Another attempt to launch EchoStar XXIII tomorrow morning

SpaceX will be doing their second attempt of launching EchoStar XXIII tomorrow morning at 1:34am EDT from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Tuesday's launch attempt was scrubbed early due to higher than forecasted winds that were unfavourable to launch in. Tomorrow's launch will be an expendable launch in which the first stage will not be landed and will fall into the ocean like a usual rocket does. You can watch the launch on SpaceX's website at http://www.spacex.com/webcast.

EchoStar XXIII poised to launch on Falcon 9 tonight

Photo by: Walter Scriptunas II

Tonight at 1:34 am EDT (Tuesday) the launch window for the launch of EchoStar XXIII opens and extends to 4:04 am EDT. This particular launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket will be expendable to meet the requirements for the mission, meaning that the first stage isn't fitted with landing legs or grid fins and no landing will be attempted. The weather currently isn't showing to be favourable for the launch and a backup window will be available on Thursday, March 16that 1:35 am EDT. This is SpaceX's second launch from LC-39a following the successful launch of CRS-10 back in February. EchoStar XXIII is a communications satellite to provide satellite and video delivery solutions and is also a part of the world's fourth largest commercial geosynchronous fleet.

SpaceX returning humans to the Moon next year

SpaceX announced today that they have been approached to launch 2 private citizens on a mission to the Moon. The two customers have already paid a significant deposit to go and will be launched on SpaceX's upcoming Falcon Heavy rocket. Debuting later this year, the Falcon Heavy will launch from LC-39a with a demo payload for its first mission. It will be the most powerful rocket to be currently launching once successfully launched. It has two-thirds the amount of thrust as the Saturn V and has more than double the amount of thrust as the largest rocket currently launching. The two people will be launching inside the Dragon V2 spacecraft that is currently under development and being funded by NASA's commercial crew program and will preform an unmanned flight to the ISS this year and a manned flight sometime next year. 

New era of launches begin at historic pad

Today, February 19th, the Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched from the historic Launch Complex 39a and delivered the Dragon spacecraft into orbit and landed the first stage back to Cape Canaveral. LC-39a is a launch pad that previously launched man to the Moon on Apollo 11 and held missions of the Space Shuttle including the last launch of STS-135. With clouds covering a lot of the Kennedy Space Center, the Falcon 9 lifted off at 9:38am EST and disappeared into the clouds, then landed back at Landing Zone 1 about 8 minutes later. 
High quality photos can be found here on SpaceX's Flickr.

Another attempt to launch CRS-10 tomorrow morning

This morning, SpaceX had begun fueling their Falcon 9 rocket in preparation to launch supplies and experiments to the International Space Station. Early in the count, there was a slight issue with the second stage's TVC (Thrust Vector Control) system that helps "steer" the rocket in the vacuum of space. SpaceX continued moving forward with the launch and called a "hold hold hold" at T-13 second to launch to not risk anything going wrong with the second stage during flight. The next launch opportunity to the ISS is tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 9:38am EST.

SpaceX will launch from Historic pad this morning

Later this morning at 10:01 am EST, SpaceX's Falcon 9 will lift off from the historic Launch Complex 39a carrying CRS-10 for NASA to resupply the International Space Station. Dragon is carrying up many hundreds of experiments and supplies for the astronauts including SAGE III and live mice. SAGE III is an experiment that will be mounted on the ISS and with its unique position over the Earth allows for long-term measurements of aerosols, ozone, water vapor, and many other gasses in the atmosphere. A Helium leak was found in the Falcon 9's second stage during the day yesterday in the second stage's spin system that has been resolved and Elon Musk tweeted, "Looks like we are go for launch. Added an abort trigger at T-60 secs for pressure decay of upper stage helium spin start system." After launch, the first stage will perform the 3rd first stage landing back at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base at Landing Zone 1 and will be the first daytime land landing. The Dragon being launched on this mission is the last produced Dragon and they will be reused for the first time on CRS-11.
You can view the launch live on the following SpaceX streams:
Hosted Webcast (Commentary, info on launch and vehicle)
Technical Webcast (Various Camera angles, Control room audio)

