A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from SLC-4E at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base at 1:27:34 UTC on December 23, 2017 with the fourth group of ten Iridium-NEXT communications satellites.
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SpaceX on Sunday conducted the Static Fire Test of the final Falcon 9 rocket set for liftoff in 2017, targeting launch from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on December 23 (UTC) to lift the next ten satellites for the Iridium-NEXT system
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Iridium 8 re-entered the atmosphere on November 24, 2017 after over 20 years in orbit as part of the original Iridium Communications Constellation, a low-orbiting satellite system for global communications including voice and point-to-point data services via 66 active satellites in six orbital planes.
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Iridium Communications announced on Thursday the company reached an agreement with SpaceX for the use of flight-proven boosters on the next two launches supporting the Iridium-NEXT constellation in order to keep up the pace of their fleet replacement
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SpaceX’s two Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ships have returned to their home ports on the East and West Coast of the United States after catching Falcon 9 boosters earlier this week.
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The launch was visible from a large stretch of the south-western United States and video captured by onlookers shows the spectacular display put on by the rocket’s first and second stages as they parted ways some 70 Kilometers in altitude
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Continuing to move at a brisk pace through launch manifests on both coasts of the United States, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket on Monday, thundering off from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base before sunrise to dispatch the third group of Iridium-NEXT communications satellites into orbit.
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg Air Force Base at 12:37:01 UTC on Monday, October 9, 2017 to dispatch the third group of ten Iridium-NEXT communications satellites into orbit.
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Setting up for a Falcon 9 double header, SpaceX successfully conducted its second Static Fire Test of the week on Thursday at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base in preparation for an early morning liftoff on Monday
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Iridium 30 re-entered the atmosphere on September 28, 2017 after over 20 years in orbit as part of the original Iridium Communications Constellation
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Iridium 77 re-entered the atmosphere on September 22, 2017 after over 19 years in orbit as part of the original Iridium Communications Constellation
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SpaceX’s Drone Ship ‘Just Read The Instructions’ returned to the Port of Los Angeles on Wednesday, bringing with it the first stage booster from Sunday’s successful Iridium-2 mission that delivered ten Iridium-NEXT Satellites to orbit and achieved the company’s second Pacific-based Drone Ship Landing.
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After successfully launching Bulgaria’s first telecommunications satellite on Friday with the added bonus of an ‘extra-toasty’ landing, a Falcon 9 took to the skies again on Sunday – blasting off from SpaceX’s West Coast launch site to send the second batch of Iridium-NEXT communications satellites on their way and returning the rocket’s first stage to the company’s second Drone Ship.
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The second SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch in a period of just as many days lifted off on Sunday from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, thundering into dense fog at 20:25 UTC.
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Two SpaceX launch campaigns are in their final stages on both coasts of the United States with a flight-proven Falcon 9 in the process of meeting its Bulgarian satellite payload for a Geotransfer mission out of Florida and a brand new Falcon 9 firing up its engines at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Tuesday
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SpaceX announced on Sunday the company had reserved launch opportunities on June 23 and 24 for the next Falcon 9 mission out of Florida that will carry Bulgaria’s first commercial communications satellite
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Satellite communications provider Iridium placed eight of its new satellites launched in January into active service after a complex ballet of orbital moves to position the new additions in the 66-satellite constellation while spiraling retiring satellites down from their operational orbits.
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