As SpaceX is making the final touches on launchpad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in advance of its upcoming inaugural flight from that historic venue, a Washington Post article centers on blade cracks in the Falcon 9 rocket’s turbo-pumps. The piece, written by Andy Pasztor goes under the scary headline Congressional Investigators Warn of SpaceX […]
After a near two year stand down while the launch pad was repaired and the rocket was retooled, Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket made a triumphant return to flight Monday evening. Liftoff from Pad OA at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport took place at 7:45 PM EDT, as the booster lofted a Cygnus cargo vehicle loaded with […]
It was something like watching Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky, you know the result is almost a foregone conclusion, but it still sure is fun to tune in, particularly if you are a fan of Team USA. During the overnight hours, SpaceX once again successfully launched a communications satellite on a commercial mission to Geostationary […]
On a beautiful Florida evening just one calendar day shy of a full moon, SpaceX provided some illumination of its own, recording a flawless liftoff and landing of its Falcon 9 rocket during the course of launching its Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station for the NASA CRS-9 mission. Liftoff took place on […]
The answer to what caused the June 28th breakup of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket may soon be forthcoming, according to a July 5th twitter post from company founder Elon Musk. “Expect to reach preliminary conclusions regarding last flight by end of week. Will brief key customers & FAA, then post on our website.” It will […]
BE-3 Undergoing Testing / Image Credit Blue Origin Long silent Blue Origin announced today that it has completed acceptance testing of its BE-3 cryogenic rocket engine. The complete press release is included below. Comments follow the release. KENT, Wash. – Blue Origin recently completed acceptance testing of its BE‑3 rocket engine, the first new hydrogen […]
Image Credit: SpaceX “Beautiful ascent” said NASA launch announcer Mike Curie, and man oh man was he right. After two scrubs and a Monday launch attempt nixed by dreadful weather, the SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying the DSCOVR spacecraft lifted off into cobalt blue skies in a picture perfect launch. With lighting of the all white […]
100: Image Credit SpaceX SpaceX has announced via website update a milestone in the production of its Merlin 1D engine. “Less than two years after SpaceX began producing the Merlin 1D engines that power the Falcon 9 rocket, the 100th Merlin 1D engine is complete. SpaceX is currently the largest private producer of rocket engines […]
Event though it was not equipped with landing legs, the SpaceX Falcon 9 V1.1 first stage which boosted the Dragon CRS-4 mission to ISS on September 21st, still made a bit of history. And the imagery is simply amazing. As part of the ongoing campaign to use operational Falcon 9 missions to advance the development […]
Update: If you happened to watch even a moment of the USF-UConn game Friday night, it was clear that an awful lot of rain was falling on Central Florida. And in this case it stretched from the Gulf to the Atlantic coasts, including of of course, Cape Canaveral. When it became evident that a weather […]
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