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USA Today
10 hours ago
- Science
- USA Today
When is the next SpaceX rocket launch? Date, where to watch
SpaceX is set to have a launch once again in summer 2025, which comes after a recent incident: a Starship exploded while going through engine testing in Texas earlier in the week. "The spacecraft, standing nearly 400 feet tall when fully stacked, did not injure or endanger anyone when it exploded in a fireball that could be seen for miles, SpaceX said," per USA TODAY. But as usual with SpaceX, the company's next mission will go on. If you're wondering what that's all about? You've come to the right place. Here's what we know about that next mission that's set to launch this weekend: When is the next SpaceX launch? It's on Sunday, June 22. What time is the SpaceX launch? It's scheduled for 1:47 a.m. ET. What's happening in the next SpaceX launch? Per SpaceFlight Now: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch another batch of 27 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit. The rocket will take a north-easterly trajectory once it leaves the pad at Space Launch Complex 40. A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster, tail number B1069, flying for a 25th time, will target a landing on the droneship, 'A Shortfall of Gravitas,' positioned in the Atlantic Ocean. Where is the SpaceX craft launching from? That would be Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. How can I watch the SpaceX launch live? Check SpaceX's website to see if there's a livestream.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
SpaceX launches satellite for SiriusXM from Florida
June 7 (UPI) -- SpaceX launched SiriusXM's second new satellite into orbit from Florida early Saturday after five delays. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 12:54 a.m. EDT from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. About 8 1/2 minutes later, the first-stage booster landed on SpaceX's drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the eighth flight for the Falcon 9 booster, including a Crew-9 and three Starlink missions. After 33 minutes, the 4,100-pound SXM-10 satellite was sent to a geosynchronous transfer orbit high above Earth, meaning it is synchronous with the planet's rotation. It was SpaceX's 48th orbital rocket launch this year from Cape Canaveral or nearby Kennedy Space Center. Counting the California launch site, there have been 69 Falcon 9 missions with 51 involving Starlink in 2025, reported. Earlier Friday, there was a lightning warning for the area, Florida Today reported. On Dec. 5, SpaceX launched the SXM-9 for SiriusXM. In all, SiriusXM will have seven functional satellites with SXM-10's availability. Maxar Space Systems built both satellites, which beam radio and internet programming for SiriusXM's subscribers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The SXM-10 satellite arrived at Cape Canaveral on May 15. "This latest satellite marks another milestone in our over two-decade partnership with SiriusXM, supporting the continued evolution of their satellite radio network," Maxar posted on X. SiriusXM is planning to launch two more satellites. "SiriusXM is committed to cutting-edge technology and enhancing the proprietary satellite delivery systems that help power our audio entertainment and information service offerings," Bridget Neville, SiriusXM's senior vice president and general manager of Signal Distribution Engineering said in December, adding they "will strengthen the health of our satellite fleet for decades to come and allow our team to continue innovating far into the future." The next Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites is scheduled for 6:34 a.m. PDT Sunday from Vandenberg Space Force Base's pad 4E in California. In Florida, SpaceX next plans to launch the fourth Axiom private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. The Dragon mission is scheduled for 8:22 a.m. Tuesday from Kennedy Space Center pad 39A in conjunction with NASA. Axiom Space and SpaceX are planning coverage to start at 6:15 a.m. and NASA at 7:25 a.m. Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the commercial mission.
