SpaceX pushes booster recovery limits with satellite launch
Wednesday, 18 September 2024 12:40
SpaceX pushed one of its most-used boosters to its limits with a launch Tuesday evening from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
A Falcon 9 rocket using a booster for the 22nd time managed a successful recovery landing even though it was used to fly its payload, a pair of the European Commission's Galileo L13 satellites, to a medium-Earth orbit. The last time SpaceX flew such a mission, it didn't even try to recover the booster because it required more propellant than a low-Earth orbit mission.
Liftoff came at 6:50 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40, and the booster stuck the landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions a little more than eight minutes later.
SpaceX had to expend a booster, meaning let it fall back into the Atlantic, for the Galileo L12 mission back in April so SpaceX could provide the performance needed to get the payload to orbit.
"Data from that mission informed subtle design and operational changes, including mass reductions and trajectory adjustments, that will allow us to safely recover and reuse this booster," SpaceX posted on its website ahead of the new mission.
Hera asteroid mission launch kit
Wednesday, 18 September 2024 12:17
Hera asteroid mission launch kit
Everything you'd ever want to know about ESA's first planetary defence mission
The expanding opportunity for American and Indian space cooperation
Wednesday, 18 September 2024 12:00
NASA selects Intuitive Machines for lunar communications and navigation services
Wednesday, 18 September 2024 10:25
ESA seeks better coordination of European space spending
Wednesday, 18 September 2024 09:05
Sentinel-2C to Vega and orbit – fit-check to liftoff timelapse
Wednesday, 18 September 2024 09:00
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From the arrival of Earth-obversation satellite Sentinel-2C in July 2024 and the first fit-check to launch on the from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, this timelapse shows how the third Sentinel 2 satellite was prepared for launch. The last Vega rocket, flight VV24, lifted off on 5 September at 03:50 CEST (4 September 22:50 local time).
Sentinel-2C will provide high-resolution data that is essential to Copernicus – the Earth observation component of the European Union’s Space programme. Developed, built and operated by ESA, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission provides high-resolution optical imagery for a wide range of applications including land,
Lockheed Martin wins contract to supply geostationary lightning mappers
Wednesday, 18 September 2024 06:33
Rivada says Lockheed deal boosts investor confidence in constellation
Tuesday, 17 September 2024 23:22
Space Force chief urges readiness for new era of competition
Tuesday, 17 September 2024 20:32
U.S. Space Force chief endorses commercial satellite data program
Tuesday, 17 September 2024 19:14
The Aerospace Corporation pushes research on hard-to-spot spacecraft reentries
Tuesday, 17 September 2024 18:49
Europa Clipper: 8 things to know about NASA's mission to an ocean moon of Jupiter
Tuesday, 17 September 2024 18:26
The first NASA spacecraft dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth, Europa Clipper aims to find out whether the ice-encased moon Europa could be habitable.
NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft, the largest the agency has ever built for a planetary mission, will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Europa, an intriguing icy moon of Jupiter. The spacecraft's launch period opens Thursday, Oct. 10.
Data from previous NASA missions has provided scientists with strong evidence that an enormous salty ocean lies underneath the frozen surface of the moon. Europa Clipper will orbit Jupiter and conduct 49 close flybys of the moon to gather data needed to determine whether there are places below its thick frozen crust that could support life.
Spacewalk an 'emotional experience' for private astronauts
Tuesday, 17 September 2024 17:45
The commander of the daring space voyage that included the first-ever spacewalk by private astronauts described opening the hatch into the void as an "emotional experience" that left him in awe, yet deeply aware of the dangers.
Jared Isaacman, the 41-year-old founder and CEO of Shift4Payments, led the recently concluded SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, where a team of four ventured farther into the cosmos than any humans in half a century.