Thursday, November 7

SpaceX

SpaceX details learnings from Starship Flight 3, sets June 5 as target launch date for Flight 4 – Spaceflight Now
SpaceX

SpaceX details learnings from Starship Flight 3, sets June 5 as target launch date for Flight 4 – Spaceflight Now

Onboard cameras on the Starship upper stage flown during Flight 3 (Starship IFT-3) show the vehicle surrounded by plasma as it reenters the atmosphere on March 14, 2024. Image: SpaceX SpaceX is preparing to launch its massive Starship rocket on its fourth flight test from its Starbase facilities in southern Texas as soon as June 5. The target launch date comes a little less than three months after Flight 3 on March 14. In a pair of posts on its website, SpaceX outlined the learnings from Flight 3, the mission objectives for Flight 4 and the differences between the timing of everything between these two pieces of the development campaign. The Flight 4 launch window is set to open on June 5 at 7 a.m. CDT (8 a.m. EDT (1200 UTC). However, as SpaceX points out, they are still waiting on regulat...
SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites on 5th anniversary of its first dedicated Starlink flight – Spaceflight Now
SpaceX

SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites on 5th anniversary of its first dedicated Starlink flight – Spaceflight Now

A Falcon 9 rocket streaks across the sky over Central Florida amid the Starlink 6-63 mission on May 23, 2023. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now Update 11:15 p.m. EDT: SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX completed its third Falcon 9 launch in less than 48 hours with a mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. As with its launch Wednesday night, SpaceX sent another 23 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. Either serendipitously or intentionally, the Starlink 6-63 mission fell on the fifth anniversary of the first dedicated Starlink launch, Starlink v0.9 on May 23, 2019. The launch times of the two missions are also coincidentally very similar. Thursday night’s flight lifted off at 10:45 p.m. EDT (0245 UTC) and its five-year counterpart launched at 10:30 p.m. EDT (0230 UTC). The ...
SpaceX

NASA, Boeing and ULA announce June 1 as new target date for Starliner’s Crew Flight Test – Spaceflight Now

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket was fueled for launch May 6, 2024 for the Starliner Crew Test Flight. Image: NASA TV NASA is looking at the start of June for its next attempt to launch its astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, on board Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. The announcement came last Wednesday night in a blog post, stating that June 1 will be the earliest that the Crew Flight Test of Starliner can begin. The new launch date has a T-0 liftoff of 12:25 p.m. EDT (1625 UTC). There are also backup opportunities available on Sunday, June 2; Wednesday, June 5; and Thursday, June 6. The May 6 launch date was originally scrubbed about two hours prior to launch due to an issue with an oxygen pressure release valve on the upper stage of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket....
SpaceX to launch first batch of satellites for the NRO’s reconnaissance satellite constellation – Spaceflight Now
SpaceX

SpaceX to launch first batch of satellites for the NRO’s reconnaissance satellite constellation – Spaceflight Now

An illustration of the NROL-146 mission patch design. Graphic: NRO The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is set to start building a constellation of unknown size with a middle-of-the-night launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The mission, dubbed NROL-146, features an undisclosed number of satellites riding onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) is set for the start of a launch window that opens 1 a.m. PDT (4 a.m. EDT, 0800 UTC). Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about 30 minutes prior to liftoff. The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1071 in the SpaceX fleet, will launching for a 16th time. It’s first two flights were for NRO missions and it also launched a pair of Transporte...