Latest news with #Crew-3
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket seconds after midnight Monday; booster lands for record 27th time
Seconds after the stroke of midnight, a SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off early Monday morning on a noteworthy endurance-test mission: The first-stage booster logged an unprecedented 27th launch and landing. The Falcon 9 illuminated darkened Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 12 a.m. EDT, then ascended to the southeast and deployed 27 Starlink broadband satellites into low-Earth orbit. SpaceX's much-traveled booster previously launched CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G, O3B mPOWER-A, PSN SATRIA, Telkomsat Merah Putih 2, Galileo L13, Koreasat-6A and 15 Starlink missions. After descending, the booster wrapped up Monday's Starlink 6-73 mission by touching down aboard SpaceX's drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean a bit more than eight minutes after liftoff. Cape Canaveral: Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, NASA rocket launch schedule at Cape Canaveral In a 12:09 a.m. tweet, SpaceX officials noted the booster had just completed "the first 27th launch and landing of an orbital class rocket." SpaceX's late-night Falcon 9 liftoff marked the 30th orbital rocket launch of the year thus far from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's neighboring Kennedy Space Center. If that pace holds, the speedy cadence would surpass the newly established record of 93 annual launches last year. Looking ahead, NASA and SpaceX will team up a week from Monday to launch a Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 on the company's 32nd commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station. The rocket may launch as early as 4:15 a.m. April 21 from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. "Along with food and essential equipment for the crew, Dragon is delivering a variety of experiments, including a demonstration of refined maneuvers for free-floating robots," a NASA press release said. "Dragon also carries an enhanced air quality monitoring system that could protect crew members on exploration missions to the Moon and Mars, and two atomic clocks to examine fundamental physics concepts, such as relativity, and test worldwide synchronization of precision timepieces," the press release said. For the latest news and launch schedule from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@ Twitter/X: @RickNeale1 Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX Starlink mission Monday marks rocket booster's record 27th landing
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA, SpaceX Crew-10 launch prompts sonic boom advisory in Central Florida
People in Central Florida could hear a mysterious 'boom' Wednesday night. NASA and SpaceX crews are preparing to send the next crewed mission to the International Space Station. The SpaceX Crew-10 launch is planned for Wednesday from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The launch window will open at 7:48 p.m., with another opportunity at 7:26 p.m. on Thursday. The Crew Dragon spacecraft used for this launch has previously flowed NASA astronauts to the ISS for the Crew-3, Crew-5, and Crew-7 missions. After the launch, SpaceX will attempt to launch the first state booster back on the ground at its landing site at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. SpaceX said residents in Brevard, Orange, Osceola, Indian River, Seminole, Volusia, Polk, St. Lucie, and Okeechobee counties could hear one or more sonic booms during the landing. After reaching the space station, Crew-10 will be greeted by the other astronauts aboard the ISS. Channel 9 will continue to monitor the planned launch and provide updates on Eyewitness News. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA and SpaceX set for Crew-10 launch this week from Florida's Space Coast
NASA and SpaceX crews are preparing to send the next crewed mission to the International Space Station. The SpaceX Crew-10 launch is planned for Wednesday from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The launch window will open at 7:48 p.m., with another opportunity at 7:26 p.m. on Thursday. The Crew Dragon spacecraft that will be used for this launch has previously flown NASA astronauts to the ISS for the Crew-3, Crew-5, and Crew-7 missions. After the launch, SpaceX will attempt to launch the first state booster of the rock pack on the ground at its landing site at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. After reaching the space station, Crew-10 will be greeted by the other astronauts aboard the ISS. Channel 9 will continue to monitor the planned launch and provide updates on Eyewitness News. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA, SpaceX say Crew-10 launch on track for Wednesday despite "late breaking issues"
Mar. 8—Spokesman-Review reporter Nick Gibson is in Florida this week to report on Anne McClain's and NASA's SpaceX launch from the Kennedy Space Center. Follow along in print and online at CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The rocket launch taking Spokane astronaut Anne McClain and her fellow crew members to the International Space Station is moving forward as scheduled, pending the resolution of some technical issues, officials say. NASA and SpaceX officials convened Friday for a pre-launch debriefing to share some insight into the planning and preparation for the mission, while also touching on some "late breaking issues," as Ken Bowersox, NASA's associate administrator for the space operations mission directorate, put it. The two entities are working together to quickly address those issues, Bowersox said, before tipping his cap to the SpaceX team. It's been challenging but a growing experience for the space agency to keep up with their partners, he said. "They've been very flexible with us over the last couple years, coming up with new ways to handle almost anything that comes our way on the International Space Station," Bowersox said. McClain and her crewmates are expected to take off Wednesday at 4:48 p.m. PT, from Launch Complex 39A at Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center. The mission is the 10th crew exchange with SpaceX through the space agency's commercial crew program, in which the space agency partners with corporations in order to make the staffing of the space lab safer and more reliable and cost efficient, the agency states. The