Falcon Heavy to fly its first mission for U.S. spy satellite agency
The 14th Falcon Heavy rocket is scheduled to blast off on a clandestine mission from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 11:54 p.m. EDT (0354 UTC).
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The 14th Falcon Heavy rocket is scheduled to blast off on a clandestine mission from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 11:54 p.m. EDT (0354 UTC).
Strapped into a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, Crew 13 commander Jessica Watkins, pilot Luke Delaney, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov and Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk blasted off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:10 a.m. EDT.
The mission carried 130 payloads onboard the Falcon 9 rocket heading to a Sun-synchronous orbit. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 11:32 a.m. PDT (2:32 p.m. EDT / 1832 UTC).
The Super Heavy first stage booster, generating some 16 million pounds of thrust — twice the power of NASA's Space Launch System moon rocket — rapidly accelerated as it consumed propellant and lost weight, climbing out of the thick lower atmosphere along a southeasterly trajectory.
The first planned orbital flight of a Starship-Super Heavy rocket aims to send 26 Starlink Version 3 into low Earth orbit. Liftoff from Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas, is scheduled during a 75-minute window that opens at 7:15 a.m. CDT (8:15 a.m. EDT / 1215 UTC).
Liftoff of the USSF-385 mission atop a Falcon 9 is scheduled for 7 a.m. PDT (10 a.m. EDT / 1400 UTC) at the opening of a three-hour launch window.
NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, will become the first agency astronaut to fly for a second time onboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base is scheduled for 11:10 a.m. EDT (1510 UTC).
Once it goes through a confirmation review, the observatory can proceed into construction. The 5.9-foot telescope will be capped at a project cost of $1.2 billion, which excludes launch “and other non-project costs.”
If the unpiloted test flight goes well, NASA and Boeing hope to launch a piloted Starliner flight in mid 2028, officials said Monday, incorporating redesigned propulsion system valves, more robust subsystems and other modifications expected to prevent the sort of failures that occurred in 2024.
The three astronauts and one cosmonaut will spend roughly six months onboard the International Space Station. Launch is scheduled for no earlier than Oct. 1.
The first planned orbital Starship mission is scheduled for launch from Starbase in Texas as soon as Sept. 28, pending final approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The inclusion of the upper stage, tail number Ship 41, comes ahead of a probable fueling demonstration planned in the days leading up to a launch attempt. Starship Flight 14 is scheduled for no earlier than Sept. 28, pending approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.
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