Spacex

Spacex Mission Renews Historic Moonshot Pad

... said that Space X’s launch from 39 A will “mark a turning point for Kennedy’s transition to a multi-user spaceport geared to support public and private missions, as well as those conducted in partnership with NASA.”. About 10 minutes after the launch, scheduled for 10:01 a.m. Saturday, Space X will once again attempt to land its booster on a landing pad it has built here. Traditionally, the first stages of rockets were ditched into the ocean. But Space X has been able to successfully recover several of its boosters. Later this year it plans to re-fly one of its used boosters, which it calls “flight proven,” for the first time. This year, the company also plans to launch the maiden flight of its Falcon Heavy, a much more powerful rocket that has been under development for years. Space X plans to use the Falcon Heavy to launch its Red Dragon spacecraft to Mars by as early as 2018 in an uncrewed mission. Space X has another launch site here, pad 40. But it was damaged ...

Last-second Launch Delay For Spacex At Historic Moon Pad

... Saturday to delay its inaugural launch from NASA ’s historic moon pad. Space X halted the countdown with just 13 seconds remaining. The second-stage steering issue actually cropped up several minutes earlier. But with just an instant to get the unmanned Falcon rocket airborne, flight controllers could not resolve the problem in time. The next launch attempt - provided everything can be fixed quickly - would be Sunday morning. The Falcon remains at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39 A, waiting to soar on a space station delivery mission. It’s the same pad where Americans flew to the moon almost a half-century ago. Up at the International Space Station, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet had a light-hearted take on the delay. “Looks like I’ll have to wait one more day to get my French cheese ;)” Pesquet wrote via Twitter. He added: “We need all your cargo for @ISS_Research!”. Space X chief Elon Musk said engineers want to make certain the “slightly odd” position of an engine piston isn’t ...

Spacex Falcon 9 Launch Scrubbed Due To Technical Issues

... helpful” in allowing Space X to resume Florida launches more quickly, Shotwell said. For many KSC employees Space X’s launch is symbolic of the center’s transformation since the shuttle program, whose retirement resulted in layoffs of roughly 7,000 local contractors. “This will be our first launch since the end of the shuttle program,” said Tom Engler, head of the KSC office responsible for commercial partnerships. “So it’s significant from that perspective, and from the public’s perspective, it’s that first true visual indicator that KSC is still a viable, vibrant, active community that is doing things differently and better than we’ve ever done it before.”. At neighboring launch pad 39 B, Regina Spellman is overseeing renovations to prepare that site for a first launch of NASA’s new Space Launch System rocket, targeted for late 2018. Looking south at pad 39 A this week, she said she and others considered Space X’s launch a big deal. “You definitely get that sense throughout Kennedy,” said Spellman. “People are so tied to the history here and these pads, it’s like bringing them to life ...

Spacex Launch Scrubs With 13 Seconds To Go

... NASA property in five years. Marco Santana Contact Reporter. A planned Space X launch Saturday was scrubbed 13 seconds before it was expected to lift off. The move came after CEO Elon Musk on Friday night took to Twitter to announce that it “looks like we are go for launch.”. The new window for the mission, which will send cargo and hundreds of science experiments to the International Space Station, will open at 9:38 a.m. Sunday. The voyage will eventually mark a return to launch activity for Launch Complex 39. That was the site of a rocket that carried the first U. S. astronauts to the moon. It was also the site of the last manned mission to leave U. S. soil in 2011. Space X officials released the following statement after the scrub. “Standing down to take a closer look at an engine actuator on the second stage. 9:38 am ET (Sunday) is our next earliest launch opportunity.”. The launch’s scrub of the ...

Spacex Scrubs Florida Launch, Reschedules For Sunday

... before the Hawthorne-based company’s Falcon 9 rocket was scheduled for liftoff from the historic Apollo moon pad in Florida. The precautionary delay was the fault of “slightly odd” movements of an engine-steering hydraulic piston in the upper portion of the 23-story-tall rocket, Space X CEO Elon Musk announced on his Twitter account. The launch has been rescheduled for 6:38 a.m. PST Sunday. “Standing down to investigate,” Musk wrote. “If this is the only issue, flight would be fine, but need to make sure that it isn’t symptomatic of a more significant upstream root cause.”. To be clear that the issue is minor and not an indication of a repeat of a devastating Sept. 1 Space X rocket explosion , Musk reiterated. “Btw, 99% likely to be fine. but that 1% chance isn’t worth rolling the dice,” he wrote. “Better to wait a day.”. The Hawthorne rocket maker is embarking on its first mission from ...

News

... should adapt to various challenges like Russia & ISIS’ – alliance’s ex-chief Rasmussen to RT. Russia indeed poses a “challenge” to NATO, but of a different kind than ISIS terrorism, the alliance’s former chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen told RT. He believes NATO should adapt to the various threats but ultimately deal with them from a “position of force.”. Feb 19, 2017 04:30. ‘Post-truth’ & ‘post-fake’ crossroads: Russian FM’s top quotes at Munich Security Conference. Mankind is at the “crossroads,” with the so-called “liberal world order” having failed to adjust to post-Cold War reality, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov told the Munich Security Conference, adding that only cooperation could take the current post-truth era to the age of post-fake. Feb 19, 2017 04:13. Thousands of people have rallied in Donetsk to remind the world about the second anniversary of the Minsk II Protocols, urging Kiev to deliver on its long-overdue ...

