to boost broadband coverage for southeast Asia and the Middle East, and stuck its 19th rocket landing in two years. The tall, white rocket roared into the blue sky over Cape Canaveral, Florida at 3:34 pm (1934 GMT), propelling Koreasat-5A toward a geostationary orbit some 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) from Earth. The satellite is designed to replace an earlier […]

SpaceX launches, lands recycled rocket

  MIAMI, United States (AFP) — SpaceX on Wednesday launched a rocket that had already flown to space and landed it successfully on an ocean platform, as part of its ongoing effort to recycle costly rocket components. On a clear autumn evening at 6:53 pm (2253 GMT), the tall, white Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida carrying the Echostar 105/SES-11 satellite. “Couldn’t be more perfect weather for a launch,” said a commentator […]

SpaceX’s Musk unveils plan to reach Mars by 2022

by Glenda Kwek Agence France-Presse ADELAIDE, Australia (AFP) — Futurist and inventor Elon Musk unveiled ambitious plans Friday to send cargo ships to Mars in five years and use rockets to carry people between Earth’s major cities in under half-an-hour. The founder of SpaceX said a planned interplanetary transport system, codenamed BFR (Big Fucking Rocket), would be downsized so it could carry out a range of tasks that would then pay for future Mars missions. […]

German team wins SpaceX Hyperloop competition with 200 mph pod

CALIFORNIA, United States (Reuters) — A team from the Technical University of Munich in Germany, known as WARR Hyperloop, won a competition hosted by Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Sunday (August 27) to design the fastest pod for a proposed future transportation system of giant vacuum tubes known as the “Hyperloop.” The WARR (pronounced: VAR) team’s pod traveled down the mile-long Spacex Hyperloop test track at 324 kilometers per hour (201 miles per hour). “That was […]

SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) — SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket carrying an Earth-observation satellite on Thursday, August 24. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 1151 local time (1851GMT). The rocket carried the Taiwanese-made Formosat-5 spacecraft into orbit and then landed on a SpaceX drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. SpaceX said the Formosat-5 will provide detailed images of the Earth for at least five […]

SpaceX to launch supercomputer to space

by Kerry Sheridan Agence France-Presse MIAMI, United States (AFP) – SpaceX is poised to launch an unmanned cargo ship toward the International Space Station Monday, including a super-computer that could direct astronauts on future deep-space missions. The liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Dragon cargo ship, is planned for 12:31 pm (1631 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The weather forecast is 70 percent favorable for launch. The mission is the 12th official trip […]

SpaceX rocket launches Intelsat communications satellite

FLORIDA, United States (Reuters) – A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched an Intelsat communications satellite from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral on Wednesday evening (July 5). The rocket delivered Intelsat 35e to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), according to SpaceX. SpaceX said due to mission requirements, it would not try to land Falcon 9’s first stage after the launch. Two launches were scrubbed this week. On Monday, the […]

SpaceX Falcon 9 launch aborted in final countdown

CALIFORNIA, United States (Reuters) – SpaceX called off a satellite launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida less than 10 seconds before liftoff Sunday (July 2) because of a technical issue with the company’s Falcon 9 rocket. Falcon 9 engineer John Insprucker said, “We’ll take a look at what the data is and then figure out what our next launch opportunity is going to be.”

SpaceX’s first recycled Dragon arrives at space station

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — SpaceX’s first-ever recycled spaceship arrived Monday at the International Space Station, two days after the unmanned Dragon cargo capsule launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Live images on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s television showed the spaceship approaching the orbiting outpost, then being grabbed with the station’s robotic arm at 9:52 am (1352 GMT). “Capture complete,” said NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who operated the robotic arm […]

Lightning strike postpones SpaceX launch until Saturday

by Kerry Sheridan Agence France Presse MIAMI, United States (AFP) — A lightning strike near Cape Canaveral forced SpaceX to delay until Saturday its first-ever cargo delivery to the astronauts living in orbit using a vessel that has already flown to space once before, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Thursday. The lightning did not hit any of SpaceX’s equipment but happened within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of the launch pad. The strike happened […]