Cygnus ready for first launch on Falcon 9

A Cygnus cargo spacecraft is set to launch on a Falcon 9 rocket for the first time, a combination that required more changes to the rocket than to the spacecraft. NASA announced at a Jan. 26 briefing that it was targeting Jan. 30 at 12:07 p.m. Eastern for the launch of the NG-20 cargo mission from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40. That is a one-day slip from previous plans, which the agency said was to “accommodate launch pad readiness.” If Cygnus launches that day, it will arrive at the International Space Station early Feb. 1. The launch marks the first time Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft has flown on Falcon 9. All previous launches of Cygnus have been on Northrop’s own Antares launch vehicle with the exception of two missions that launched on United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 after an Antares launch failure in 2014. Northrop plans to launch at least three Cygnus missions on Falcon 9 rockets as it works with Firefly Aerospace on a new version of the Antares, replacing the Ukrainian-built first stage powered by Russian engines with a stage developed by Firefly using its own engines. That vehicle, the Antares 330, is slated to begin launches as soon as mid-2025. The shift to the Falcon 9 has been relatively smooth for Northrop. “We didn’t really have to make any modifications to the Cygnus,” said Cyrus Dhalla, vice president and general manager of tactical space systems at Northrop Grumman, during the briefing. The company did make minor changes to the cargo loading process, which he attributed to doing it in a new facility with different equipment.

The NG-20 Cygnus cargo spacecraft being encapsulated for launch on a Falcon 9. Credit: SpaceX

The shift in launch vehicles doesn’t alter the capabilities of the Cygnus, he added. The NG-20 mission will carry a little more than 3,700 kilograms of cargo, the capacity of the current version of the vehicle.

SpaceX, though, did have to make changes to accommodate Cygnus, specifically its ability for “late load” of cargo within 24 hours of launch. The Antares has a “pop top” opening at the top of the rocket’s payload fairing, allowing access to the Cygnus inside for cargo loading after the spacecraft has been encapsulated.

To provide a similar late load capability for Falcon 9 launches of Cygnus, SpaceX created what Bill Gerstenmaier, vice president of build and flight reliability at SpaceX, called a “gigadoor” in the fairing of the Falcon 9. That is a door 1.5 by 1.2 meters in the side of the fairing that can be opened to provide environmentally controlled access to the Cygnus inside.

“This will be the first time we’ve done that,” he said, as SpaceX’s own Dragon spacecraft launches without a fairing. “It’s taken a lot of modifications on our part to get this hardware ready to go fly.” He added that putting the door in the payload fairing does not affect SpaceX’s ability to recover and reuse it.

“We really appreciate how SpaceX has worked with us to accommodate the flow of cargo and integration, and we’ve been able to reuse a lot of our procedures,” Dhalla said.

Besides the development of the payload fairing door for Cygnus launches, SpaceX has been testing modifications to its transporter erector at Launch Complex 39A, enabling it to load liquid methane and oxygen propellants. That is required for the upcoming launch of the IM-1 lunar lander by Intuitive Machines, which will be fueled on the pad, inside the payload fairing, shortly before launch.

Gerstenmaier said SpaceX was doing testing of that equipment to ensure it is ready for the IM-1 launch, currently projected for mid-February. “That work is pretty much on track,” he said. “It’s a lot of interesting integration but, as you see even with this Northrop Grumman 20 mission, we at SpaceX like to do innovative and creative things.”

Crew-7 launches to the space station

A Falcon 9 launched a multinational crew to the International Space Station Aug. 26 after a one-day delay to check the spacecraft’s life support system. The SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:27 a.m. Eastern on the Crew-7 mission for NASA. The Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance separated from the Falcon 9’s upper stage a little more than 12 minutes later. Endurance, with its crew of four, is scheduled to dock with the zenith port on the Harmony module of the ISS at 8:39 a.m. Eastern Aug. 27. That will kick off a roughly six-month stay on the station. The launch was scheduled for Aug. 25 but postponed several hours before the scheduled liftoff. NASA said that engineers needed more time to review a component of the Crew Dragon’s life support system, known as ECLSS. NASA did not initially state what that component was but later said it was valves in an air supply system. Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, said at the post-launch briefing that after discovering corroded valves in the propulsion system of a cargo Dragon in June, SpaceX “out of an abundance of caution” decided to review all valves on the spacecraft, including for life support and propulsion. The review was designed to check the “force margin,” or the ability of the valve to open and close. “It took a little bit more time to get through the ECLSS valves,” he said, which led to the one-day slip. “We said, let’s stand down for 24 hours and make sure we understand it before we go fly.” That review confirmed that the valves were working properly and required no changes.