Gwynne Shotwell pre-launch briefing at LC-39a

During a pre-launch briefing held by NASA, SpaceX's President Gwynne Shotwell discussed a lot of assets of the new pad and how honoured SpaceX is about leasing the historic pad. She stated that SpaceX has taken good care of the pad and saved 'precious' parts of the launch pad and upgraded things for their use. The rotating service structure is also being taken down piece-by-piece whenever they have time for it and giving the scrap metal back to NASA. After that, they moved to the Q&A part of the briefing where people asked many different questions on upcoming launches, Mars, reusability, and crewed missions. Gwynne stated that Falcon Heavy will be flying this summer once LC-40 is back up and running, as well as there are many customers wanting to fly on FH. She also talked about Red Dragon and that they're now looking more toward the 2020 timeframe for the first launch. SpaceX wants to put more time and resources into the program before launching so they can also

focus on Crew Dragon and Falcon Heavy. SpaceX is planning on starting crewed launches in 2018 and Gwynne is confident that will happen on time. Along with crew launches, they've been working on a redesign on the Merlin engines because of cracks in the turbine wheel that they've been flying with for all Falcon 9 launches. The redesign needs to happen so the engines have no issues during launch for the safety of the crew and they will be used sometime this year. Nothing was revealed about the spacesuits for the crew but Gwynne said that they look "really cool". Reusability was then brought into conversation and that the second stage will not be reused for any of the Falcon rockets because of high orbital speeds. Although, she addressed that fairings will be recovered and reused on one of the following missions this year. The first reused booster will be launched on the SES-10 mission from LC-39a sometime in March. Launch Complex 40 should be up and running sometime this summer. She also said that the Falcon 9 Block 5 has an increase in

performance, some manufacturing improvements, and about 100 other changes on the vehicle. With all this information given to us, it shows that this year will be a big year for SpaceX with the maiden launch of Falcon Heavy, the first reused booster, and recovery of the payload fairings.

SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon vertical at LC-39a (Photos)

Official SpaceX CRS-10 Mission Patch

Falcon 9 and Dragon vertical at LC-39a
(Flickr: SpaceX)

Falcon 9 and Dragon vertical at LC-39a
(Flickr: SpaceX)

PSLV liftoff with Cartosat-2D and 103 other satellites

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will be lifting off from the First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India. The Cartosat-2D satellite is a part of a series of satellites and will be the fifth one launched. These satellites are Earth observation satellites that sit in a sun-synchronous orbit, meaning they orbit the Earth with the sun always in view. The PSLV launched from India at 10:58 pm EST on February 14th marking the 39th launch of the rocket. Along with carrying the Cartosat-2D satellite, it also brought up 103 small satellites exceeding the record of a number of satellites brought into orbit successfully. 

Ariane 5's first launch of the year

The Ariane 5 launched 2 key satellites, Sky Brasil 1 and Telcom 3S at 4:39pm EST from French Guiana. Sky Brasil 1 is going to support subscription television services by DirecTV, a subsidiary of AT&T.  Weighing in at over 13,000lbs, the satellite has 60 Ku-band transponders onboard and will be positioned along the equator at 43.1 degrees west longitude. Sky Brasil 1 will replace the Intelsat 9 satellite which has been in orbit since July 2000. The Telkom 3S satellite is being launched to help support high-definition television broadcasts, communications, and internet services. The satellites carried 32 C-band and 10 Ku-band transponders and is owned by Telkom Indonesia. It weighs in at about 7,800lbs and was built by Thales Alenia Space and will reach customers across Indonesia, Malaysia, and other parts of Southeast Asia. Telkom will be replacing Telkom 2 which was launched n November 2005.

Flames return to LC-39a

Photo of static fire at LC-39a
(Photo: Matthew Travis/Zero-G News)

After almost 5 1/2 years fire has returned to the historic Launch Complex 39a. SpaceX completed the hold-down firing of the rockets 9 Merlin 1D engines for approximately 3.5 seconds. The static fire was done 6 days prior to the launch of their Dragon spacecraft to the ISS for the CRS-10 mission. The rocket produced nearly 2 million pounds of thrust during the firing at full power. This static fire was set as a milestone for SpaceX as it double-checked the readiness of the Falcon 9 to launch this Saturday.