All articles tagged with #falcon heavy
SpaceX completed a record-setting week by executing three consecutive launches, including the Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station. The crew, led by Jessica Watkins, set a US speed record for reaching the station, while the company also deployed a classified payload and a satellite rideshare.
SpaceX completed a historic triple launch on October 1, 2026, including its first Falcon Heavy mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The NROL-97 launch from Kennedy Space Center at 11:54 p.m. EDT marked a new record for booster landings in a single day. Separately, SpaceX launched a beta 'Starlink for Communities' program, allowing property owners to earn passive income by sharing internet access with neighbors.
SpaceX launched a classified mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) on October 1, 2026, completing a rare tripleheader of three launches in under 13 hours. The Falcon Heavy rocket, designated NROL-97, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 11:54 p.m. EDT, marking the first time the NRO has used the heavy-lift vehicle. This launch followed the Crew-13 astronaut mission and a 130-satellite rideshare earlier that day, setting a new record for booster landings in a single day.
SpaceX launched the NROL-97 mission on Oct. 1, 2026, marking the first National Reconnaissance Office payload on a Falcon Heavy. The launch was the 14th for the heavy-lift vehicle and part of a record day where SpaceX landed four boosters across three missions.
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has kicked off its mission commissioning at the sun–Earth L2 point after a Aug. 30 launch aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. The spacecraft has deployed its solar panels and high-gain antenna, and teams have begun powering on and calibrating the Coronagraph Instrument as the system checks continue, with first science operations expected to start after weeks of checkout and first images anticipated in January 2027 to study dark energy and discover exoplanets.
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy roared to life with 27 Merlin engines during the Aug. 30, 2026 launch of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, sending the observatory toward a stable point at Lagrange Point 2 for early online operations and future science on dark energy and exoplanets; Space.com designated the image as the Space Photo of the Day for Sept. 2, 2026.
Space.com photographer Josh Dinner captured a rare solar transit when SpaceX's Falcon Heavy lifted NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, shooting from a Hobby Lobby parking lot in Titusville. Using a Canon R5 Mark II with a solar filter and a long lens, he timed the instantaneous launch window to photo the rocket crossing the sun, aided by trajectory planning tools like FlightClub.io and pre-launch scouting by fellow photographers. It was a high-risk, high-reward shot reflecting the daring spirit of space exploration.
Space.com provides live updates as NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is scheduled to launch on Aug. 30 at 7:26 a.m. EDT atop SpaceX's Falcon Heavy from Cape Canaveral's LC‑39A, aiming to study dark energy and exoplanets and to reach the Sun–Earth L2 point, with prelaunch briefings and weather reviews underway ahead of liftoff and subsequent checkout.
SpaceX aims to lift NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope into orbit on Aug. 30 at 7:26 a.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A aboard a Falcon Heavy, with a live webcast starting about an hour before liftoff. If weather or other issues delay, a backup window is available on Aug. 31 at 7:22 a.m. EDT. The flight is expected to last about 31 minutes and 31 seconds, with Roman deploying around the 31:31 mark and then unfurling its systems en route to a stable point near Lagrange Point 2 for the mission’s deep-sky surveys.
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy is set for a rare Florida launch, carrying a NASA space telescope, and is expected to draw crowds as it returns to flight for the first time since late April.
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is on track for Aug. 30 launch from Kennedy Space Center atop SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, with live updates as the observatory moves toward the Sun-Earth L2 to study dark energy and exoplanets.
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope arrived at Kennedy Space Center and is targeting an Aug. 30 no-earlier-than liftoff on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy from Launch Complex 39A, eight months ahead of schedule. After transport from Goddard by road and sea aboard the Pegasus barge, the observatory will enter a roughly 70-day prelaunch campaign with tests, propellant loading, and encapsulation before launch to the Sun-Earth L2 point, where it will map billions of galaxies and exoplanets and demonstrate a coronagraph to directly image faint worlds, with a mission life expected to last at least five years.
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope arrived at Kennedy Space Center for a late-summer launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, boasting a field of view 100 times larger than Hubble and aimed at studying dark energy, exoplanets, and up to a billion galaxies.
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now slated to launch Aug. 30, eight months ahead of the previous target. The observatory is being prepared at Goddard, shipped to Kennedy Space Center for testing, then attached to a SpaceX Falcon Heavy for a journey to the L2 point. Over a five-year mission, it will survey billions of stars and galaxies, probe thousands of exoplanets, and study black holes, at a lifetime cost of about $4.3 billion.
BlackSky’s Gen-3 satellite captured SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy liftoff from Kennedy Space Center on April 29, 2026, including a pad shot and ascent, as it carried the ViaSat-3 F3 satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit. BlackSky notes its 35 cm ground resolution enables viewing launch-related details from orbit, and this marks Falcon Heavy’s first flight in 18 months.