A Falcon 9 lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center Aug. 26 on the Crew-7 mission to the ISS. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

During the launch countdown, controllers reported a sensor issue that was cleared shortly before liftoff. At the post-launch briefing, officials said that sensors had detected trace amounts of nitrogen tetroxide, or NTO, from the Crew Dragon spacecraft that indicated a possible propellant leak. NTO is one of the two hypergolic propellants used by the spacecraft’s thrusters.

Benji Reed, senior director of the human spaceflight program at SpaceX, said at the post-launch briefing that the levels of NTO detected were about 0.25 parts per million. Three engineers independently calculated what level of leak could cause that reading and all three came to the same conclusion. “The good news was that the number that we came up with was well within the range of what you might normally see.”

That assessment, though, came down to the wire. “We were working the problem and we cleared it within the last two minutes of the count,” he said.

Crew-7 is the first commercial crew flight to carry people from four different agencies. The mission is commanded by NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli on her first flight to space. European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen is the pilot; he made a 10-day trip to the station on a Soyuz spacecraft in 2015. Satoshi Furukawa of the Japanese space agency JAXA and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov are mission specialists. Furukawa flew a long-duration mission to the ISS in 2011 while Borisov is on his first trip to space.

That multinational lineup was simply how the crew assignments worked out, said Joel Montalbano, NASA ISS program manager, at a preflight briefing Aug. 21. “The way the timing worked out for this one with our integrated crew agreement that we have with Roscosmos, it was time for these other folks to fly,” he said.

Stich said at that briefing that another milestone for Crew-7 is having a non-NASA astronaut, Mogensen, be a Crew Dragon pilot for the first time. “It’s a very big deal for us,” he said then.

Such multinational crews will not always be the case. The next Crew Dragon mission to the ISS, Crew-8 launching in early 2024, will have three NASA astronauts and one Roscosmos cosmonaut.

The arrival of Crew-7 will allow NASA to begin preparations for the return of the Crew-6 mission, which has been on the station for nearly six months. Montalbano said at the post-launch briefing that the agency was planning a five-day handover between Crew-6 and Crew-7 before Crew-6 departs on the Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour. That timing, though, will depend on weather at splashdown locations off the Florida coast, which could be affected by the expected formation of a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico in the next several days.

Falcon 9 launches ESA’s Euclid space telescope

A European mission to unravel some of the biggest mysteries in the universe is underway thanks to a launch from an American rocket. A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off at 11:12 a.m. Eastern July 1 from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40. The rocket deployed its payload, the European Space Agency’s Euclid spacecraft, 41 minutes later after placing it on a trajectory to the Earth-sun L-2 Lagrange point. The rocket’s booster, on its second flight after launching the Ax-2 private astronaut mission in May, landed on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. “It was really a fantastic launch,” said ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher at a post-launch briefing. “This is a very important mission for the European Space Agency.” The two-ton Euclid spacecraft, built by Thales Alenia Space, will spend a month traveling to the L-2 point, 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth in the direction opposite the sun. Once there, it will undergo a two-month commissioning period before beginning its science mission. Carole Mundell, ESA’s director of science, said that commissioning work includes turning on the two main instruments on the spacecraft and calibrating the data, while also confirming the thermal stability of the system. “The optics are so precise we should have diffraction-limited images, so we want to make sure we are getting that quality of images and that our spectra are as we expect.” The 1.4-billion-euro ($1.5 billion) mission will spend six years conducting a detailed survey of one third of the sky using a visible camera and near-infrared spectrometer and photometer. Astronomers will use those observations of millions of galaxies to test the validity of various models for dark matter and dark energy, which together comprise 95% of the universe.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off July 1 carrying ESA’s Euclid cosmology spacecraft. Credit: SpaceNews/Jeff Foust

Scientists involved with the mission are optimistic that Euclid’s observations will help them understand the nature of dark matter and dark energy. “It’s a really great time to be a cosmologist,” said Henk Hoekstra, a member of the 2,000-person Euclid Consortium of scientists and engineers who have worked on the mission, during a pre-launch briefing June 30. “The launch of Euclid really changes cosmology into the future.”

