- SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket on record-tying 20th mission Space.com
- SpaceX launch recap: Falcon 9 launches from Florida with Galileo L12 Florida Today
- Best waterfront restaurants in New Smyrna, Daytona Beach, Oak Hill for a Florida rocket launch Daytona Beach News-Journal
- Launch Roundup: SpaceX lands its 300th booster, NASA tests a solar sail, and China launches three more taikonauts – NASASpaceFlight.com NASASpaceflight.com
- SpaceX launches European Commission’s Galileo satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center – Spaceflight Now Spaceflight Now
Tag Archives: Falcon
Gibson Amps Are Back! The Falcon 5 & Falcon 20 Demos | First Look – Premier Guitar
- Gibson Amps Are Back! The Falcon 5 & Falcon 20 Demos | First Look Premier Guitar
- “Gibson is back in the amp business”: Gibson’s Falcon amps have landed – can the Mesa-made combos get their claws into the boutique amp market? Guitar World
- The Return of Gibson Amps: Falcon 5 & Falcon 20 – Full Demo Gibson Gear Guide
- NAMM 2024: “Harmonically rich American tone in a compact and easily portable package”: Gibson’s relaunched guitar amplifier line takes flight with the Randall Smith-designed Falcon tube combos MusicRadar
- Gibson Amplifiers Falcon 5 and Falcon 20 revealed gearnews.com
NAMM 2024: “Harmonically rich American tone in a compact and easily portable package”: Gibson’s relaunched guitar amplifier line takes flight with the Randall Smith-designed Falcon tube combos – MusicRadar
- NAMM 2024: “Harmonically rich American tone in a compact and easily portable package”: Gibson’s relaunched guitar amplifier line takes flight with the Randall Smith-designed Falcon tube combos MusicRadar
- Gibson Amps Return! Falcon 5 & Falcon 20 Demos | First Look Premier Guitar
- “Gibson is back in the amp business”: Gibson’s Falcon amps have landed – can the Mesa-made combos get their claws into the boutique amp market? Guitar World
- The Return of Gibson Amps: Falcon 5 & Falcon 20 – Full Demo Gibson Gear Guide
- Gibson Falcon 5 and 20 Amp Review Premier Guitar
The Return of Gibson Amps: Falcon 5 & Falcon 20 – Full Demo – Gibson Gear Guide
- The Return of Gibson Amps: Falcon 5 & Falcon 20 – Full Demo Gibson Gear Guide
- “Gibson is back in the amp business”: Gibson’s Falcon amps have landed – can the Mesa-made combos get their claws into the boutique amp market? Guitar World
- NAMM 2024: “Harmonically rich American tone in a compact and easily portable package”: Gibson’s relaunched guitar amplifier line takes flight with the Randall Smith-designed Falcon tube combos MusicRadar
- Gibson Amps Are Back! The Falcon 5 & Falcon 20 Demos | First Look Premier Guitar
- Gibson Amplifiers Falcon 5 and Falcon 20 revealed gearnews.com
Updates: SpaceX boosted another Falcon 9 Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral Saturday – Florida Today
- Updates: SpaceX boosted another Falcon 9 Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral Saturday Florida Today
- Live coverage: SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch 22 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now Spaceflight Now
- SpaceX launches Starlink batch in 2nd launch of day following Crew-7 VideoFromSpace
- SpaceX delays Starlink launch to Saturday night following Crew-7’s early morning liftoff News 13 Orlando
- LIVE: Spacex Falcon 9 Rocket Launches Another Batch Of 2nd-Gen Starlink V2 Mini Internet Satellites India Today
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Live Coverage: SpaceX Falcon Heavy set to launch heaviest commercial communications satellite ever – Spaceflight Now – Spaceflight Now
- Live Coverage: SpaceX Falcon Heavy set to launch heaviest commercial communications satellite ever – Spaceflight Now Spaceflight Now
- SpaceX rocket double play! Falcon 9 soars over Falcon Heavy in gorgeous launch video, photo Space.com
- SpaceX Delays Launch of Enormous Satellite for Faster Rural Broadband CNET
- SpaceX standing down from record-breaking double-launch attempt – Spaceflight Now Spaceflight Now
- Falcon Heavy seen from space with satellite operated by company who built satellite launching on Falcon Heavy Space.com
- View Full Coverage on Google News
SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets set for Starlink double-header
A pair of SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets are on track to round out the first month of 2023 and kick off the second with a Starlink double-header.
