Latest news with #SpaceForce
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8 hours ago
- Business
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SpaceX adds 27 Starlink satellites to constellation after successful launch from California (video)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. SpaceX's broadband internet constellation grew again today (May 31), with the launch of 27 satellites into Earth orbit. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the additions to the Starlink network lifted off at 1:10 p.m. PDT (4:10 p.m. EDT or 2010 GMT) on Saturday from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Station in southern California. About 8 minutes later, the Falcon's first stage returned to Earth, landing vertically on the ocean-based droneship "Of Course I Still Love You." This was the 25th flight for this booster, including 14 previous Starlink launches, according to SpaceX's website for Saturday's mission. The 27 satellites were on course to be deployed at just under an hour after they left the ground. According to SpaceX's billionaire founder Elon Musk, the Starlink network is not only a needed solution for people outside the reach of other broadband options, but a key to the company's plans for the future. "Starlink internet is what is being used to pay for humanity going to Mars," Musk said during a recent update delivered to employees at SpaceX's Starship facility in Starbase, Texas. "I would like to thank everyone out there who has bought Starlink because you are helping to secure the future of civilization and helping make life interplanetary." Starlink is now the largest satellite constellation ever launched into Earth orbit. According to satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, there are currently more than 7,600 active Starlink spacecraft out of the nearly 8,790 total units deployed to date.
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a day ago
- Politics
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SpaceX launches GPS satellite for Space Force after rains, storms sweep past Cape Canaveral
Dodging raindrops, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket bolted off the pad on a Space Force mission Friday, May 30, shortly after a wave of thunderstorms and showers soaked Cape Canaveral and surrounding areas. The rocket deployed a GPS III satellite into medium-Earth orbit after the 1:37 p.m. liftoff from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station — where a special marine warning had advised boaters of steep waves, gusty winds and possible hail offshore. During the SpaceX GPS III-7 launch webcast, Zachary Luppen, an avionics supply chain engineer, said the next-generation satellite will improve resistance to jamming and cyberattacks, boost military signal strength and add signals for civilian applications. Cape Canaveral: Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, Axiom, ULA rocket launch schedule at Cape Canaveral "Billions of devices and systems around the world rely on the U.S. Space Force-provided GPS signals. Not only is it critical to national security technologies, but everything from navigation on smart phones and in cars, boats and aircraft to disaster response, transportation systems, Federal Aviation Administration operations and even ATMs and banking transactions. All of these depend on GPS," Luppen told launch viewers. "GPS III is the next generation of satellites required to maintain the resiliency of the GPS constellation and improve services to meet user demand," he said. On May 28, Department of Defense officials announced Lockheed Martin received a $510 million Space Force contract modification to design and build two future GPS III satellites. Work will be performed in Littleton, Colorado, with a November 2031 projected completion date. Prior to liftoff, odds of inclement weather remained a 50-50 coin flip past the point when SpaceX crews started fueling the Falcon 9 roughly 35 minutes before launch. Thunderstorms had lit up National Weather Service radar screens in angry-looking red along the northern portion of the Cape about 1½ hours before launch, and widespread rain fell across Launch Complex 40. Meteorologists issued a special marine warning for a north-south swath roughly ranging from Scottsmoor through Titusville to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Winds topping 34 knots, steep waves and pea-sized hail were possible within this warning zone, which swept offshore by 1:15 p.m. The Space Force mission marked the Falcon 9 first-stage booster's fourth flight, SpaceX reported. The booster — which previously launched CRS-32, NROL-69 and one Starlink mission — landed on the SpaceX drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean after stage separation. SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch clocked in as the 46th orbital rocket launch thus far this year from KSC and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Next on the Eastern Range schedule, SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink broadband satellites during an early morning mission Monday, June 2, an FAA operations plan advisory indicates. Launch window: 12:57 a.m. to 5:28 a.m. That rocket will also lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. For the latest news and launch schedule from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter. 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 launches GPS III Space Force satellite to update constellation
