SpaceX

SES’s Astra 1P satellite is encapsulated in a pair of payload fairings ahead of its planned launch onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on June 18, 2024. Image: SpaceX SpaceX is preparing to launch a satellite to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) on behalf of one of its oldest customers: Luxembourg-based SES. The prolific launch company aims to bounce back from an unusually quiet period in its launch cadence, accented by a last-second abort as the engines on another one of its Falcon 9 rockets began to fire. Liftoff of the mission is set for 5:35 p.m. EDT (2135 UTC). The mission is set to be the 45th orbital flight from Florida’s Space Coast in 2024. Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to liftoff. The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail...

The Ship 29 upper stage of the fully integrated Starship rocket as seen before its fourth flight test on June 6, 2024. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now The Federal Aviation Administration is preparing to gather public input on SpaceX Starship launch operations at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The request for comments comes about a month after the conclusion of an environmental review of a 100-acre expansion for SpaceX at its Hangar X site. The pair of projects highlight an ongoing ramp up of activity for a company that aims to launch more than 140 Falcon launches by the end of 2024, most of them from Florida’s Space Coast. “SpaceX draws a lot of attention. There’s no question about it. They’re doing a lot of amazing things and they draw a lot of attention from the public, not just locall...

A Falcon 9 stands ready for a Starlink mission at Cape Canaveral’s pad 40. File photo: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now. SpaceX is preparing for a Falcon 9 launch as central and southern Florida is hammered by rounds of thunderstorms and heavy tropical downpours expected to last several days. The mission marks the 61st Falcon 9 flight for the company in 2024, which will tie the total number of orbital launches it achieved in all of 2022. Liftoff of the Starlink 10-2 mission is set for 4:46 p.m. EDT (2046 UTC) Thursday. The Falcon 9 rocket will carry 22 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit on the 44th dedicated Starlink mission of the year. Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to launch. Heading into the Thursday launch opportunity, the 45th Weather Squadro...

Expedition 70 NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, left, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, and Nikolai Chub, right, are seen in quarantine behind glass during a press conference, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023 at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. O’Hara, Kononenko, Chub are launched aboard their Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft on Sept. 15. Image: NASA/Bill Ingalls Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko continues to cement a place in the annals of space history with his historic mission on board the International Space Station. On Wednesday, he became the first person to reach 1,000 cumulative days in space. The milestone comes amid his fifth flight to space and during his third stint as the commander of the ISS. Back in February, Kononenko broke the cumulative in-space record of 878 days, which was previ...

A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on the Starlink 8-5 mission on June 4, 2024. The mission coincided with the 14th anniversary of the first Falcon 9 launch in 2010. Image: Spaceflight Now SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday night, 14 years to the day when the rocket made its launch debut from the same pad. Since that day, SpaceX launched more than 340 Falcon 9 rockets, 285 of which were using previously flown boosters. The Starlink 8-5 mission lifted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:16 p.m. EDT (0216 UTC). The Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1067 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a 20th time. It previously supported the flights of two Crew Dragon astronaut missions, two Cargo Dragon resupply mission...