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Launch preps underway for first of up to five Falcon Heavy missions this year

EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Jan. 9 with 24-hour launch delay. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket for the USSF-67 mission inside the integration hangar at Launch Complex 39A. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX is set to kick off a busy week of launch preparations at Kennedy Space Center for the first of five planned Falcon Heavy rocket missions this year, targeting …

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Work begins to harvest Orion spacecraft hardware for Artemis 2 lunar flight

A truck carrying NASA’s Orion spacecraft from the Artemis 1 test flight arrived back at Kennedy Space Center on Dec. 30. Credit: NASA Fresh off the 1.4-million-mile Artemis 1 test flight around around the moon, NASA’s Orion spacecraft arrived Dec. 30 back at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where technicians will offload propellants and payloads, …

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SpaceX launches 114 small satellites on first mission of 2023

Watch a replay of our live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The Transporter 6 mission launched 114 small payloads from customers around the world. Follow us on Twitter. SFN Live SpaceX’s first launch of the year fired …

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Space solar power experiment, 36 Planet imaging satellites on SpaceX rideshare mission

Launcher’s Orbiter SN1 transfer vehicle hosts multiple payloads on SpaceX’s Transporter 6 mission. Credit: Launcher / John Kraus The 114 small satellites set for launch Tuesday on SpaceX’s first mission of the year include 36 spacecraft for Planet’s commercial remote sensing fleet, a space-based solar power experiment, and space tugs to piggyback payloads into different …

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Military officials forecast 87 launches from Florida’s Space Coast in 2023

NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket streaks into the night sky over Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 16. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography The U.S. Space Force is preparing for as many as 87 launches from Florida’s Space Coast in 2023, including dozens more SpaceX missions and the expected debuts of …

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SpaceX launch of Israeli satellite marks company’s 61st mission of 2022

A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, with the Israeli EROS C3 satellite. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX launched its 61st and final mission of 2022 Thursday night from California, placing an Israeli Earth-imaging satellite into orbit and tying a 1980 record for the most successful flights by a rocket family in …

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SpaceX launches first mission for Starlink Gen2 constellation

EDITOR’S NOTE: Watch a replay of our live coverage of the Falcon 9 launch on the Starlink 5-1 mission. SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Wednesday with 54 more Starlink internet satellites, a mission to begin populating a new orbital shell authorized by federal regulators earlier this month for the company’s Starlink Gen2 …

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Astronauts unfurl fourth roll-out solar array outside International Space Station

NASA astronaut Josh Cassada near the spool of the roll-out solar array during deployment Thursday. Credit: NASA TV / Spaceflight Now Another roll-out solar array was installed and deployed by astronauts Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada outside the International Space Station on on a spacewalk Thursday, a day later than previously planned after the space …

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NASA’s InSight lander bows out after ground-shaking Mars mission

NASA’s InSight lander used its robotic arm to capture this final “selfie” of the mission in April 2022. Dust is visible on the lander’s two solar panels. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Dust-laden solar panels and darker Martian skies have finally sealed the fate of NASA’s InSight mission, the agency announced Wednesday, after the intrepid lander delivered its …

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Two Pléiades Neo Earth-imaging satellites lost in failure of Europe’s Vega C rocket

EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) with details from news conference. Illustration of the Vega C rocket with its Zefiro 40 second stage firing. Credit: Arianespace The final two spacecraft in Airbus’s four-satellite, 600 million-euro commercial Pléiades Neo Earth observation fleet crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after launch from French Guiana Tuesday …

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