Tag: Orbcomm

SpaceX on Track for Saturday Launch

SpaceX on Track for Saturday Launch

Photo credit: SpaceX After a Flight Readiness Review on Monday indicated conditions are “go,” SpaceX is counting down towards a Saturday morning launch for the next Falcon 9 mission. The next step, a static fire of the 9 Merlin 1-D first stage engines was scheduled to take place today. Barring any last minute problems, the […]

Posted in: SpaceX
Falcon 9-R Flies to 1 Kilometer

Falcon 9-R Flies to 1 Kilometer

SpaceX released this video of the Falcon 9-R rising to 1000 meters today. What a way to end a week marked by the bitter battle between SpaceX and United Launch Alliance over the right to compete against 30 year old technology developed by the Soviet Union, the sweet sights and sound of progress being made […]

Posted in: SpaceX
About That Falcon First Stage, Elon Musk at the National Press Club

About That Falcon First Stage, Elon Musk at the National Press Club

Although today’s SpaceX press conference was held primarily to announce a lawsuit filed to stop the Air Force/ULA block buy,  it also shed quite a bit more light onto last Friday’s soft landing of the Falcon 9 first stage. To sum it up, in the words of Chief Brody “You’re going to need a bigger […]

Steaming for Home

Steaming for Home

The SpaceX CRS-1 Dragon capsule is stowed safely aboard the American Marine Corp vessel American Islander and is headed to a port near Los Angeles.  After arrival and unloading of time sensitive cargo, the Dragon will be shipped to the SpaceX facility at McGregor, Texas where the remainder of the 1,673 lbs of cargo will be unloaded and turned over to […]

Further Explanation of NASA “Safety Gate” Which Resulted in Incorrect Orbcomm Deployment

Further Explanation of NASA “Safety Gate” Which Resulted in Incorrect Orbcomm Deployment

SpaceX provided the following update today, shedding a little more light on the specific circumstances regarding NASA requirements which ultimately forced SpaceX to deploy an Orbcomm satellite in a lower than desired orbit. Update on SpaceX CRS-1 Mission: October 10 The SpaceX CRS-1 mission reached a critical milestone today, October 10, with the Dragon spacecraft successfully attaching to […]

Falcon 9 Loses an Engine (and Fairing), Demonstrates Resiliance

Falcon 9 Loses an Engine (and Fairing), Demonstrates Resiliance

In an update released Monday,  further analysis of the engine anomaly observed in Sunday night’s launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 on NASA CRS-1 mission suggests that engine number 1 experienced a sudden pressure loss which resulted in a computer commanded shutdown, not an explosion as originally speculated.  According to current analysis, the debris seen in high fidelity launch photographs is that of the protective engine fairing being […]

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