Euclid will collect a massive amount of data: an estimated 170 petabytes (one petabyte is 1,000 terabytes) over its planned six-year mission. That will be augmented by complementary surveys by several ground-based telescopes. Nine data centers, eight in Europe and one in the United States, will archive the data.

Although Euclid was developed for cosmology, project scientists say the data should be useful for a wide range of other studies, from objects in our solar system to the evolution of galaxies. “This dataset will be transformational across a huge range of astrophysics projects,” said Jason Rhodes, chair of the Euclid Consortium Board. “This is data that is going to be mined by astrophysicists for decades to come.”

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, under development for launch in 2027, will perform dark energy studies similar to Euclid. “It will be doing similar science but in a different way,” said Nicola Fox, NASA associate administrator for science, after the launch. She said the two missions should be complementary in much the same was as NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and ESA’s Solar Orbiter missions to study the sun. “The partnership with Euclid and Roman is going to unlock so much of our dark universe.”

While NASA is a partner with ESA on Euclid, providing infrared detectors for one of its instruments, the launch took place from Florida because of a contract ESA signed with SpaceX. ESA turned to the Falcon 9 after losing access to the Soyuz rocket, originally selected to launch the mission, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

“We owe them a huge thanks. Without them our satellite would be sitting on the ground for two years,” Mike Healy, head of science projects at ESA, said of SpaceX before the launch.

The first discussions with SpaceX were in May of 2022, he said, followed by feasibility studies and testing to ensure Euclid was compatible with the Falcon 9. While ESA announced in October its intent to launch Euclid and another mission, Hera, on the Falcon 9, the agency did not sign a final contract with SpaceX until the end of January.

“We had to squash what we normally do in three years into five months,” he said of the switch to the Falcon 9. That required dealing with a number of challenges ranging from technical issues of integrating the spacecraft with the rocket to dealing with U.S. export control policies.

“I’m very happy with the relationship we have with SpaceX,” said Giuseppe Racca, Euclid project manager at ESA, before the launch. “They are incredibly skilled in problem solving. It’s a most valuable experience.”

SpaceX begins 2023 with Transporter-6 launch

After a record-setting year of launch activity in 2022, SpaceX kicked off the new year Jan. 3 with a Falcon 9 launch of more than 110 smallsats. The Falcon 9 lifted off on the Transporter-6 dedicated smallsat rideshare mission at 9:56 a.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40. The rocket’s first stage, making its 15th flight, landed back at the Cape’s Landing Zone 1 eight and a half minutes after liftoff. The rocket’s upper stage started releasing its 114 payloads into sun-synchronous orbit nearly an hour after liftoff, a process involving 82 individual deployments that took more than a half-hour to complete. SpaceX was able to confirm 77 of the deployments in real time. The largest single customer on the launch, in terms of number of satellites, was Planet, which had 36 of its SuperDove imaging satellites on board. Planet has now launched more than 500 satellites, mostly cubesats like the SuperDoves. 

A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off Jan. 3 on the Transporter-6 dedicated smallsat rideshare mission. Credit: SpaceX webcast

Some of the other major payloads on Transporter-6 included:

- Six LEMUR cubesats for Spire, which operates a constellation for collecting weather and tracking data;
- Four imaging satellites for Satellogic, which has slowed the deployment of its constellation after revenues fell short of projections in 2022; 

- Four radio-frequency intelligence satellites for Luxembourg-based Kleos and the BRO-8 radio-frequency intelligence satellite for French startup Unseenlabs;
- Three synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellites for Iceye and two SAR satellites for Umbra;
- Two satellites for Lynk, which is developing a constellation to provide direct-to-handset connectivity services; Twelve SpaceBee internet-of-things satellites for SpaceX-owned Swarm Technologies;
- Gama Alpha, the first satellite by French company Gama to test solar sail technologies;
- The Electro-Optical/Infrared Weather Systems (EWS) technology demonstration cubesat for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command.

