321 Launch: Space news you may have missed over the past week (Jan. 9)
SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch Swedish Ovzon satellite shortly after sunset Wednesday from Cape
Shortly after sunset Wednesday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to propel off the pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and lift Ovzon 3 — the first privately funded and developed Swedish geostationary broadband-internet satellite — into orbit.
"It’s also the most powerful GEO satellite ever to be put into orbit covering 1/3 of the earth via its steerable spot beams," Ozvon's website says.
Updates: SpaceX Ovzon-3 launch Wednesday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida
Scroll down for live coverage of the 6:04 p.m. EST liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Wednesday, Jan. 3.
SpaceX Ovzon-3 satellite mission marks first launch from Space Coast during 2024
Kicking off the Space Coast's 2024 orbital-launch tally, a two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Wednesday evening from Cape Canaveral carrying a Swedish communications satellite inside its 17-foot-diameter carbon-composite fairing.
The SpaceX Ovzon-3 mission, which promptly disappeared into the clouds from numerous Brevard County vantage points, marked the first launch of the year from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's neighboring Kennedy Space Center.
Is ULA for sale? Reports swirl as crews prep for Monday's Vulcan inaugural launch from Cape
United Launch Alliance may be purchased by Blue Origin or another potential suitor, the Wall Street Journal reported — and company officials are declining comment.
Meanwhile, ULA crews continue preparing for Monday's historic maiden flight of the Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a pivotal landmark for the company.
Take a peek at NASA's PACE spacecraft, which will study climate change and ocean health
An advanced NASA spacecraft designed to study Earth's oceanic and atmospheric phenomena waits behind an airlocked door inside an environmentally controlled Titusville high bay, where white-suited technicians plan to start adding rocket fuel next week.
NASA's PACE observatory — an acronym for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem — arrived Nov. 15 at Astrotech Space Operations off Grissom Parkway. In orbit, PACE will gather "immense quantities of data" on the chemical composition, movement and interaction of airborne particles and clouds by scanning Earth with polarimeters every two days, NASA said.
Viewer's guide: ULA's Vulcan rocket aims for historic maiden liftoff early Monday morning
The eyes of America's space industry will turn to Florida early Monday morning as United Launch Alliance's next-generation Vulcan rocket soars skyward on its historic maiden test flight, propelling a robotic four-legged lander to the moon's surface.
Engineered with flexibility in mind, the red-and-white Vulcan can be outfitted with zero, two, four or six solid rocket boosters ― adapting for an array of missions “from low-Earth orbit to Pluto and beyond."
Updates: ULA Vulcan, SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches on Jan. 7 and 8 from Cape Canaveral
Scroll down for live coverage of the 2:18 a.m. EST Monday, Jan. 8, liftoff of United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket on its Cert-1 maiden mission, preceded by the 5:35 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 7, liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 6-35 mission.
ULA Vulcan rocket launches without delay on history-making maiden flight from Cape Canaveral
United Launch Alliance's new red-and-white Vulcan rocket lifted off in the early Monday morning darkness directly on time during its maiden flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, propelling the Peregrine robotic lunar lander to a planned Feb. 23 moon landing.
However, by Monday afternoon, moon-lander developer Astrobotic reported that the Peregrine's propulsion system had suffered "a critical loss of propellant" — forcing engineers to assess which alternative mission goals may be feasible.
Put your name on NASA's VIPER rover for free, get a virtual boarding pass to the moon. Here's how
Want to get your name on the moon's surface before the Artemis astronauts get there? NASA is now taking names to (virtually) board the first robotic lunar rover heading to the moon's south pole, and you can get a boarding pass.
The rover VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) will look for water ice and "unravel the mysteries of the Moon’s water and better understand the environment where NASA plans to land the first woman and first person of color under its Artemis program," according to the NASA blog post.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: 321 Launch: Space news you may have missed over the past week (Jan. 9)