“To complete pre-launch checkouts,” SpaceX delayed its last launch of the month by 24 hours. The first Falcon 9 rocket will launch Starlink 2-6 and a D-Orbit rideshare payload no earlier than 8:29 am PST (16:29 UTC) on Monday, January 30th. The mission will lift off from SpaceX’s Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) SLC-4E pad and head southeast, skirting the California and Mexico coast. In case of bad weather or a minor technical issue, a backup window is available at 12:31 pm PST.
As few as 35.5 or 39.5 hours later, a second Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from SpaceX’s Florida-based NASA Kennedy Space Center LC-39A pad around 3:02 am EST on Tuesday, February 1st.
Starlink 2-6
Kicking off the pair, Starlink 2-6 will be SpaceX’s ninth Starlink rideshare mission since the company began manifesting third-party payloads on its internet satellite launches in June 2020. Falcon 9 will launch the mission’s main payload – a batch of 49 Starlink V1.5 satellites – to a semi-polar orbit that will see them cross Earth’s equator at an angle of 70 degrees. Ordinarily, the mission would carry 51 Starlinks, but SpaceX has removed a pair of satellites to make room for Italian space logistics company D-Orbit’s ION SCV009 spacecraft.
ION weighs around 160 kilograms (350 lb) on its own and is roughly the size of a large oven. D-Orbit designed the spacecraft to host fixed payloads and deploy rideshare satellites in orbit. It also has a propulsion system that allows it to provide “last-mile delivery services,” offering rideshare customers the ability to tweak the orbit their satellite ends up in. Space tugs like ION aim to give satellite owners some of the benefits of a dedicated rocket launch (custom orbit selection in particular) while retaining most of the cost savings rideshare launches enable.
After reaching orbit, Falcon 9 will deploy ION first, use thrusters to spin itself end over end, and then release all 49 Starlink satellites simultaneously. The spinning stage’s centrifugal force causes the satellite stack to naturally spread out within several hours. The satellites then use reaction wheels to stabilize their orientation, deploy solar panels to begin charging their batteries, and eventually use ion thrusters to climb to operational orbits.
ION SCV009 will attempt to test a new satellite separation system built by EBAD and demonstrate its ability to operate in very low Earth orbit (VLEO). The spacecraft will potentially lower itself to an altitude of 270 kilometers (170 mi).
Starlink 5-3
Starlink 5-3 will carry no rideshare payloads and will likely be nearly identical to Starlink 5-2, which SpaceX successfully launched on January 26th. The latest mission’s stack of 56 Starlink V1.5 satellites weighed 17.4 tons and was the heaviest payload SpaceX has ever launched. Starlink 5-3 is targeting the same orbit and will likely also carry 56 satellites.
Pad 39A last supported SpaceX’s fifth Falcon Heavy launch on January 15th and has been quickly converted back to its single-core Falcon 9 configuration for Starlink 5-3. After the Starlink mission, Pad 39A has at least two Dragon spacecraft launches scheduled before SpaceX will need to convert it back to a triple-booster configuration for Falcon Heavy’s sixth launch.
SpaceX is scheduled to launch Crew Dragon’s Crew-6 astronaut transport mission no earlier than February 26th, and Cargo Dragon’s Spx-27 cargo delivery mission on March 11th. Falcon Heavy is scheduled to launch the giant ViaSat-3 communications satellite no earlier than March 24th.
Tune in below around 8:25 am PST (16:25 UTC) to watch SpaceX Starlink 2-6 launch live.
These Are the Biggest Rocket Engines of All Time
I don’t know if you know this, but space is really freaking big. So to get there, we need to turn to some pretty enormous machines. The rockets that shoot satellites, astronauts and other craft into space can weigh hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of pounds. So, they need a pretty big engine to get off the ground.