mission will be the 10th crew to use SpaceX to get to the ISS. NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov and Takuya Onishi, an astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will join McClain on the mission. The space explorers will be riding in the SpaceX Dragon capsule "Endurance" previously used by Crew-3, Crew-5 and Crew-7. The capsule will be affixed to and propelled by a SpaceX Falcon 9, a semi-reusable two-stage rocket designed to lift off from the launching pad and return to earth to be reused. The Falcon is expected to return around 3 a.m. PT. Bowersox said the partnership with SpaceX has changed how the space agency views what may be a safe vehicle to transport their astronauts. Just 10 years ago, NASA was still of the perspective that each rig should be built from scratch. "We've all gotten to the point where we'll say, 'Oh, brand new vehicle? I'm a little bit nervous,'" Bowersox said. "Were they able to do everything right in production? How about giving us one of those flight-proven vehicles?" Steve Stitch, manager of the commercial crew program, said there were two issues discussed during Friday's flight readiness review. The coating on one of the thrusters for the latter stage of propulsion has degraded over repeated use, and both the agency and SpaceX are hoping to have a better understanding of an engine fire that broke out within a Falcon 9 rocket that launched 21 Starlink satellites in early March. The mission's team were polled on whether to stick with Wednesday's launch , and they unanimously decided to do so, he added. Stitch said every preparation for launch "is a bit like this, where we have a couple late-breaking issues that we got to work through," Stitch said. Stitch said the thruster coating protects them from becoming oxidized by the intense heat generated when they're fired. NASA and SpaceX are "hot firing" a replacement, in which the thruster is stress tested by being put through four normal mission cycles, "plus a couple extra contingency cycles," Stitch said. The engine fire appears to have been caused by a fuel leak that started 85 seconds into the Falcon 9's ascent, said Bill Gerstenmaier, vice president of build and flight reliability for SpaceX. Rocket grade kerosene hit the hot engine, but didn't ignite until 45 seconds after it returned to the landing pad, when enough oxygen was able to enter into the engine chamber, react with the kerosene and spark a fire. While the fire was contained to one engine barrel, as it was designed to do, Gerstenmaier said a landing leg was damaged by the blaze. The rocket tipped over, leading to a complete loss. 'While it's disappointing to lose a rocket after a successful mission, the team will use this data to make sure that every Falcon is more reliable on ascent and landing for this mission and for every other mission going forward," Gerstenmaier said. "Ultimately, we'll be safer because of what occurred on this flight." That incident came before the failure of a SpaceX Starship launch from their Texas base last Thursday. That craft, which company founder Elon Musk says will transport people to Mars one day, broke up and rained debris off the coast of Florida after the upper stage malfunctioned. It's much larger than the tech used for ISS transport and still in the testing phase. If the Crew-10 launch is delayed, Stitch said the agency has identified two alternatives: Thursday at 4:25 p.m. and Friday at 4:04 p.m. PT. "We're not going to launch before we're ready," Bowersox said. "We're always analyzing the data and making sure that the rocket is ready to go before we let the SpaceX team hit the button with our crew on board."
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Overnight SpaceX launch to use booster for record 26th flight
An overnight SpaceX launch planned for early Saturday will use a booster that's already flown to space 25 times. A Falcon 9 is targeting 1:14 a.m. carrying 21 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveal Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 with backup options through 2:15 a.m. as well as a Sunday launch window opening at 12:41 a.m. Space Launch Delta 45's weather squadron forecasts an 80% chance for good conditions at the launch site, which increases to 95% if delayed until Sunday. The first-stage booster is aiming to build on its fleet-leading tally and stick the landing for the 26th time aiming for a recovery on SpaceX's droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed downrange in the Atlantic. The booster had previously been used on two human spaceflights — Crew-3 and Crew-4 — as well as two cargo resupply launches to the International Space Station among others. It made its first launch on June 3, 2021. SpaceX has five boosters with 20 or more flights under their belt that are still active, two of which sit on 23 liftoffs. Three others had made to to 20 or more before either being expended without a landing attempt to get a payload to a higher orbit, or in once case, tipping over upon landing. The company is aiming to reuse boosters as many as 40 times. The launch would mark the 15th from the Space Coast so far in 2025, with all but one coming from SpaceX. The company has another Starlink launch lined up from Cape Canaveral as early as next Tuesday at 6 p.m., but will mark the first time it parks one of its recovery droneships off the coast of the Bahamas, meaning people on some of its islands may be able to hear a sonic boom. The next confirmed Kennedy Space Center launch isn't until Feb. 26, when a Falcon 9 aims to fly up a moonbound lander from Intuitive Machines, although SpaceX may try to shoehorn in launches from KSC before then. Ready for 156 Space Coast launches this year, Space Force targets bottlenecks The Space Force is prepared to support as many as 156 launches from all providers in 2025, which is an average of 13 a month. SpaceX is slated to fly up the lion's share of those, building on the 88 of 93 missions flown from either KSC or Cape Canaveral in 2024. Blue Origin has already flown once in 2025 having launched its New Glenn rocket for the first time in January, while United Launch Alliance, which flew five times in 2024, is still awaiting certification of its Vulcan rocket by the Space Force before it flies again, as it will be flying a national security payload. ULA's next flight instead could be an Atlas V with the first batch of operational Amazon Project Kuiper satellites, but no launch date has been announced.