Several of the payloads on Transporter-6 are orbital transfer vehicles that will later deploy satellites. They include two ION vehicles from D-Orbit, the second Vigoride tug from Momentus and Launcher’s first Orbiter vehicle.

Transporter-6 is the sixth in a series of smallsat rideshare missions by SpaceX, which performed the first two Transporter missions in 2021 and three in 2022. The company said in August that it continues to see strong demand for the services despite the rise in small launch vehicles that offer dedicated launch options for smallsats. All of SpaceX’s Transporter missions for 2023 are full, the company said then, although last-minute opportunities may arise.

A record 2022

Transporter-6 was the first orbital launch globally in 2023. It comes after a record 2022, when there were 186 orbital launch attempts, 40 more than 2021. A total of 179 launches were successful, compared to 136 in 2021.

Orbital launch activity has doubled in just the last five years. In 2017 there were 86 successful orbital launches in 90 attempts. SpaceX is responsible for much of that growth, having gone from 18 launches in 2017 to 61 in 2022, while Chinese launches increased from 18 in 2017 to 64 in 2022.

With the exception of New Zealand, which went from the first Rocket Lab Electron launch in 2017 to nine in 2022, other countries saw flat or reduced launch activity over the last five years. That includes Europe, which went from 11 launches in 2017 to 6 in 2022, and Japan, which had seven launches in 2017 but only a single, unsuccessful Epsilon launch in 2022.

SpaceX, whose 61 launches in 2022 were nearly double the 31 launches it conducted in 2021, will attempt to set another launch record in 2023. SpaceX founder Elon Musk has suggested the company will attempt as many as 100 launches in 2023, a total that likely include its Starship vehicle, whose first orbital launch is expected some time this year.

SpaceX completes record year with Israeli imaging satellite launch

SpaceX capped off the busiest year in its two-decade history Dec. 30 with a Falcon 9 launch of a commercial Israeli imaging satellite. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 2:38 a.m. Eastern from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The rocket’s first stage, flying its 11th mission, landed back at the launch site eight minutes after liftoff. The Falcon 9 upper stage deployed its payload, the EROS C3 imaging satellite, nearly 15 minutes after liftoff. The satellite was released at an altitude of nearly 500 kilometers in an unusual mid-inclination retrograde orbit, rather than the sun-synchronous orbit commonly used for optical imaging spacecraft. EROS C3 was built by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) for ImageSat International, a Tel Aviv-based commercial imaging company. The 400-kilogram satellite, based on IAI’s OPTSAT-3000 bus, is designed to take images at a resolution of 30 centimeters. ImageSat International, which went public in February on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, stated in a prospectus filed as part of that process that EROS C3 cost the company $186 million, a figure that included the spacecraft itself, the launch and insurance. The company planned to use part of the $100 million raised from going public to pay some of the remaining costs to build and launch the spacecraft. EROS C3 joins EROS B, launched in 2006, as satellites owned and operated by ImageSat International. The company also offers imagery from two other satellites, which it calls EROS C1 and EROS C2, that are owned by an unnamed third party but have capabilities similar to EROS C3. Those satellites may be part of the Ofeq series of Israeli reconnaissance satellites, also built by IAI, which operate in mid-inclination retrograde orbits similar to EROS C3 because of the limitations of launching from Israel.

A Falcon 9 lifts off Dec. 30 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California carrying the EROS C3 imaging satellite on SpaceX's 61st and final launch of 2022. Credit: SpaceX webcast

EROS C3 is part of ImageSat’s EROS NG constellation, which includes EROS C1 and C2 as well as a planned future imaging satellite, EROS C4, slated for launch in 2026. EROS NG will also incorporate two synthetic aperture radar satellites that will be owned by an unnamed third party and commercialized by ImageSat.

The launch of EROS C3 completed the most active year to date for SpaceX. The company performed 61 launches, all successful, in 2022. All but one, a Falcon Heavy launch for the U.S. Space Force, were of the company’s Falcon 9 vehicle, which has become a workhorse for the global space industry.