UPI
07-06-2025
- Science
- UPI
SpaceX launches satellite for SiriusXM from Florida
SpaceX early Saturday launched a SiriusXM SXM-10 satellite into orbit from Florida. Photo by SpaceX June 7 (UPI) -- SpaceX launched SiriusXM's second new satellite into orbit from Florida early Saturday after five delays. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 12:54 a.m. EDT from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. About 8 1/2 minutes later, the first-stage booster landed on SpaceX's drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the eighth flight for the Falcon 9 booster, including a Crew-9 and three Starlink missions. After 33 minutes, the 4,100-pound SXM-10 satellite was sent to a geosynchronous transfer orbit high above Earth, meaning it is synchronous with the planet's rotation. It was SpaceX's 48th orbital rocket launch this year from Cape Canaveral or nearby Kennedy Space Center. Counting the California launch site, there have been 69 Falcon 9 missions with 51 involving Starlink in 2025, reported. Earlier Friday, there was a lightning warning for the area, Florida Today reported. On Dec. 5, SpaceX launched the SXM-9 for SiriusXM. In all, SiriusXM will have seven functional satellites with SXM-10's availability. Maxar Space Systems built both satellites, which beam radio and internet programming for SiriusXM's subscribers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The SXM-10 satellite arrived at Cape Canaveral on May 15. "This latest satellite marks another milestone in our over two-decade partnership with SiriusXM, supporting the continued evolution of their satellite radio network," Maxar posted on X. SiriusXM is planning to launch two more satellites. "SiriusXM is committed to cutting-edge technology and enhancing the proprietary satellite delivery systems that help power our audio entertainment and information service offerings," Bridget Neville, SiriusXM's senior vice president and general manager of Signal Distribution Engineering said in December, adding they "will strengthen the health of our satellite fleet for decades to come and allow our team to continue innovating far into the future." The next Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites is scheduled for 6:34 a.m. PDT Sunday from Vandenberg Space Force Base's pad 4E in California. In Florida, SpaceX next plans to launch the fourth Axiom private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. The Dragon mission is scheduled for 8:22 a.m. Tuesday from Kennedy Space Center pad 39A in conjunction with NASA. Axiom Space and SpaceX are planning coverage to start at 6:15 a.m. and NASA at 7:25 a.m. Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the commercial mission.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SpaceX knocks out another national security launch while ULA faces scrutiny
ORLANDO, Fla. — United Launch Alliance's years-long delays with its new Vulcan rocket have flipped the script for national security missions, making SpaceX the new reliable provider. The shift to Elon Musk's company at the detriment to ULA's bottom line took center stage again Friday with a SpaceX Falcon 9 launching the GPS III-7 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:37 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the fourth time making a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. The mission to launch a GPS satellite was the second originally awarded to ULA but transferred to SpaceX under the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract. Initially assigned to ULA's Vulcan, both a December 2024 launch and then Friday's launch were shifted to Falcon 9 as ULA faced an extended delay in certification of its replacement for both its Atlas V and Delta IV class of rockets. While called the GPS III-7 mission, it's actually the eighth of 10 satellites constructed by Lockheed Martin to add to the U.S.'s GPS capability in space. It's also part of an accelerated mission timeline laid out by the Space Force for national security missions in which payloads get to space in under three months from the decision to go, compared to the normal turnaround that can take up to 24 months. 'It highlights another instance of the Space Force's ability to complete high priority launches on a rapid timescale, which demonstrates the capability to respond to emergent constellation needs as rapidly as space vehicle readiness allows,' said Space Force Col. Jim Horne, senior materiel leader of launch execution with the Assured Access to Space program. The latest GPS satellites are three times more accurate and eight times more resistant to jamming than the other 38 in space already, according to the Space Force. The Department of Defense's desire to launch more effective GPS hardware, less susceptible to interference, forced the switch to SpaceX in both missions. The NSSL Phase 2 contract, which featured five years' worth of task orders announced from 2020-2024, was originally announced to give ULA 60% of the assignments. All of those were supposed to fly on Vulcan, with its first launches to be completed by summer 2022. But as Vulcan faced myriad delays, the final spate of task orders ended up putting 26 missions on ULA's plate to SpaceX's 22. Now another two of those missions have swapped from ULA to SpaceX, although the Space Force has said ULA will get back two future missions previously assigned to SpaceX. To date, ULA has only managed to fly one of those 26 missions, and that wasn't on a Vulcan. Instead ULA was forced to use one of its few remaining Atlas V