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a day ago
- Climate
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Overnight SpaceX rocket launch in Florida. What time is Cape Canaveral liftoff, what to know
A rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, is on the horizon — and when this 'so Florida' thing occurs, it's very Instagram-worthy. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will potentially launch a batch of Starlink satellites. Though rockets here blast off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, people beyond the Space Coast can sometimes see this phenomenon. Weather permitting and depending on cloud cover, a rocket launch from Florida's Space Coast could be visible from Jacksonville Beach and Daytona Beach to Vero Beach and West Palm Beach (see videos and photo gallery with this story). When there's a launch window in the middle of the night or very early morning, there's an opportunity for unique photos — the rocket lights up the dark sky and the contrail after makes for a great photo. Below is more information on rocket launches in Florida and suggestions on where to watch them. Rocket launch tally: Here's a list of all 2025 missions from Cape Canaveral, Florida (psst, there's a lot) For questions or comments, email FLORIDA TODAY Space Reporter Rick Neale at rneale@ or Space Reporter Brooke Edwards at bedwards@ For more space news from the USA TODAY Network, visit Mission: SpaceX will launch the next batch of Starlink internet satellites, a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency navigational warning shows. Launch window: 12:57 a.m. to 5:28 a.m. EDT Monday, June 2, 2025 Launch location: Launch complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida Trajectory: Southeast Live coverage starts 90 minutes before liftoff at : You can watch live rocket launch coverage from USA TODAY Network's Space Team, which consists of FLORIDA TODAY space reporters Rick Neale and Brooke Edwards and visuals journalists Craig Bailey, Malcolm Denemark and Tim Shortt. Our Space Team will provide up-to-the-minute updates in a mobile-friendly live blog, complete with a countdown clock, at starting 90 minutes before liftoff. You can download the free FLORIDA TODAY app, which is available in the App Store or Google Play, or type into your browser. Tom Cruise and untitled SpaceX project: 'Mission: Impossible' star who lives in Florida may shoot a film in outer space Shown is the National Weather Service-Melbourne radar, which shows conditions in real-time for the Space Coast, Brevard County, Orlando and other parts of Florida. The current date and time show up on the bottom right of this radar embed; otherwise, you may need to clear your cache. Pretty much anywhere in Brevard, you'll get a view of the rocket launch − in certain areas, you can get an amazing view of SpaceX rocket boosters returning to the pads. The best view to watch a rocket launch from the Space Coast is along the beach. However, visibility will depend on weather conditions and people should make sure not to block traffic or rights of way on bridges and to follow posted rules at beaches. If you are viewing the launch along the Indian River in Titusville from Space View Park or Parrish Park, look east directly across the river. If you are farther south along the Indian River, look northeast. Playalinda Beach or Canaveral National Seashore is the closest spot to view liftoff because it is almost parallel to Launch Pad 39A. On the beach, look south along the coastline, (you can even see the pad from some spots). Some hotspots to check out: Jetty Park Beach and Pier, 400 Jetty Park Road, Port Canaveral. Note, there's a charge to park. Playalinda Beach, 1000 Playalinda Beach Road, Canaveral National Seashore. Note, there's a charge to park, and access to Canaveral National Seashore isn't always granted depending on capacity and time of day. Max Brewer Bridge and Parrish Park, 1 A. Max Brewer Memorial Parkway, Titusville. Note, parking is available on both sides of Max Brewer Bridge. Space View Park, 8 Broad St., Titusville Sand Point Park, 10 E. Max Brewer Causeway, Titusville Rotary Riverfront Park, 4141 S. Washington Ave., Titusville Riverfront Park at Cocoa Village, 401 Riveredge Blvd., Cocoa (just before State Road 520 Causeway) Cocoa Village, near the parks and shops or near the docks Various parks on Merritt Island Rotary Park, 1899 S. Courtenay Parkway, Merritt Island