Japanese billionaire ready for launch to International Space Station

Japanese spaceflight participant Yozo Hirano, Russan cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, and Japanese space tourist Yusaku Maezawa pose for a crew portrait at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia. Credit: Roscosmos A Russian Soyuz rocket is set for blastoff Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire businessman, his cameraman and …

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SpaceX mates NASA astronomy satellite with rocket at Kennedy Space Center

NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer spacecraft ready for encapsulation inside the payload fairing of its SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Credit: NASA A NASA astronomy satellite will be the smallest payload to ever get a dedicated ride on a Falcon 9 rocket when it takes off from Florida this week, but the SpaceX launcher will need …

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ULA to set rocket endurance record on next launch

An Atlas 5 rocket stands on launch pad 41 ahead of the STP-3 mission. Credit: United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket will set an endurance record after liftoff from Cape Canaveral Tuesday, targeting the delivery of two U.S. military tech demo satellites directly into a geosynchronous orbit more than 22,000 miles over …

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NASA laser communications experiment set for launch into geosynchronous orbit

Artist’s illustration of NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration on-board the U.S. military’s STPSat 6 satellite, showing laser links with a ground station and the International Space Station. Credit: NASA A $320 million NASA experiment to test high-speed laser communications links between Earth and space is poised for launch Tuesday, tagging along for a ride to …

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SpaceX resumes work on Starship launch pad at Kennedy Space Center

Training jets fly over pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center earlier this year ahead of the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission. Credit: Inspiration4 / John Kraus Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and chief executive, says crews have started construction of the first Starship orbital launch pad in Florida inside the gates of historic launch complex 39A at …

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Fuel leak at launch pad delays Atlas 5 launch

An Atlas 5 rocket stands on pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station before launch on the STP-3 mission. Credit: United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance delayed the planned launch of an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Sunday after discovering a kerosene fuel leak in the launch pad’s ground storage system. Officials tentatively …

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Arianespace launches Galileo navigation satellites in final mission before Webb

A Soyuz ST-B launcher takes off from the Guiana Space Center on Saturday night with two Galileo navigation satellites. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – S. Martin Deployment of Europe’s independent Galileo navigation network resumed Saturday night with an on-target launch of two satellites aboard a Soyuz rocket, the final Arianespace mission …

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SpaceX readies Falcon 9 rocket for test-firing ahead of NASA science probe launch

SpaceX is preparing for a static fire test this weekend at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in preparation for a launch Dec. 9 with the space agency’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer science mission. The test-firing of the Falcon 9 rocket is expected some time Saturday on pad 39A at the Florida spaceport. SpaceX rolled the rocket, …

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Photos: Atlas 5 rolls out to launch pad for Space Force mission

United Launch Alliance rolled an Atlas 5 rocket to its launch pad Friday at Cape Canaveral in preparation for liftoff before dawn Sunday on a mission to carry two U.S. Space Force technology demonstration satellites into orbit. The 196-foot-tall (59.7-meter) rocket emerged from ULA’s Vertical Integration Facility shortly before 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) Friday. …

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SpaceX aces 27th Falcon 9 rocket flight of the year, a new record

A Falcon 9 rocket streaks into the sky over Florida’s Space Coast on Thursday night. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now SpaceX set a new record Thursday for the most missions by the company’s Falcon rocket family in a year, successfully sending a cargo of 48 Starlink internet satellites and two BlackSky optical Earth-imaging spacecraft …

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