Spacex Falcon 9 Launch Scrubbed Due To Technical Issues

... been attempted in daylight, following two successful nighttime landings at “Landing Zone 1.”. The resupply mission continues Space X’s rebound from a Falcon 9 rocket’s spectacular explosion Sept. 1 during a test at the company’s primary Florida pad to date, Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Space X adjusted the way it loads helium pressure tanks that buckled and breached during the September explosion. Engineers said that problem was unrelated to the leak being studied Friday. NASA provider Space X's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft are vertical at Launch Complex 39 A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Feb. 17, 2017. (Photo: Space X). On Jan. 14, Space returned the Falcon 9 to flight with a successful launch of commercial satellites from California, but most of the company’s missions fly from Florida. Those include supply runs to the six-person International Space Station crew, which Space X has not flown since last July. This mission is hauling up roughly 5,500 pounds of food, equipment and science experiments. The first rocket to rumble from Kennedy's pad 39 A was a mighty ...

Spacex Mission Highlights ‘golden Age’ Of Space Science Research

... and research materials, including 15 different Department of Defense studies. One of those will allow scientists to better understand how certain species regrow damaged limbs so the same can be done for humans. A Lightning Imaging Sensor on board will expand research done at Pasadena’s NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to better understand when, where and why lightning occurs. “There are hundreds of experiments (on board), really cool stuff,” said Space X Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell. If the launch is delayed due to a thick cloud cover or because of a small helium leak detected Friday in the rocket’s propellant pump system, Space X officials intend to launch Sunday. A live video feed of the mission, along with commentary, can be viewed on You Tube or NASA websites at __link__/gkulrod. When the Dragon spacecraft reaches the International Space Station two days after leaving Earth, a team ...

Elon Musk Is A Spacex Truther

... around. It’s the first time that Space X will land one of its Falcon 9 rockets on solid ground in broad daylight. For most missions, the Falcon 9 s attempt to land on a floating drone ship in the middle of the ocean. However, Space X does have a ground-based landing zone at Cape Canaveral, aptly named Landing Zone 1, where the vehicles can touch down. Not all of the company’s rockets are able to return to the site after launch , though, so Space X has only tried landing there twice in the past couple of years. Both of those attempts were successful, though they both occurred at night. But tomorrow, Space X will try to land its Falcon 9 at Landing Zone 1. Lift off is scheduled for 10:01 AM ET and landing is scheduled for 10 minutes afterward. That means those at Cape Canaveral will be able to see the rocket take-off and land in full daylight. And as we all know, it’s ...

Spacex Aborts Launch To The Iss Seconds Before Liftoff, But Might Try Again Tomorrow

... heap of metal. Late last summer, Space X had been riding high on its back to back (to back to back) Falcon 9 barge landings. It was planning to increase its launch tempo, up to two rocket launches a month, and hoped to do a test flight of its anticipated Falcon Heavy rocket. CEO Elon Musk was even billed to speak at a fall conference about his long term ambitions to start a colony on Mars. But the September 2016 explosion, which destroyed a $200 million satellite, put a limp in Space X’s swagger. The company paused all launches (and landings) to investigate the mishap. By November, the consensus was that the superchilled oxygen the Falcon 9 uses for fuel had frozen, sparking a combustion. In mid-January 2017, the company returned to flight, successfully launching (and landing) a Falcon 9 bearing 10 telecommunications satellites. But the small victory was overshadowed two weeks later when the Wall Street Journal broke the report from the Government Accountability Office, an oversight group that ...

Spacex Cancels Rocket Launch From Nasa Moon Pad

... last used in 2011 for NASA’s final shuttle flight. This is Space X’s first Florida launch since last summer’s rocket explosion. (NASA via AP). Red Huber. A Space X Falcon 9 rocket is readied for launch Friday, Feb. 17, 2017, at Launch Complex 39 A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Saturday morning's planned launch will be Space X's first from Florida since a rocket explosion at another pad last summer. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP). Red Huber. A Space X Falcon 9 rocket is readied for launch Friday, Feb. 17, 2017, at Launch Complex 39 A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Saturday morning's planned launch will be Space X's first from Florida since a rocket explosion at another pad last summer. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP). Red Huber. A Space X Falcon 9 rocket is readied for launch Friday, Feb. 17, 2017, at Launch ...

Launch Of Spacex Falcon Rocket Aborted Seconds Before Liftoff

... REUTERS/Joe Skipper. By Irene Klotz | CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Space X called off the planned launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from a historic launchpad in Florida seconds before liftoff on Saturday to investigate a potential problem with the steering system in the upper stage of the booster. The flight, the first for the company from a launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center once used for NASA's space shuttle program, was rescheduled for 9:38 a.m. local time (1438 GMT) on Sunday. The rocket will carry a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station. The problem concerned an issue with the steering system of the rocket's upper stage, Space X said. "Standing down to investigate," Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of Space Exploration Technologies Corp, wrote on Twitter. Space X has not flown from Florida in six months. Flights were suspended after a rocket exploded while being fueled ahead of a routine, pre-launch test at Cape Canaveral Air Force ...