Kiwanis Park on Kiwanis Island Park Road on Merritt Island Port Canaveral, with ships from Disney Cruise Line, Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean at port Alan Shepard Park, 299 E. Cocoa Beach Causeway, Cocoa Beach. Note, there could be parking costs. Cocoa Beach Pier, 401 Meade Ave. Parking fee varies. Lori Wilson Park, 1400 N. Atlantic Ave., Cocoa Beach. Lori Wilson Park has a dog park, by the way. Sidney Fischer Park, 2200 N. Atlantic Ave., Cocoa Beach. Note, there could be parking costs. Downtown Cocoa Beach, along Minutemen Causeway Tables Beach, 197 SR A1A, Satellite Beach The Tides on SR A1A in Satellite Beach Various parks, including the Pelican Beach Clubhouse, in Satellite Beach Pineda Causeway Eau Gallie Causeway Front Street Park near Melbourne (U.S. 192) Causeway and U.S. 1 in Melbourne Indialantic boardwalk at Melbourne Causeway and SR A1A Paradise Beach Park, aka Howard Futch Park, 2301 SR A1A, Melbourne (this is a beachside park) Sebastian Inlet Park, 9700 S. State Road A1A, Melbourne Beach (there is a cost to enter) This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida SpaceX rocket launch: What time is liftoff from Cape Canaveral
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a day ago
- Business
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SpaceX knocks out another national security launch while ULA faces scrutiny
ORLANDO, Fla. — United Launch Alliance's years-long delays with its new Vulcan rocket have flipped the script for national security missions, making SpaceX the new reliable provider. The shift to Elon Musk's company at the detriment to ULA's bottom line took center stage again Friday with a SpaceX Falcon 9 launching the GPS III-7 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:37 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the fourth time making a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. The mission to launch a GPS satellite was the second originally awarded to ULA but transferred to SpaceX under the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract. Initially assigned to ULA's Vulcan, both a December 2024 launch and then Friday's launch were shifted to Falcon 9 as ULA faced an extended delay in certification of its replacement for both its Atlas V and Delta IV class of rockets. While called the GPS III-7 mission, it's actually the eighth of 10 satellites constructed by Lockheed Martin to add to the U.S.'s GPS capability in space. It's also part of an accelerated mission timeline laid out by the Space Force for national security missions in which payloads get to space in under three months from the decision to go, compared to the normal turnaround that can take up to 24 months. 'It highlights another instance of the Space Force's ability to complete high priority launches on a rapid timescale, which demonstrates the capability to respond to emergent constellation needs as rapidly as space vehicle readiness allows,' said Space Force Col. Jim Horne, senior materiel leader of launch execution with the Assured Access to Space program. The latest GPS satellites are three times more accurate and eight times more resistant to jamming than the other 38 in space already, according to the Space Force. The Department of Defense's desire to launch more effective GPS hardware, less susceptible to interference, forced the switch to SpaceX in both missions. The NSSL Phase 2 contract, which featured five years' worth of task orders announced from 2020-2024, was originally announced to give ULA 60% of the assignments. All of those were supposed to fly on Vulcan, with its first launches to be completed by summer 2022. But as Vulcan faced myriad delays, the final spate of task orders ended up putting 26 missions on ULA's plate to SpaceX's 22. Now another two of those missions have swapped from ULA to SpaceX, although the Space Force has said ULA will get back two future missions previously assigned to SpaceX. To date, ULA has only managed to fly one of those 26 missions, and that wasn't on a Vulcan. Instead ULA was forced to use one of its few remaining Atlas V rockets, which flew last summer. ULA, which is a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin that formed in 2006, had originally been targeting mid-2020 for Vulcan's debut. But it faced hurdles from COVID, acquisition of engines from supplier Blue Origin, delays from customer payloads and even a fiery test stand incident that all contributed to a nearly four-year slide. It flew for the first time in January 2024, but not again until that October, both as part of ULA's efforts to get national security certification. An issue with a solid rocket booster motor detaching during launch on the second flight, though, delayed that certification until March 2025. At this point, the first national security launch on Vulcan won't be until at least July, according to Major Gen. Stephen G. Purdy, the acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration. Purdy, a former head of Space Launch Delta 45 based at Patrick Space Force Base, raised concerns about ULA's delays during written testimony released earlier this month to the U.S. House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. 