Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with 10 satellites for the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 missile tracking and data relay network. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
NASA cited the complexity of Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser space plane and an uncertainty of when the proposed crew transport craft would be ready to fly astronauts to the International Space Station as the primary reasons the agency picked Boeing and SpaceX for lucrative contracts to develop commercial space taxis.
Seven small satellites rode a Rocket Lab Electron rocket into orbit Saturday from New Zealand. Carrying commercial, military and student payloads, the Electron launcher lifted off at 0430 GMT (12:30 a.m. EDT).
SpaceX launched Argentina’s SAOCOM 1B radar observation satellite from Cape Canaveral at 7:18 p.m. EDT (2318 GMT) Sunday. A Falcon 9 rocket headed toward the south on a trajectory hugging the Florida East Coast on the first flight into polar orbit from Cape Canaveral since 1969, and the first stage booster returned to the spaceport for an onshore landing minutes after liftoff.
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