Tag: falcon 9

I Used To Love SpaceX… And Then Things Changed. (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1. On September 27th, 2016, SpaceX uploaded a video showing what their upcoming super-heavy launch vehicle plans were – the Interplanetary Transport System. This massive booster was going to launch a Mars bound vehicle into Earth orbit. The actual Mars bound ship would insert itself into orbit, with the ITS booster […]

CRS-13 Is Successfully Launched To The International Space Station

After several delays, the final CRS flight of 2017, CRS-13, launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 40 for a standard cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. This mission was a somewhat critical one – after the delay of the mysterious Zuma payload, SpaceX basically hasn’t […]

A SpaceX Falcon 9 Engine Fails On The Test Stand (And Commentary On Fan Reactions)

In doing my usual space news perusing yesterday I came across news that a SpaceX Merlin engine had “exploded” on the test stand. As it would turn out, the engine didn’t explode, but what did happen is still interesting enough to discuss here. The article also shared a bit of new information with me that […]

A SpaceX Falcon 9 Successfully Launches A New Set of Iridium NEXT Satellites

Early this morning a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying 10 new satellites for the Iridium NEXT communications network. They were released about an hour after launch once they were in their proper positions to function in the “constellation” of satellites that will make up the Iridium NEXT […]

SpaceX Successfully Launches The X-37B For Its OTV-5 Mission

Yesterday SpaceX successfully launched the military’s X-37B space-plane into orbit for another mission to do… well, we really don’t know. It’s somewhat a mystery what it does – we know it “hosts experiments” and is built for long duration flight (literally over a year in orbit on its last mission) as well as high maneuverability, […]