After several days of frustrating weather that kept the mission on the ground, SpaceX and the crew of Polaris Dawn were able to thread the needle through a rainy night and launch their five-day mission this morning from Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center.
SpaceX plans to launch Polaris Dawn early tomorrow morning from Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center, with four astronauts aboard a Crew Dragon.
The launch is scheduled for 3:38 AM EDT, with two additional launch opportunities within a four-hour window at 5:23 AM EDT and 7:09 AM EDT. If, for some reason, the launch does not happen tomorrow morning, backup opportunities are available on Wednesday, September 11th at the same times.
SpaceX launched the Starlink 8-11 mission into hazy skies with storms looming in the distance late in the morning on September 5, 2024, aboard Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
SpaceX got right back to business early Saturday morning as it launched the Starlink 8-10 mission aboard Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Polaris Dawn, a fully-private commercial crew mission that plans to be the highest-orbiting crewed mission as well as conducting the first private spacewalk is on the launch pad and awaiting improved weather prior to launching.
The crew arrived at Kennedy Space Center earlier this week and are now in final preparations for their upcoming flight aboard a Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon.
These are photos taken prior to the launch of Falcon 9 and the start of the mission.
Here’s an old travel agency brochure from a company that offered a flight to Kennedy Space Center and a tour of the facility:
SpaceX launched another tranche of Starlink satellites to orbit this morning from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40.
Roughly thirty minutes west of Saint Augustine and I-95 in Florida, a Space Shuttle relic sits abandoned in Green Cove Springs near a dock on the Saint Johns River.
They say that sometimes you’re the bug, and sometimes you’re the windshield. An odd aphorism to be sure, but one that perfectly fits Florida: if you don’t like insects being everywhere, then you’re in the wrong place.
Today, we were the figurative bug today: after waiting through weather that seemed more like swimming in a hot, soupy burning sun, at T-Minus 46 seconds, SpaceX scrubbed (canceled) the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from a mere 4.5 miles away.
Long sigh. That’s rocket launches. A hundred thousand things must go right, but if only one of those things go wrong, nobody’s going to space today. Find, fix and try again tomorrow. It is always the right call.
SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying Northrup Grumman’s Cygnus CRS-2 NG-21 (S.S. Francis R. “Dick” Scobee) to orbit this morning from Cape Canaveral. Liftoff was at 11:02 AM EDT under variable skies that showed a strong chance of storms coming in shortly afterwards.
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