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Launch Topics

@LaunchTopics

Rocket Enthusiast, Mission Lead for the First Water Landing. Aerospace Engineer, Ex-SpaceX

 Cape Canaveral, FL
Joined April 2022
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The FAA is reviewing SpaceX's plan to take Starbase from 25 Starship launches a year to as many as 456, plus 912 landings. The top phase is weekdays only, so roughly 1.75 launches every workday and weekends off. Virtual public meetings Nov 17-19, comments through Dec 7.
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Fun fact: there's a Phase 1 before that, with up to 100 launches and 200 landings a year on any day or at any time. Boca Chica doesn't allow nighttime Starship or Super Heavy landings right now, and the FAA's noise analysis assumes half of future launches would happen at night.
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Vulcan's Comeback Flight: Six Boosters, 40 Satellites, and a Nozzle to Prove

Vulcan's Comeback Flight: Six Boosters, 40 Satellites, and a Nozzle to Prove

Article · @LaunchTopics
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Starship's Starlink Speed Loader just rolled out of Starfactory to fill Ship 42 with 26 Starlink V3s. Somewhere a vending machine feels deeply inadequate. Flight 15 targets as early as Friday, Nov 13, pending regulatory approval. 📦
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It Takes More Energy to Orbit Mercury Than to Reach Pluto. BepiColombo Is About to Do It Anyway.

It Takes More Energy to Orbit Mercury Than to Reach Pluto. BepiColombo Is About to Do It Anyway.

Article · @LaunchTopics
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Starship Flight 15 and Vulcan's return to flight are both NET Friday, Nov 13. The hardware has no opinion about the date. The weather briefing has several.
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The original starship and super heavy booster! We have sure come a long way!
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Falcon 9 is set to fly USSF-627 from Vandenberg tonight, window opening 9:49 PM ET, with the booster coming home to a droneship in the Pacific. Two more Vandenberg Falcons are on SpaceX's list by Nov 17. Coastal fog, please behave.
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Update: USSF-627 slipped a day. SpaceX now lists the Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg SLC-4E for Wed, Nov 11, window 9:35 PM to 1:35 AM ET, with a droneship landing. Staying up for it tomorrow? #Falcon9
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Also shifted: USSF-317 now targets Sat, Nov 14 (10:55 PM ET), and USSF-266 is Wed, Nov 18 (11:49 AM ET), both from Vandenberg per SpaceX.
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The FAA just licensed Sierra Space's Dream Chaser to reenter and land on the runway at Vandenberg 🛬 It's good for five years and up to four landings a year. A spaceplane landing like the Shuttle again. Think it flies in 2027? #DreamChaser
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Per the FAA, the license came well ahead of Sierra Space's targeted spring 2027 mission. Dream Chaser's first flight is planned to launch from Florida on a ULA Vulcan before landing at Vandenberg.
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Booster 22 was hoisted onto Pad 2 at Starbase last night, 33 Raptor 3 engines dangling from the crane like the world's priciest chandelier. Flight 15 targets Nov 13 pending FAA approval, and this one is planning a catch. Lifting it is the easy part 🚀
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Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and somehow the hardest one to park at. Falling sunward just makes you faster, and ESA says stopping there takes more energy than a trip to Pluto. BepiColombo has spent 8 years and 9 flybys braking. Capture day is Nov 21 🪐
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Fun fact: BepiColombo will be only the second mission ever to orbit Mercury, after NASA's MESSENGER (2011–2015). It's also bringing two orbiters at once, ESA's MPO and JAXA's Mio, which split up Dec 9–10.
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Spin test update: the payload completed several full rotations, the acoustic environment held at a steady hum, and the thermal environment was…. concerning. Not every test stand needs a launch pad. Some just need a turntable and a 30-second button.
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SpaceX's VP of Launch (Kiko) says Grok now reviews borescope video for FOD (stray debris inside parts) and catches about 99.9% of it, vs about 94% for human inspectors. Anyone who's worked flight hardware knows one stray bit can wreck an engine. Would you trust it? #SpaceX #AI
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Same talk: Dontchev says SpaceX has also automated visual checks of Starlink customer terminals, and that Falcon 9 is on the road to retirement as Starship takes over.
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Electron No. 100 has left the factory, packed in its trailer, and Rocket Lab is targeting liftoff from New Zealand no earlier than 12:30 AM ET Sat Nov 14. 99 missions to get here. Triple digits on a small rocket is a big deal. Now we just need the weather to read the memo.
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Fun fact: Electron's Rutherford engines skip gas-driven turbopumps. Battery-powered electric motors spin the propellant pumps instead, nine engines on the first stage and one on the second. Rocket Lab calls them the first electric pump-fed engines launched to space.
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