Launches

The Dragon 2 cargo spacecraft blasting off atop a Falcon 9 in its CRS-32 mission (Image NASA+)

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A little while ago, the SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in its CRS-32 (Cargo Resupply Service 32) mission, also referred to as SPX-32. After almost 10 minutes, it separated successfully from the rocket’s last stage and went en route. This is the 32nd mission for the Dragon/Dragon 2 spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station with various cargoes and then return to Earth, again with various cargoes.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft lifts off atop a Falcon 9 rocket on the Fram2 mission (Photo courtesy SpaceX)

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A few hours ago, the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center on the Fram2 mission. After about twelve minutes, it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage. It will spend between 3 and 5 days in orbit. Unlike the previous private space missions conducted by SpaceX in recent years, in the Fram2, the Crew Dragon entered a polar orbit, the first time for a crewed space flight, at an altitude that will range between 425 and 450 kilometers.

The Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket to start the Crew-10 mission (Image NASA)

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A few hours ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in its Crew-10 or SpaceX Crew-10 mission. After almost exactly ten minutes, it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and went en route to carry out its mission. This is the 10th crewed mission of the Crew Dragon spacecraft within the normal rotation of the International Space Station crew.

The SPHEREx space telescope and the PUNCH satellites blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket (Image courtesy SpaceX)

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A few hours ago, the SPHEREx space telescope and the PUNCH satellites, two NASA astronomy missions, blasted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg base. After about 42 minutes, SPHEREx successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage, and about 10 minutes later, the PUNCH satellites also separated, within about a minute. Both missions will operate from a Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 kilometers for SPHEREx and 570 kilometers for PUNCH.

Super Heavy 15 and Starship 34 at liftoff (Image courtesy SpaceX)

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It was the afternoon in the USA when SpaceX conducted a new flight test of its Super Heavy rocket and Starship prototypes, launched from its base in Boca Chica, Texas. This is the 8th test involving the entire system of Elon Musk’s company which is supposed to revolutionize space travel with an unprecedented transport capacity and being totally reusable. They are advanced prototypes with the Super Heavy identified as Booster 15 and the Starship Block 2 identified as Starship 34 or Ship34 or simply S34.