All articles tagged with #launches and spacecraft
SpaceX will launch its heavy-lift Falcon Heavy for the first time in about 18 months from Cape Canaveral on April 27, delivering the ViaSat-3 F3 satellite to geostationary transfer orbit; the two side boosters are expected to land back at Cape Canaveral about eight minutes after liftoff, while the central core will not be recovered, with live coverage starting around 10:21 a.m. ET.
Blue Origin fired up its New Glenn rocket in a 19-second static test at Cape Canaveral ahead of NG-3, a mission designed to refly a previously flown booster and push the two-stage vehicle toward its first reflights; the company replaced all seven first-stage engines on the refurbished booster and added upgrades including a thermal protection system on one nozzle, with NG-3 slated to launch Sunday carrying a Block 2 AST SpaceMobile satellite to low Earth orbit.
Firefly Aerospace is bringing its Alpha rocket back to flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base with the Stairway to Seven test mission, a two-stage launch to validate first- and second-stage performance ahead of its Block II upgrade; no operational payload will be flown. The lift-off window opens about 7:50 p.m. ET today (4:50 p.m. local), with NASASpaceflight and Space.com streaming the event; this flight follows Alpha's 2024 mishaps—a booster split and an upper-stage propellant loss—after which the FAA cleared Alpha to resume flights.