But, what are the biggest rocket engines out there, and what the heck have they been used for? That’s a question I pondered recently while staring aimlessly into space. So, here’s the answer to that questions.
These are the 15 most powerful rocket engines of all time, each ordered by their thrust at sea level. Because, it turns out that the thrust you get in the vacuum of space is different to that on Earth. The more you know.
Freaky Spiral Over Hawaii Likely Caused by SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket
Last week, astronomers at a Hawaiian observatory spotted a spiral-like structure over Maunakea. A SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage is the likely source of the strange atmospheric feature, as this sort of thing has happened before.
The spiral was seen during the early morning hours of January 18, the same day that a Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. A tweet from Subaru Telescope astronomers provided a glimpse of the spectacle, which the scientists linked to SpaceX’s launch of a new satellite.
The observatory also provided a time lapse video of the spiral, showing its evolution over time, along with an unsettling number of satellites zipping by. “Earlier that day, SpaceX launched a satellite to medium-Earth orbit,” Subaru Telescope said in the video. “We believe this phenomenon is related [to] its orbital deployment operation.” SpaceX’s GPS III Space Vehicle 06 mission did in fact launch earlier in the day, delivering a GPS satellite for the U.S. Space Force.
The Subaru Telescope is a 26.9-foot (8.2-meter) optical-infrared telescope located on the summit of Maunakea and operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. The team used the facility’s Subaru-Asahi Star Camera to spot and chronicle the spiral.
That a rocket could cause such an atmospheric formation seems surprising, but this isn’t the first time that a SpaceX rocket has caused such a structure to form; a similar “smoke ring” seen over Illinois on June 19, 2022 was linked to the launch of a Falcon 9 and the delivery of the Globalstar FM15 satellite.
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“This spiral was caused by the Falcon 9’s upper stage venting leftover fuel just before deorbiting into the Pacific Ocean,” Spaceweather reported at the time. “The upper stage was probably spinning on its longest axis to stabilize flight orientation—hence the spiral shape,” and similar spirals “have been seen after previous Falcon 9 launches.”
Falcon 9 launches are known for producing strange atmospheric effects, including bow shocks (as seen in the new video) and rocket “jellyfishes.” Sights like this are set to be a common occurrence, with SpaceX planning more than 100 Falcon 9 launches in the coming year.
More: Starlink Is Now Connecting Remote Antarctic Research Camps to the Internet
SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch spotted from space station (photo)
The launch of SpaceX’s most powerful rocket over the weekend was visible from orbit.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy lifted off Sunday (Jan. 15) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending multiple satellites aloft for the U.S. Space Force on a mission called USSF-67.
Photographers on the ground captured great shots of the launch. One off-Earth observer did as well — the International Space Station (ISS), which happened to be in the right place at the right time on Sunday.
Related: 8 ways SpaceX has transformed spaceflight forever
“An external high-definition camera on the International Space Station captured the launch plume of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket after it had ascended to Earth orbit following its liftoff on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida,” NASA officials wrote in a description of the photo (opens in new tab).
“The space station was flying 262 miles [422 kilometers] above the Atlantic Ocean just after an orbital sunset at the time of this photograph,” they added.
This view from the station shows the launch plume of the @SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket after its liftoff on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023, from @NASAKennedy in Florida. pic.twitter.com/TRWNggsGasJanuary 19, 2023
USSF-67 was the fifth-ever mission for the Falcon Heavy, which employs three strapped-together Falcon 9 first stages. The flight lofted a military communications satellite called Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM 2 and five smaller spacecraft for the Space Force.
The Heavy, which generates more than 5 million tons of thrust at liftoff, was until recently the most powerful operational rocket in the world. NASA’s huge Space Launch System (SLS) claimed that title when it launched for the first time on Nov. 16, 2022, on the agency’s Artemis 1 moon mission. (The SLS generates about 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.)
SpaceX launched 61 orbital missions in 2022, and 2023 could be an even bigger year for the company. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said last August (opens in new tab) that the company was “aiming for up to 100 flights” in 2023.
SpaceX has launched five missions so far this year, including two in the past two days. USSF-67 was the only mission of these five to use a Falcon Heavy; the other four employed Falcon 9s.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).