Latest news with #CapeCanaveral
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
SpaceX launches rocket on Starlink mission after storms, lightning depart East-Central Florida
Hours after meteorologists issued severe thunderstorm warnings and special weather statements across Central Florida, SpaceX crews launched a Falcon 9 rocket under fair skies with 10-mile visibility Saturday, June 28, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 12:26 a.m. from Launch Complex 40, carrying 27 Starlink broadband satellites into low-Earth orbit. The post-midnight mission marked the Falcon 9 first-stage booster's fifth flight, SpaceX reported. The booster previously launched CRS-32, NROL-69, GPS III-7 and a Starlink mission. Following stage separation, the booster landed atop the SpaceX drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Cape Canaveral: Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, Axiom, ULA rocket launch schedule at Cape Canaveral NASA's Kennedy Space Center had issued its last Phase I lightning watch — giving personnel a 30-minute lead-time warning — at 7:01 p.m. Friday, nearly 5½ hours before liftoff. That lightning watch was terminated at 8:22 p.m. The launch occurred on the 10-year anniversary of a SpaceX rocket explosion following liftoff from Florida's Space Coast. On June 28, 2015, a Falcon 9 that launched from then-Cape Canaveral Air Force Station broke apart during a NASA resupply mission to the International Space Station. That rocket mishap occurred 2 minutes, 19 seconds after liftoff. The Falcon 9 was carrying a SpaceX Dragon capsule packed with more than 5,000 pounds of supplies. On Thursday, Space Launch Delta 45 announced Col. Brian Chatman is now installation commander and director of the Eastern Range at Patrick Space Force Base and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Chatman most recently served as deputy director of the Space Systems Engineering Directorate for the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration. "As the SLD 45 commander, he runs the world's busiest spaceport and is responsible for delivering infrastructure, operations, and support for all Eastern Range launch and test missions," a Space Force press release said. "As Director of the Eastern Range, he is responsible for the safety of launch and test operations across a 15-million-square-mile area," the press release said. For the latest news and launch schedule 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 launches rocket with Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
SpaceX launches rocket on Starlink mission after storms, lightning depart East-Central Florida
Hours after meteorologists issued severe thunderstorm warnings and special weather statements across Central Florida, SpaceX crews launched a Falcon 9 rocket under fair skies with 10-mile visibility Saturday, June 28, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 12:26 a.m. from Launch Complex 40, carrying 27 Starlink broadband satellites into low-Earth orbit. The post-midnight mission marked the Falcon 9 first-stage booster's fifth flight, SpaceX reported. The booster previously launched CRS-32, NROL-69, GPS III-7 and a Starlink mission. Following stage separation, the booster landed atop the SpaceX drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Cape Canaveral: Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, Axiom, ULA rocket launch schedule at Cape Canaveral NASA's Kennedy Space Center had issued its last Phase I lightning watch — giving personnel a 30-minute lead-time warning — at 7:01 p.m. Friday, nearly 5½ hours before liftoff. That lightning watch was terminated at 8:22 p.m. The launch occurred on the 10-year anniversary of a SpaceX rocket explosion following liftoff from Florida's Space Coast. On June 28, 2015, a Falcon 9 that launched from then-Cape Canaveral Air Force Station broke apart during a NASA resupply mission to the International Space Station. That rocket mishap occurred 2 minutes, 19 seconds after liftoff. The Falcon 9 was carrying a SpaceX Dragon capsule packed with more than 5,000 pounds of supplies. On Thursday, Space Launch Delta 45 announced Col. Brian Chatman is now installation commander and director of the Eastern Range at Patrick Space Force Base and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Chatman most recently served as deputy director of the Space Systems Engineering Directorate for the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration. "As the SLD 45 commander, he runs the world's busiest spaceport and is responsible for delivering infrastructure, operations, and support for all Eastern Range launch and test missions," a Space Force press release said. "As Director of the Eastern Range, he is responsible for the safety of launch and test operations across a 15-million-square-mile area," the press release said. For the latest news and launch schedule 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 launches rocket with Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
SpaceX set for overnight rocket launch from Florida's Space Coast
SpaceX crews are preparing to launch another Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Space Coast. SpaceX plans to launch 27 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The launch is scheduled for 12:26 a.m. Saturday from Space Launch Complex 40, with backup opportunities extending until 4:26 a.m. If necessary, additional launch windows are available on Sunday, June 29, at 12:04 a.m. This mission marks the fifth flight for the Falcon 9 first-stage booster, which has previously supported missions including CRS-32, NROL-69, GPS III-7, and a prior Starlink mission. After the launch, SpaceX plans to launch the booster again on its droneship 'A Shortfall of Gravitas,' stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Channel 9 will monitor the planned launch and provide updates on Eyewitness News. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA satellite emits 'spark' decades after going dormant: Astronomers think they know why
