Rocket Lab, the New Zealand-based rocket company that is looking to further amplify the commercial space frenzy, is launching its first fully paid payload atop an Electron rocket tonight — technically tomorrow morning at the launch site. If successful, it may mark a significant new development in the highly competitive world of commercial launches.
View More Watch Rocket Lab’s first commercial launch, ‘It’s Business Time’Category: Rockets
SpaceX launches, then lands, a brand new version of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket
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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin starts its year off right with beautiful rocket launch
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Up, up, and away.
Blue Origin — the previously secretive rocket company started by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — just launched another successful flight and landing of its New Shepard rocket and capsule from its facility in Texas.
The test flight, which took place on Sunday at around 1:07 p.m. ET, will pave the way for people to actually fly to suborbital space aboard the Blue Origin rocket sometime in the coming years.
The rocket reached a maximum altitude of 350,000 feet during the test flight, which took roughly 10 minutes from liftoff to the rocket and capsule touchdowns. Read more…
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SpaceX launches planet-hunting TESS to space before landing rocket back on Earth
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Have fun in space, TESS!
Our favorite new NASA mission — called TESS, short for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite — launched to space at 6:51 p.m. ET on Wednesday, and the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the satellite landed back on Earth on a drone ship in the Atlantic not long after.
TESS is on a mission to hunt for never-before-seen alien planets circling distant stars, particularly those that have the potential for hosting alien life.
TESS plans to survey 85 percent of the sky, keeping a particular eye on 200,000 stars once it gets to its expected orbit in the coming weeks. Read more…
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View More SpaceX launches planet-hunting TESS to space before landing rocket back on EarthSpaceX lands another a rocket booster back on Earth after flying to space. Here’s the GIF to prove it.
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SpaceX just pulled off yet another beautiful rocket landing.
The Elon Musk-founded company brought back the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket to a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean after launching a brand new NASA mission on its way to orbit.
The mission, called TESS — short for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite — is designed to hunt for alien planets circling distant stars.
The TESS rocket landing marks the 24th Falcon 9 first stage landing for SpaceX. Check the landing out for yourself:
The drone ship’s onboard camera usually cuts out during these kinds of landings because it’s difficult to keep a tenuous satellite link in the middle of the ocean when the ship’s being jostled around by a rocket’s engine. Read more…
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View More SpaceX lands another a rocket booster back on Earth after flying to space. Here’s the GIF to prove it.SpaceX launches the alien planet-hunting TESS telescope today. Watch it live.
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On Monday, SpaceX is scheduled to launch NASA’s alien planet-hunting telescope TESS to orbit.
TESS — short for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite — will search the sky to examine thousands of stars, sending vital information back to scientists on Earth to help them find planets that may be like our own. Such planets would be candidates for harboring life.
The NASA mission is expected to launch to orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 6:32 p.m. ET. You can watch the launch live in the window below.
About 10 minutes after launch, SpaceX is expected to land the first stage of the rocket back on Earth on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. (You can watch that cool bit of high-flying rocket action in the window below as well.) Read more…
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Virgin Galactic’s space plane makes 1st powered test flight since 2014 accident
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Virgin Galactic, which aims to eventually bring paying customers to the edge of space, is flying high again.
The Richard Branson-founded company just performed the first rocket-powered test flight of its SpaceShipTwo space plane since the first vehicle was destroyed in a fatal accident on October 31, 2014.
This SpaceShipTwo — called the VSS Unity — took to the air attached to its carrier aircraft on Thursday and flew for about an hour before being released.
Today VSS Unity completed her first powered flight #SpaceShipTwo pic.twitter.com/Q0WDW6Z1v5
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) April 5, 2018 Read more…
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View More Virgin Galactic’s space plane makes 1st powered test flight since 2014 accidentThe Humanity Star satellite is officially dead, months earlier than expected
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Bye, bye, Humanity Star. We hardly knew you.
On Thursday, Rocket Lab’s Humanity Star satellite — effectively a disco ball flying through a low orbit around Earth — re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, burning up in the process.
According to U.S. Strategic Command, the satellite, which was designed to occasionally flash, becoming the brightest object in the night sky, de-orbited at about 9:30 a.m. ET.
The Humanity Star’s life was short.
The satellite was launched as a secret payload aboard one of Rocket Lab’s Electron launchers in January. It was initially expected to orbit the planet for about 9 months, but it didn’t quite pan out that way. Read more…
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What SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launch means for the future of spaceflight
SpaceX had a pretty big day on Tuesday.
The Elon Musk-founded company successfully launched its maiden flight of the huge Falcon Heavy rocket and landed two of its three main boosters back on Earth after sending a Tesla Roadster to space. …
Watching SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launch to space was like seeing into the future
Seeing the Falcon Heavy launch was like watching the future suddenly materialize in front of me.
For years, space nerds have heard about this huge new rocket with three boosters that could land back on Earth after flying payload after payload t…
Elon Musk just revealed a secret message SpaceX sent to space aboard the cosmic Tesla
Elon Musk is always one for a nice surprise.
Just after SpaceX launched the first flight of its Falcon Heavy rocket on Tuesday, lofting a red Tesla Roadster to deep space, Musk revealed a little secret hidden within the cosmic car.
SEE AL…
SpaceX just launched the Falcon Heavy, its most powerful rocket, and landed 2 boosters
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After years of delays and technical difficulties, it finally happened.
SpaceX just launched its most powerful rocket ever.
The Falcon Heavy took flight into a clear sky in Cape Canaveral, Florida with hundreds of thousands of people watching online and in person.
The roar of the rocket – which is effectively three of the company’s Falcon 9 boosters strapped together – was deafening, even from miles away. The ground shook.
SpaceX then brought home two of the Falcon Heavy’s three nine engine rocket boosters, landing two by land next to each other. As of publish, we’re still waiting for news about the third booster, which was attempting to land on a drone ship in the ocean. Read more…
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View More SpaceX just launched the Falcon Heavy, its most powerful rocket, and landed 2 boosters