SpaceX

The next two WorldView Legion satellites, which will be the company’s first spacecraft in MIO, are seen here at Maxar Space Systems’ manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, California, shortly before shipment to the launch site. Image: Maxar SpaceX is preparing to launch a pair of Maxar Space Systems’ WorldView Legion satellites to a mid-inclination orbit Thursday morning. The 30 cm-class imaging satellites will ride to space atop a Falcon 9 rocket launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) is set for the beginning of a 60-minute window at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 UTC). Those watching the launch in or around Florida’s Space Coast can expect to hear a sonic boom as the first stage booster returns for a touchdown on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at the Cape...

The Fram2 crew, seen during a visit to SpaceX’s Hawthorn, Calif., manufacturing facility. Left to right: Eric Philips, Jannicke Mikkelse, commander Chun Wang and Rabea Rogge. Image: SpaceX. A blockchain entrepreneur, a cinematographer, a polar adventurer and a robotics researcher plan to fly around Earth’s poles aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule by end of year, becoming the first humans to observe the ice caps and extreme polar environments from orbit, SpaceX announced Monday. The historic flight, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will be commanded by Chun Wang, a wealthy bitcoin pioneer who founded f2pool and stakefish, “which are among the largest Bitcoin mining pools and Ethereum staking providers,” the crew’s website says. “Wang aims to use the mission to highlight t...

An illustration of the two Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM) program satellites on orbit. Illustration: Northrop Grumman SpaceX completed its second launch of the weekend with a mission for Space Norway. The company launched its Falcon 9 rocket for the Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM). The satellites, called ASBM-1 and ASBM-2, are designed to provide both military satellite communications as well as commercial broadband connectivity in the northern polar region. Liftoff happened at 7:02 p.m. PDT (10:02 p.m. EDT 0202 UTC). The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting the mission, B1061 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a 22nd time, tying it with B1062 for the most flights of a first stage booster. B1061 previously launched the Crew-1 and Crew-2 astronaut missions; two Trans...

The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft is pictured docked to the space-facing port on the International Space Station’s Harmony module. Dragon Freedom carried four Axiom Mission-2 astronauts to the orbital lab on May 22, 2023, including Commander Peggy Whitson, Pilot John Shoffner, and Mission Specialists Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi. Image: NASA The full crew of the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station was announced on Monday as they officially began training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The mission, dubbed Ax-4, will include a pilot from India and mission specialists from Poland and Hungary. Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson will once again sit in the commander seat, leading her second mission as part of Axiom Space’s astronaut corp...

A Falcon 9 stands ready for a Starlink mission at Cape Canaveral’s pad 40. File photo: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now. SpaceX is preparing to launch its latest batch of Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Friday morning launch will add another 21 satellites to the mega-constellation in low Earth orbit. As it happens, the booster flying this mission, tail number B1067 in the SpaceX fleet, will also be making its 21st flight. Liftoff of the Starlink 8-3 mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is set for 8:13 a.m. EDT (1213 UTC). Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to liftoff. The Falcon 9 booster, B1067, flew a fifth of its previous missions in support of NASA. It launched the Crew-3 and Crew-4 astro...