A NASA satellite that had been dead for nearly six decades issued a surprising sign of life. In June 2024, a team of astronomers were perplexed when a radio telescope in Australia scanning the sky over the southern hemisphere came across unusual radio waves. The burst of radiation was very bright, exceedingly quick – and much closer to Earth than the scientists would have thought. After studying the source of the strange cosmic phenomena, the researchers were even more mystified when it appeared to be originating from the same location as a NASA spacecraft that went offline about 58 years ago, according to a press release about the discovery released June 25, 2025. Don't be fooled, though: The defunct spacecraft that operated for about three years in the 1960s isn't kicking back on to resume operations anytime soon. So, what's going on? Here's what to know about the strange signal, and how astronomers tracked it to a defunct NASA satellite. Astronomers tracked the source of the radio waves to a location that matches that of NASA's defunct Relay 2 spacecraft, a communications satellite that launched into orbit in 1964 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft operated until June 1967 after both of its onboard transponders failed. So, has the long-dead satellite has suddenly sprung back to life after nearly six decades? Astronomers say that's unlikely. Rather, the waves more likely came from a "spark" of built up electricity, which emitted a pulse as it jumped from one part of the spacecraft to another while passing through charged environment above Earth's atmosphere, according to the researchers. The team of astronomers discovered the strange signal while hunting for bright, powerful flashes of electromagnetic radiation in the distant universe known as fast radio bursts. Most surprising to the researchers, all of whom are from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, was that the signal spotted June 13, 2024, didn't originate from a far-flung galaxy. Instead, it originated in our own cosmic neighborhood in the Milky Way. While incredibly bright, the event only lasted less than 30 nanoseconds. The astronomers detected it using Australia's national science agency's (CSIRO) ASKAP radio telescope. Clancy James, an astrophysicist at Curtin University in Australia's Perth campus, then led a team that studied the extremely bright source of radio waves to determine its source. While the satellite signal is one possible explanation, the researchers have also theorized that an impact with a tiny particle of space debris, known as a "micrometeoroid," could have caused the anomaly. Such impacts can create short-lived clouds of hot, charged gas that produce bursts of radio waves. The discovery marks the first time that a spark of built-up electricity has been observed to be both so bright and so short in duration. Now that the detection has been made, the finding not only demonstrates how astronomers can help identify the origin of these kinds of signals in the future, but could even help humanity better understand how electrostatic discharges can pose a danger to satellites in Earth's orbit. "Detections like this show how the tools developed to study the distant Universe can help scientists understand the increasingly crowded and critically important space environment close to Earth," the researcher said in a statement. The research has been accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters. A pre-print version of the paper is available on arXiv. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dead NASA satellite from Florida emits 'spark' 6 decades later: Why?
Russia Today
a day ago
- Science
- Russia Today
India's second astronaut in space enters ISS (VIDEO)
Shubhanshu Shukla has become the second Indian ever and first since 1984 to travel to space. SpaceX's Axiom Mission 4, carrying the Indian Air Force officer, successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, SpaceX has said. Shukla was selected for the South Asian nation's first human spaceflight mission to the ISS. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Wednesday, following nearly a month of delays. Shukla became the first Indian to travel to space after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma's spaceflight aboard a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in 1984. The air force officer, who was chosen by the Indian Department of Space as the prime astronaut for the mission, underwent an extensive training program with three other astronaut designates at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow in 2020. On Thursday, he sent greetings from space with a 'namaskar', a traditional Indian greeting. 'Since yesterday, I've been told that I'm sleeping a lot, which is a good sign,' Shukla said on a SpaceX livestream. 'I'm getting used to this quite well, enjoying the views, enjoying the entire experience.' He added that he was 'learning like a baby... how to walk and eat in space... It's good to make mistakes, but it is better to see someone else do that, too.' The Axiom Mission 4 carried Shukla and three other crew members to the ISS. 𝐀𝐱𝐢𝐨𝐦-𝟒 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧🚀🇮🇳Group Captain 𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐛𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐮 𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐤𝐥𝐚 enters the International Space Station (ISS) and shares his excitement:"It has been a wonderful ride... I think this is fantastic, this is wonderful, and I'm very confident that the next 14 days… Aboard the ISS, Shukla will conduct research on microscopic organisms known as tardigrades to understand how living things adapt to microgravity. Muscle regeneration, the growth of sprouts, the survival of tiny aquatic organisms, and human interaction with electronic displays in microgravity will also be studied, as well as the effects of microgravity and space radiation on edible microalgae, a potential food source for future space missions.