SpaceX nearly doubled its launch rate from 2021, when the company performed a then-record 31 Falcon 9 launches. That launch activity was driven by the company’s Starlink constellation, which accounted for 34 of the 61 launches in 2022.

The 61 launches SpaceX performed in 2022 exceeded a goal of 60 set by Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of SpaceX, in a tweet in March. Musk has not publicly stated how many launches he expects SpaceX to conduct in 2023, but SpaceX’s first launch of the new year, the Transporter-6 dedicated rideshare mission, is scheduled for no earlier than Jan. 2 on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40.

Firefly Aerospace picks SpaceX rocket to launch Blue Ghost moon lander in 2023

The space launch company Firefly Aerospace announced this week that when its Blue Ghost lander launches to the moon in 2023, it will do so on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. "Firefly is excited to fly our Blue Ghost spacecraft on the highly reliable Falcon 9, which will deliver NASA instruments and technology demonstration payloads that support NASA science goals and NASA's Artemis program," Shea Ferring, Firefly's senior vice president of spacecraft, said in a statement Thursday (May 20). The Falcon 9 will be able to carry Blue Ghost to the moon without forcing the lander to expend much of the fuel it might need for the actual touchdown, Ferring added. Firefly has yet to launch anything, though in June, the Austin, Texas-based company hopes to begin testing its own rocket for small satellite launches: Firefly Alpha. Nonetheless, the company has been active in designing lunar landers, and it's paid off; in February, NASA awarded Firefly a $93.3 million contract to deliver Blue Ghost to the moon.

Blue Ghost is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which contracts private-sector firms to land science experiments and other assorted cargo on the moon. The first CLPS missions could launch as soon as this year.

SpaceX is also no stranger to CLPS, and has even launched one moon mission — the private Israeli moon lander Beresheet — to the moon on a Falcon 9 rocket. (The Beresheet lander failed to land successfully, however.). SpaceX has already been tapped to launch a few other CLPS landers—such as Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C and Masten’s XL-1—perhaps as early as 2022.

If all goes to plan, Blue Ghost will land in Mare Crisium, a dark oval that you can see if you look to the upper right edge of the moon's face. It will carry 10 payloads weighing about 330 lbs. (150 kilograms) when it lands. Firefly Aerospace named its Blue Ghost lander after the rare Phausis reticulata firefly).

That payload will help perform a potpourri of science — studying things such as what makes up the moon's mantle, how radiation affects computer chips on a world without a magnetic field, and how well you can pick up GPS signals out there.

SpaceX rocket issue delays astronaut launch

SpaceX and NASA have delayed the launch of the company's upcoming astronaut mission to the first half of November to investigate a problem with gas generators in a Falcon 9 rocket's engine. A NASA statement said only that SpaceX data from a recent launch attempt of another Falcon 9 rocket showed "off-nominal behavior" in the generators, and the delay would allow the company to complete tests and review more data. "We're now targeting [not earlier than] early-to-mid November for launch of NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the Space Station," NASA's Associate Administrator Kathy Leuders posted Saturday on Twitter. "The extra time will allow SpaceX to resolve an unexpected observation during a recent non-NASA launch attempt." Launch of the six-month mission, SpaceX Crew-1, is to be the first regular trip to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which allows NASA to contract for launch services from private companies. The mission would be the first ever of a capsule with four people on board. SpaceX owns the rocket, but NASA has full knowledge of the company's launch and testing data, Leuders noted. "The teams are actively working this finding on the engines, and we should be a lot smarter within the coming week," she said in a statement. The crew for the mission consists of mission commander Michael Hopkins, 51, pilot Victor Glover, 44, and mission specialists Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi, both 55. Noguchi is a Japanese astronaut.

The previous crewed SpaceX capsule, which returned to Earth on Aug. 2, carried two astronauts and spent two months in orbit.

The issue with the rocket engine will not delay two other upcoming Falcon 9 launches for the space agency that will carry a satellite and supplies to the space station, NASA said.