'In NSSL Phase 2, the ULA Vulcan program has performed unsatisfactorily this past year,' he wrote. 'Major issues with the Vulcan have overshadowed its successful certification resulting in delays to the launch of four national security missions. Despite the retirement of highly successful Atlas and Delta launch vehicles, the transition to Vulcan has been slow and continues to impact the completion of Space Force mission objectives.' Vulcan's certification is at the point only partial, having only been signed off for five of the Space Force's nine required orbital needs, Purdy said. He did said ULA has increased its 'engineering resources and management focus to resolve design issues' while government personnel have been more involved with both technical and program management. Purdy said ULA's first national security launch on Vulcan will be USSF-106. The payload, Navigation Technology Satellite-3, is headed to geostationary orbit. Built by L3Harris, it's funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory and a potential replacement technology for GPS. It was one of two task orders given to ULA in 2020 with a value of $337 million. The other, USSF-51, was the one that launched last summer on an Atlas V. With ULA dealing with a backlog of the Phase 2 contract missions, the company's piece of the next pie got smaller. Earlier this year, the Space Force announced SpaceX, not ULA, would get the majority of the Phase 3 contracts with a total of $13.7 billion to be doled out over the next five years. SpaceX would receive 28 of 54 planned missions, or 52%. Meanwhile, ULA's take is only 19 missions, or 35%, while newcomer Blue Origin would get seven, or 13%. Purdy confirmed ULA had already lost out on some Phase 3 contracts because of the Vulcan delays, and addressed what he deemed to be ULA's marching orders along with other commercial providers that have fallen short on delivery to the government. 'For these programs, the prime contractors must re-establish baselines, establish a culture of accountability, and repair trust deficit to prove to (me) that they are adopting the acquisition principles necessary to deliver capabilities at speed, on cost and on schedule,' he said ULA meanwhile is dipping its toes back into launches, lining up only its second planned mission of the year, a commercial launch for customer Amazon using another of its remaining Atlas V rockets. Following the April launch of the first mission for Amazon's Project Kuiper, an internet satellite constellation that aims to compete with SpaceX's Starlink system, the second mission is targeting liftoff no earlier than June 13. Meanwhile, SpaceX has now flown its Falcon 9 on 65 missions this year, including 44 from the Space Coast. ------------
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
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SpaceX plans launch of advanced GPS satellite for Space Force
May 30 (UPI) -- A SpaceX launch of an advanced GPS satellite for the U.S. Space Force was scheduled for a 1:23 p.m. ET Friday launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. A Falcon 9 rocket will put the GPS III SV-08 into orbit. According to SpaceX, prep work for the launch was done in less than three days, a new record for U.S. national security missions. Those preparations normally take 18-24 months. Space Force Col. Jim Horne hailed the speed of the preparation. He said the launch "highlights another instance of the Space Force's ability to complete high-priority launches on a rapid timescale, which demonstrates the capability to respond to emergent constellation needs as rapidly as Space Vehicle readiness allows." In a pre-launch briefing Launch Weather Officer Mark Burger said the weather outlook shows a 45% chance for favorable weather for Friday's launch. "We'll be looking at those cumulus cloud violations and associated thunderstorms in and close to the pad," Burger said. GPS III satellite maker Lockheed Martin said the company got notice to take the SV-08 satellite out of storage for the launch Feb. 21. Despite the rapid launch schedule for this one, compared with the SV-07 satellite it was less challenging, according to the company. "I'll say somewhat tongue-in-cheek, compared to SV-07, this was, I'll say, a relatively less punishing path to launch, primarily because of the challenges we faced on SV-07, whether it was ground transportation or the RRT climate," Lockheed Martin vice president of Navigations Systems Malik Musawwir said. Just preparing the satellite can take four to five months due to the need for full integration of components stored separately. Two more of the satellites are stored for future launches using ULA Vulcan rockets with no plans to reassign them to SpaceX.