rockets, which flew last summer. ULA, which is a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin that formed in 2006, had originally been targeting mid-2020 for Vulcan's debut. But it faced hurdles from COVID, acquisition of engines from supplier Blue Origin, delays from customer payloads and even a fiery test stand incident that all contributed to a nearly four-year slide. It flew for the first time in January 2024, but not again until that October, both as part of ULA's efforts to get national security certification. An issue with a solid rocket booster motor detaching during launch on the second flight, though, delayed that certification until March 2025. At this point, the first national security launch on Vulcan won't be until at least July, according to Major Gen. Stephen G. Purdy, the acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration. Purdy, a former head of Space Launch Delta 45 based at Patrick Space Force Base, raised concerns about ULA's delays during written testimony released earlier this month to the U.S. House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. 'In NSSL Phase 2, the ULA Vulcan program has performed unsatisfactorily this past year,' he wrote. 'Major issues with the Vulcan have overshadowed its successful certification resulting in delays to the launch of four national security missions. Despite the retirement of highly successful Atlas and Delta launch vehicles, the transition to Vulcan has been slow and continues to impact the completion of Space Force mission objectives.' Vulcan's certification is at the point only partial, having only been signed off for five of the Space Force's nine required orbital needs, Purdy said. He did said ULA has increased its 'engineering resources and management focus to resolve design issues' while government personnel have been more involved with both technical and program management. Purdy said ULA's first national security launch on Vulcan will be USSF-106. The payload, Navigation Technology Satellite-3, is headed to geostationary orbit. Built by L3Harris, it's funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory and a potential replacement technology for GPS. It was one of two task orders given to ULA in 2020 with a value of $337 million. The other, USSF-51, was the one that launched last summer on an Atlas V. With ULA dealing with a backlog of the Phase 2 contract missions, the company's piece of the next pie got smaller. Earlier this year, the Space Force announced SpaceX, not ULA, would get the majority of the Phase 3 contracts with a total of $13.7 billion to be doled out over the next five years. SpaceX would receive 28 of 54 planned missions, or 52%. Meanwhile, ULA's take is only 19 missions, or 35%, while newcomer Blue Origin would get seven, or 13%. Purdy confirmed ULA had already lost out on some Phase 3 contracts because of the Vulcan delays, and addressed what he deemed to be ULA's marching orders along with other commercial providers that have fallen short on delivery to the government. 'For these programs, the prime contractors must re-establish baselines, establish a culture of accountability, and repair trust deficit to prove to (me) that they are adopting the acquisition principles necessary to deliver capabilities at speed, on cost and on schedule,' he said ULA meanwhile is dipping its toes back into launches, lining up only its second planned mission of the year, a commercial launch for customer Amazon using another of its remaining Atlas V rockets. Following the April launch of the first mission for Amazon's Project Kuiper, an internet satellite constellation that aims to compete with SpaceX's Starlink system, the second mission is targeting liftoff no earlier than June 13. Meanwhile, SpaceX has now flown its Falcon 9 on 65 missions this year, including 44 from the Space Coast. ------------
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
SpaceX launch today: Everything to know about GPS III-7 launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida
It's a meteorological coin toss: Will SpaceX launch a Falcon 9 rocket this afternoon on a Space Force GPS III satellite mission, or will cumulus clouds and summertime thunderstorms trigger a scrub? Stay tuned. SpaceX is targeting a 15-minute window from 1:23 p.m. to 1:38 p.m. to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Falcon 9 will deploy a Lockheed Martin-built GPS III satellite into medium-Earth orbit, ascending along a northeasterly trajectory. However, the Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron only predicts 45% odds of "go for launch" weather, with "isolated towering cumulus clouds" and surface electric fields posing threats. The National Weather Service calls for a 60% chance of showers and thunderstorms at the Cape — mainly after 2 p.m. — with a high near 91 degrees. What's more, forecasters cite a moderate risk of poor oceangoing conditions for the SpaceX drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas out at sea for the first-stage booster landing. Check back for live FLORIDA TODAY Space Team launch coverage updates on this page, starting about 90 minutes before the launch window opens. When SpaceX's live webcast begins about five minutes before liftoff, look for it posted below next to our countdown clock. Countdown Timer For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter. Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@ Twitter/X: @RickNeale1 Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX rocket launch today: What to know before liftoff from Florida