The astronaut mission is to lift off from Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Weather threatens U.S. astronauts' SpaceX launch from Florida

Weather has become a major concern for the planned launch of two American astronauts Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the first crewed mission from U.S. soil in nine years. The projected liftoff has a 60 percent of violating weather constraints because of a thick cloud cover and the likelihood that their SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket would fly through rain, Air Force meteorologists at nearly Patrick Air Force Base said Sunday. "On launch day, remnant moisture" from a tropical wave will remain in the area, according to the Launch Mission Execution Forecast. "The primary launch weather concerns remain flight through precipitation, the thick cloud layer rule and the cumulus cloud rule associated with the remnant tropical moisture and proximity of [a] developing low." A launch cannot occur if precipitation is occurring at the launch pad or within the flight path. Similarly a launch generally cannot occur if any part of the planned flight path is through a layer of clouds within 5 nautical miles and is 4,500 feet thick or thicker. Other parameters have to be met, as well. If the launch is scrubbed, NASA has said, the next attempt to send the Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station would come Saturday. Both President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have announced they would attend the launch Wednesday, and it was not clear whether a postponement would change those plans to attend. Despite the dire weather forecast, astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken -- and the mission team -- participated in a "dry dress' rehearsal Saturday in which they donned their black and white spacesuits and made a 20-minute drive in a Tesla Model X to Launch Complex 39A.

Elon Musk, who operates SpaceX, also is the chief executive officer of Tesla.

Hurley and Behnken then took a service tower elevator to the spacecraft access arm gantry and climbed into the capsule. They checked out communication systems, and the hatch was closed. They then went through a run-through with all launch personnel.

According to the space agency, "the rehearsal concluded with the go/no-go poll for Falcon 9 propellant loading, which normally occurs 45 minutes before launch."

A day before the rehearsal, engineers successfully fired the rocket's nine Merlin first-stage engines for seven seconds in what NASA describes as a "critical but routine test."

The liftoff, should it occur Wednesday, is planned for 4:33 p.m. EDT. The Dragon capsule would dock with the International Space Station on Thursday at 11:29 a.m. EDT.

SpaceX rocket prepared for Demo-2 Mission

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen as it is raised into a vertical position on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Demo-2 mission, Thursday, May 21, 2020, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 mission is the first launch with astronauts of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. The flight test will serve as an end-to-end demonstration of SpaceX's crew transportation system. Behnken and Hurley are scheduled to launch at 4:33 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 27, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. A new era of human spaceflight is set to begin as American astronauts once again launch on an American rocket from American soil to low-Earth orbit for the first time since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.

NASA greenlights SpaceX crew capsule test to ISS

NASA on Friday gave SpaceX the green light to test a new crew capsule by first sending an unmanned craft with a life-sized mannequin to the International Space Station. "We're go for launch, we're go for docking," said William Gerstenmaier, the associate administrator with NASA Human Exploration and Operations. A Falcon 9 rocket from the private US-based SpaceX is scheduled to lift off, weather permitting, on March 2 to take the Crew Dragon test capsule to the ISS. NASA signed contracts in 2014 with SpaceX and Boeing for the companies to shuttle US astronauts to the ISS. This will be the first time the US space agency lets a private-sector company transport their astronauts. NASA ended its space-shuttle program in 2011 and since then has relied on buying spots on Russian Soyuz rockets to send US astronauts to the orbiting ISS. "This is an absolutely critical first step that we do as we move towards returning the crewed launch capability back here to the US," said Gerstenmaier, speaking at a press conference in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The March 2 flight will be identical to a flight that is set to take two astronauts to the ISS later in the year, possibly in July. The Crew Dragon capsule has seven seats. It should dock with the ISS on March 3, then detach and return to Earth on March 8. "I guarantee everything will not work exactly right, and that's cool, that's exactly what we want to do," said Gerstenmaier.

"We want to maximize our learning so when... we're ready to go do a real crewed mission, and it'll be the right safety for our crews."

SpaceX has already made more than a dozen unmanned trips since 2012 carrying supplies to the ISS with the cargo version of the Dragon capsule.

But the safety criteria for manned flights are higher, and NASA said that the Crew Dragon still has some problems, including with its parachutes.

"It's a really big deal for SpaceX," said Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of the company founded by billionaire Elon Musk.

