Tag: Falcon 9

SpaceX successfully launches 49 Starlink satellites and a D-Orbit space tug

9:44 am

SpaceX today successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to launch 49 Starlink satellites as well as a D-Orbit space tug carrying one of its own customer’s satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The first stage successfully completed its seventh flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. The D-Orbit tug with its four payloads has also successfully deployed.

The 2023 launch race:

7 SpaceX
5 China
1 Rocket Lab
1 Japan

American private enterprise leads China 8 to 5 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 8 to 6.

5 comments

SpaceX successfully launches a record 56 Starlink satellites

8:54 am

SpaceX early today successfully launched a record 56 Starlink satellites on a single Falcon 9 rocket, which also carried a record mass for the rocket.

The first stage successfully landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic, completing its 9th flight. The fairing halves completed the 6th and 7th flights.

The 2023 launch race:

6 SpaceX
5 China
1 Rocket Lab
1 Japan

American private enterprise now leads China 7 to 5 in the national ranks, and the entire world combined 7 to 6.

3 comments

SpaceX completes first Starlink launch of 2023

8:53 am

Using a new first stage, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched 51Starlink satellites into orbit this morning from Vandenberg Space Force Base, the first Starlink launch of 2023.

The first stage successfully landed on a drone ship in the Pacific.

At present, SpaceX and China are tied for the lead in the 2023 launch race, each having completed 5 launches so far this year. No one else has launched as yet.

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SpaceX successfully launches 40 OneWeb satellites

10:02 pm

Using its Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX tonight successfully placed 40 OneWeb satellites into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

This was only the second launch of this first stage, which landed successfully at Cape Canaveral. The rocket has now deployed all 40 satellites successfully, putting more than 80% of OneWeb’s constellation in orbit.

SpaceX had also planned a Starlink launch from Vandenberg in California tonight, but an hour before launch it was delayed until tomorrow.

At the moment only SpaceX and China have launched any satellites in 2023, and are both tied at 2 launches each.

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China launches twice today to start its 2023 year

9:42 am

China today launched twice with two different rockets from two different spaceports.

First, a Long March 7 rocket took off from its coast Wenchang spaceport, placing three satellites into orbit. Few details were released about the satellites, other than they were being used for various tests of new technology.

Second, the Chinese pseudo-company Galactic Energy used its military-derived solid fueled Ceres-1 rocket to place five smallsats into orbit from China’s interior Jiuquan spaceport. Once again, little information was released about the satellites.

At this moment China leads SpaceX 2 to 1 in the 2023 launch race. However, there are three more U.S. launches planned for today. First Virgin Orbit hopes to finally launch from Cornwall. You can watch the broadcast here.

Then SpaceX has two launches from opposite coasts within an hour, first launching a batch of Starlink satellites from Vandenberg at 9:15 pm (Pacific), then following with a launch from Kennedy of a batch of OneWeb satellites.

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SpaceX successfully launches Israeli imaging satellite

12:53 am

SpaceX today successfully launched an Israeli Earth-observation satellite, using its Falcon 9 rocket.

The first stage successfully completed its eleventh flight, touching down softly at SpaceX’s facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

This launch completes SpaceX’s 2022 launch year, with a record 61 launches, one more than predicted by the company earlier in the year, and the most ever by a privately owned company.

The leaders in the 2022 launch race:

62 China
61 SpaceX
21 Russia
9 Rocket Lab
8 ULA

The U.S. now leads China 85 to 62, while trailing the rest of the entire world combined 94 to 85. The 85 launches for the U.S. is a new record for a single year, smashing the record of 70 launches set in 1966.

On Monday I will publish my annual full roundup of the state of global launch industry, based on the 2022 numbers.

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SpaceX launches 54 more Starlink satellites

9:04 am

SpaceX early today completed its 60th successful launch in 2022, putting 54 Starlink satellites into orbit using its Falcon 9 rocket.

This achievement matches a prediction Elon Musk made early in 2022. More significant, except for two years (1965 and 1966), SpaceX completed more launches in 2022 than the United States achieved each year since Sputnik. And it did it not as a nation, but as a private company, for profit.

SpaceX’s achievement this year also allowed the U.S. to smash its own record for annual launches.

The first stage successfully completed its 11th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2022 space race:

61 China
60 SpaceX
21 Russia
9 Rocket Lab
8 ULA

The U.S. now leads China 84 to 61 in the national rankings, but trails the entire world combined 93 to 84.

Only one more launch, by SpaceX, is publicly scheduled for 2022.

3 comments

NASA requesting proposals for raising Hubble’s orbit

9:23 am

NASA has published a request for proposals from the private commercial space industry for a possible future mission to raise Hubble’s orbit.

NASA published a request for information (RFI) Dec. 22 asking industry how they would demonstrate commercial satellite servicing capabilities by raising the orbit of Hubble. The agency said it is looking for technical information about how a company would carry out the mission, the risks involved and the likelihood of success.

NASA emphasized in the RFI that it had no plans to procure a mission to reboost Hubble. “Partner(s) would be expected to participate and undertake this mission on a no-exchange-of-funds basis,” the document stated, with companies responsible for the cost for the mission.

Apparently, this RFI was issued as a direct result of the agreement between NASA and SpaceX to study a Dragon mission to do exactly this, which in turn was prompted by Jared Isaacman, as part of his private Polaris program of manned Dragon/Starship space flights. I suspect that NASA officials realized that not only were their engineering advantages to getting more proposals, there were probably legal and political reasons for opening the discussion up to the entire commercial space community.

Ideally, a Hubble reboost mission should occur by 2025, though the telescope’s orbit will remain stable into the mid-2030s.

12 comments

SpaceX completes third launch in less than two days

3:20 pm

SpaceX successfully launched another 54 Starlink satellites today, completing the company’s third launch in less than two days.

The Falcon 9 first stage completed its 15th flight, a record, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2022 launch race:

60 China
59 SpaceX
21 Russia
9 Rocket Lab
8 ULA

The U.S. now leads China 83 to 60 in the national rankings, but trails the entire world combined 92 to 83.

10 comments

SpaceX launches two communications satellites

3:59 pm

SpaceX today successfully launched two communications satellites for the satellite company SES, beginning SpaceX’s contract to launch more satellites in its constellation of medium-Earth orbit satellites, replacing the Russians.

The first stage successfully flew its eighth flight, and landed successfully on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

This was also the company’s second launch today, with another launch scheduled for tomorrow.

The leaders in the 2022 launch race:

60 China
58 SpaceX
21 Russia
9 Rocket Lab
8 ULA

The U.S. now leads China 82 to 60 in the national rankings, but trails the entire world combined 92 to 82.

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