Latest Falcon 9 Stories

On Tuesday, Space Exploration aborted the engine test of its Falcon 9 rocket, which will eventually fly cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). The company planned to fired up the engines at its Cape Canaveral, Florida launch site, where the rocket is being prepped and readied for a company-sponsored demonstration flight in the coming months. The test was aborted just two seconds before engine ignition.A NASA video camera showed flames and small puffs of smoke around...

The tech company Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, moved its first Falcon 9 rocket at a new launch complex just south of the Kennedy Space Center, Discovery News reported.The new Falcon 9 was trucked in just days before the space shuttle Endeavour touched down after returning from a 14-day construction mission at the International Space Station.NASA will soon retire Endeavour and her sister ships Atlantis and Discovery, due to safety concerns and operating costs that eat about $3...

Space Exploration Technologies announced Wednesday that it plans to conduct a static fire testing of the first and second stages of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle.The announcement comes just three days after SpaceX said it had successfully completed acceptance testing of both the Falcon 9 first and second stages in preparation for the first flight of Falcon 9.Acceptance testing took place at the firm's McGregor, Texas structural and propulsion testing facility."The successful completion of these...

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Aug. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Test engineers at Wyle Laboratories expedited a series of critical vibration tests to support a July 13, 2009, launch of SpaceX's Falcon 1 launch vehicle, which successfully delivered to orbit the RazakSAT satellite for ATSB (Malaysia). Prior to launch, SpaceX engineers implemented a vibration isolation system which required testing in advance of flight. Wyle test engineers performed the testing in accordance with the aggressive timeline to...

A young visionary rocket company seeking the job of sending U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station launched a Malaysian imaging satellite into orbit late on Monday. At 11:35 p.m. EDT/0335 GMT on Tuesday, Space Exploration Technologies' Falcon 1 rocket took off from Omelek Island in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Western Pacific carrying the 400-pound (180-kg) RazakSAT satellite, a Malaysian satellite designed and built by ATSB that carries a high-resolution camera.High-resolution...

Since the inception of NASA, the space agency has designed all of its own rockets, spacecrafts and orbiters. However, after nearly half a century it has finally approved the outsourcing of equipment enabling manned space missions to private contractors. NASA Administrator Chris Scolese told a congressional subcommittee last week that the agency intends to provide $150 million in stimulus-package money to private companies that design, build and service their own rockets and crew capsules....

Removing Gravity Offers New Understanding of Biological and Physical Processes HOUSTON, Feb. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Heinlein Prize Trust announces the Microgravity Research Competition to reward innovation in the use of microgravity to advance biotech, nanotech, combustion, metallurgy, and other fields. Sponsored by the Trust and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), the competition offers a $25,000 prize and transportation to and from Low Earth Orbit for the winning...

NASA is hoping to fill the soon-to-come space gap with the help of private firms. The space agency is expected to retire its shuttle fleet in 2010, and Ares-Orion, the shuttle's replacement, isn't expected to enter space until 2015. This gap would cause NASA to rely on Russia to ferry items and astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). In April, the space agency told legislators it would stop asking for Congressional permission to buy cargo space on Russian Progress re-supply...

SpaceX Fulfills Commitment to Deliver Falcon 9 Hardware to Cape by Year-End in Preparation for 2009 Maiden FlightSpace Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) announced the arrival of the Falcon 9 first stage flight tank at SpaceX's newest launch site, Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Dec. 18. Arriving as scheduled, delivery of the Falcon 9 first stage fulfills SpaceX's commitment to having Falcon 9 hardware at the Cape by year-end."Christmas has arrived a few...

California-based SpaceX finally completed a successful launch on Sunday, following three failed attempts in the past. The Falcon 1 rocket took off from Omelek Island in the central Pacific. A larger rocket, Falcon 9, is likely to be used by the US to take cargo and even astronauts to the space station.Internet billionaire Elon Musk founded SpaceX with the goal of making space travel more affordable. The rocket cleared its umbilical tower at 1616 hours Pacific time (2316 GMT) on Sunday, and...