SpaceX launches, lands rocket in challenging conditions

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket carried 10 Iridium satellites into orbit on Wednesday. The Iridium-7 mission marked SpaceX's 14th launch of the year and the seventh mission for Iridium Communications, which aims to launch 75 satellites into orbit. After Wednesday's mission, Iridium now has 65 satellites in operation. The rocket blasted-off early Wednesday morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. "All 10 satellites have deployed into an on-target orbit," Spaceflight Now's Stephen Clark reported at 8:53 a.m. ET. As usual, SpaceX safely landed the rocket's reusable first stage. The rocket stage landed on the spaceport drone ship "Just Read the Instructions." Though SpaceX's rocket reusability has become routine, Wednesday's weather conditions made the feat more difficult. "Despite challenging weather conditions, Falcon 9 first stage booster landed on Just Read the Instructions," SpaceX wrote on Twitter. Foggy conditions made visibility a problem. At the outset of the live streaming broadcast, the Falcon 9 rocket was nearly invisible, only coming into clear view after liftoff. Choppy seas added to the challenge of landing the first stage back on Earth.

The 10 Iridium satellites will join the dozens of Iridium satellites already in space. The constellation of communication satellites -- now featuring 75 satellites and scheduled to get 10 more later this summer -- is designed to support the Internet of Things, the technology behind smart devices.

SpaceX says Iridium satellite payload deploye

The private firm SpaceX on Friday said a partially-reused rocket successfully launched and deployed the latest group of satellites to upgrade communication networks for Virginia-based company Iridium. "We have successful liftoff of the Falcon 9," a SpaceX commentator said after the rocket roared off with a tail of fiery exhaust from Vandenberg US Air Force base in California. SpaceX confirmed on Twitter the "successful deployment of all 10 @IridiumComm NEXT satellites to low-Earth orbit." It was the fifth set of 10 satellites that SpaceX has launched for Iridium, whose $3 billion project is expected to include a total of 81 satellites -- with 75 launched by SpaceX. The first stage of the rocket sent aloft on Friday had been used in October for a previous launch as part of the project, known as Iridium NEXT. SpaceX did not attempt to make another recovery of the rocket's first stage after Friday's launch.

However, it did try to land the fairing -- the rocket's nose cone -- on a SpaceX-owned boat named "Mr Steven," which is equipped with a huge net.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter the fairing "impacted water at high speed," without confirming explicitly if the landing was successful or not.

Musk aims to make rockets as reusable as commercial airplanes, bringing down the cost of spaceflight and boosting efficiency.

In February the company's Falcon Heavy, the world's most powerful rocket, blasted off on its maiden test flight carrying Musk's cherry red Tesla roadster car.

The Iridium project, though less flamboyant, will replace the world's largest commercial satellite network of low-Earth orbit satellites in one of the largest "tech upgrades" in history, improving mobile, voice and data networks, Iridium has said.

Some of the satellites are designed to help track ships and aircraft in real time.

SpaceX to Launch Korean Communications Satellite Today: Watch It Live

SpaceX aims to pull off another launch-and-landing double play today (Oct. 30), and you can watch all the spaceflight action live. A SpaceX two-stage Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch the KoreaSat 5A communications satellite at 3:34 p.m. EDT (1934 GMT) today from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. You can courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company at http://www.spacex.com/webcast. If all goes according to plan, the booster's first stage will return to Earth for a soft landing less than 10 minutes after liftoff, settling vertically onto a SpaceX "drone ship" stationed off the Florida coast. Such landings are part of SpaceX's plan to develop fully and rapidly reusable rockets and space vehicles, a key priority for the company and its billionaire founder and CEO, Elon Musk. To date, SpaceX has aced 18 Falcon 9 touchdowns and re-launched landed boosters on three different occasions.

SpaceX has also re-flown a Dragon cargo capsule once and aims to do so again on its next resupply run to the International Space Station for NASA, which will launch no earlier than December.

KoreaSat 5A is owned by the South Korean company KTSat. The satellite will provide TV and other communications services to people in South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia, according to the company's website. The satellite will also aid maritime communications from East Africa to East Asia.

KoreaSat 5A will replace KoreaSat 5, which launched in 2006.