SpaceX To Launch Critical Navigation Satellites Saturday Night

April 26, 2024Posted inSpace News, SpaceX
Timing Suggests Possibility of Jellyfish Phenomenon
Model of a Galileo Navigation Satellite.
Model of Galileo Communications Satellite Photo: Wikipedia

SpaceX is set to launch a pair of long-delayed navigation satellites tomorrow night (April 27) at 8:34PM from Pad 39A at KSC. 

The satellites, FM25 and FM27, are being launched aboard a Falcon 9 booster as part of Europe’s MEO Galileo constellation. They will join 26 other satellites that began launching in 2011 to form part of a high-precision navigation system for the European Union. 

Falcon 9 launching in 2022

SpaceX Planning Starlink 6-51 Launch Today – How and where to watch

April 17, 2024Posted inSpace News, SpaceX, Starlink
A recent Starlink launch as viewed from Playa Linda Beach. Photo: Charles Boyer/FMN
A recent Starlink launch as viewed from Playa Linda Beach. Photo: Charles Boyer/FMN

SpaceX is planning to launch the first of three Falcon 9 missions over the next five days today. There’s another launch scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, April 18, and a final one set for Monday, April 22nd. All three will be ferrying a tranche of Starlink Group 6 satellites to orbit. Today’s launch is from Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center.

SpaceX Launches Starlink 6-49, Booster B1062 Completes 20th Mission

SpaceX Launches Starlink 6-49, Booster B1062 Completes 20th Mission

April 13, 2024Posted inFalcon 9, Space News, SpaceX, Starlink
For a time, Falcon 9’s plume illuminated the whole rocket body as it ascended to space, powered by nine Merlin engines.
Photo: Ed Cordero / Florida Media Now

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 tonight from Pad SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and sent another twenty-three Starlink satellites to orbit. Liftoff occurred at 09:22 PM EDT on a crisp, clear spring evening on the Space Coast.

Note: Originally published by Charles Boyer at Talk of Titusville

Space-X Launches First Rideshare to a Mid-Inclination Orbit

Space-X Launches First Rideshare to a Mid-Inclination Orbit

April 8, 2024Posted inSpace News, SpaceX, Uncategorized
Bandwagon - 1 launches from KSC's Pad 39A on 4/7/24.
Bandwagon-1 launches from KSC’s Pad 39A on 4/7/24., marking SpaceX’s entry into Mid-Inclination Orbit ridesharing. Photo: Ed Cordero/FMN

Sunday night saw an on-time launch for SpaceX’s latest Falcon 9 mission known as Bandwagon-1. The rideshare mission, SpaceX’s 35th of 2024, carried 11 satellites to a mid-inclination orbit (45 degrees) for six different companies. A mid-inclination orbit places satellites over populated areas rather than providing global coverage seen with standard polar orbits.

Playalinda beachgoers watch a Falcon 9 lift off from Pad 39A. Photo: Charles Boyer/FMN

SpaceX Completes Cape Doubleheader Saturday

March 31, 2024Posted inSpace News, SpaceX, Starlink
SpaceX / Eutelsat 36 lifts off from LC-39A at KSC. This was the view from Playalinda Beach near Wilson’s Corner in Brevard County Photo: Charles Boyer / FMN
SpaceX / Eutelsat 36 lifts off from LC-39A at KSC. This was the view from Playalinda Beach near Wilson’s Corner in Brevard County
Photo: Charles Boyer / FMN

SpaceX launched two Falcon 9 rockets to orbit Saturday: first, at 5:52 PM EDT Eutelsat 36D from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center, then at 9:30 PM, Starlink 6-45 from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station — a three-hour, thirty-minute gap between launches. The mission marked the second of the company’s “doubleheader” launches this year.

Everything You Need To Know About Saturday Night’s Double Header Launch

Everything You Need To Know About Saturday Night’s Double Header Launch

March 29, 2024Posted inAviation and Space News, Space News, SpaceX
Spectators in the surf at Playalinda Beach watching a SpaceX Falcon 9 lift off from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. Photo: Charles Boyer / FMN
Spectators in the surf at Playalinda Beach watching a SpaceX Falcon 9 lift off from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center.
Photo: Charles Boyer / FMN

Opening Day in Major League Baseball was just a couple of days ago, so it’s fitting in a way that the Space Coast will get its own kind of double-header tomorrow: SpaceX is planning to launch Eutelsat 36D from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center between 5:52 PM and 8:00 PM EDT, and then between 9:00 PM and 10:31 PM EDT, another batch of Internet connectivity satellites with the Starlink 6-46 mission from their pad at SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Hut-Two-Three-Four:  SpaceX Joins the Armed Forces

March 26, 2024Posted inSpace News, SpaceX, Starlink
USAF setting up a Starlink dish
Master Sgt. Caleb Frisbie from the 242nd Combat Communications Squadron, setting up the communication equipment for the Agile Battle Labs Communications Demonstration. The antenna he installed is a SpaceX Starlink dish, pictured above. Photo: US Air Force/ Todd Cromar

By now, almost everyone has heard of SpaceX’s Starlink. However, it is lesser known that SpaceX and their subsidiary, Starlink, now have two major government- and military-related contracts. Pilot testing began in 2020 and took a few years to complete. That product — Starshield — is now ready for deployment.

Starlink 6-42 Launches As Weather Finally Clears

March 24, 2024Posted inSpace News, SpaceX, Starlink
Starlink 6-42 Launches into Florida Sky
Space X Falcon 9, partial timelapse photo over the Indian River. Space Coast residents may recognize “Scruffy The Tug Boat” — an accidental landmark on the Indian River on FL 528 West. It’s an accidental landmark that’s been aground in the same spot for years.
Photo: Charles Boyer / FMN

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 booster carrying 23 more Starlink V2 Mini satellites to orbit Saturday night from Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center after hours of weather delays. The launch finally came at 11:09 PM EDT, after two pushbacks on the planned L-0 time due to shifting weather on the Space Coast.

SpaceX and NASA Prepare for Next Resupply Mission to ISS from Cape Canaveral

March 20, 2024Posted inNASA, Space News, SpaceX
Cargo Dragon sits atop a Falcon 9.
A Cargo Dragon sits atop a Falcon 9 booster. Image: SpaceX

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – SpaceX, in collaboration with NASA, is gearing up for its 30th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, carrying an uncrewed SpaceX Cargo Dragon, is slated for Thursday, March 21, at 4:55 p.m. EDT.

A “Democratic Government” Threatens to Fine Its Citizens For Using Starlink

A “Democratic Government” Threatens to Fine Its Citizens For Using Starlink

March 18, 2024Posted inSpace News, SpaceX, Starlink
When A Telecom Agency suspects that there are citizens who violate the law by using foreign satellite services. 
Map Internett Access Graphic

By now, most are familiar with SpaceX’s effort to bring internet access to every corner of the world. And they’re doing a pretty good job of it. With over 6000 Low Earth Orbit (LEO)  Starlink satellites already in space, and as many as 6000 more going up on future launches, one would think that the whole world would be pretty happy about it, right? Or at least the “free countries”…but maybe not.