Prepare for liftoff: Here are all the important upcoming SpaceX rocket launches

SpaceX is known for its nail-biting rocket launches that keep people glued to their screens, waiting to see if the mission will be a success or a fiery failure. Watching these launches has become so popular that SpaceX is now live streaming nearly every one. Want to watch a Falcon Heavy or the cutting-edge Dragon capsule take to the skies? Then check out this curated schedule of upcoming SpaceX launches below, so you know when to tune in. Dates listed are as up to date as possible, but due to changing weather conditions and a variety of other factors, launch dates frequently shift.

2/9/2019	NASA	Falcon 9/Crew Dragon spacecraft	Kennedy Space Center, Florida	Crew Dragon Demo 1 – uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station.
Feb 2019	PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara and SpaceIL	Falcon 9	Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida	Launch of the PSN communications satellite and the SpaceIL Lunar Lander, a privately funded lunar lander developed by Israel’s SpaceIL Launch window: TBD.
March 2019	Arabsat of Saudi Arabia	Kennedy Space Center, Florida	Falcon Heavy	Launch of Arabsat 6A communications satellite.
3/16/2019	NASA	Cape Canaveral, Florida	Falcon 9/Dragon	17th Dragon cargo delivery flight to the International Space Station.
March 2019	Canadian Space Agency and MDA	Vandenberg Air Force Base, California	Falcon 9	Launch of three Earth-observation Radarsat satellites Launch window: TBD.
April 2019	U.S. Air Force	Kennedy Space Center, Florida	Falcon Heavy	USAF’s Space Test Program-2 mission. Launch window: TBD.
2nd Quarter 2019	Spacecom	Cape Canaveral Air Force Station	Falcon 9	Launch of the Amos 17 communications satellite from Boeing and Spacecom. Launch window: TBD.
June 2019	NASA	Falcon 9/Crew Dragon spacecraft	Kennedy Space Center, Florida	Crew Dragon Demo 2 – first manned test flight to the International Space Station and back with a sea splashdown landing. NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken will fly the spacecraft.
7/8/2019	NASA	Cape Canaveral, Florida	Falcon 9/Dragon	18th Dragon cargo delivery flight to the International Space Station.
Oct 2019	U.S. Air Force	Cape Canaveral Air Force Station	Falcon 9	Launch of the second GPS III navigation satellite (GPS3 SVO3).
10/15/2019	NASA	Cape Canaveral, Florida	Falcon 9/Dragon	19th Dragon cargo delivery flight to the International Space Station.
4th Quarter 2019	Conae	Vandenberg Air Force Base, California	Falcon 9	Launch of the Saocom 1B Earth observing satellite for Argentina’s Conae space agency. Launch window: TBD.

SpaceX is on a mission to make spaceflight affordable by creating a reusable rocket that can launch, land, and fly again — much like a passenger plane. The privately funded company has made great strides since its debut in 2002, and logged a record number of firsts — including the first retrieval of a private spacecraft from low orbit, the historic landing of a Falcon 9 rocket, and an impressive drone ship landing. Let’s also not forget that one time Elon Musk sent a Tesla Roadster into space, headed for Mars orbit.

Launch and landing are just the beginning though. In recent years, Space X has moved closer to its reusable rocket dreams by successfully reusing a Falcon 9 rocket to deliver a commercial satellite into orbit. This year, the company has an aggressive launch schedule that includes several ISS resupply missions, a Falcon heavy launch and even a demonstration of its cutting-edge Crew Dragon capsule which one day will shuttle crew to the ISS. Each successful flight brings the company closer to its goal of making rocket launches into space as safe and routine as airline flights.

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Weekly Space Hangout: March 11, 2020 – Dr. Jon Willis talks Galaxy Cluster XLSSC 122

This week we are airing Fraser’s PRERECORDED interview with Dr. Jon Willis, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Victoria, Canada.

Asteroid Bennu is Getting Some Official Names for its Surface Features

Late last summer, NASA and the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (a.k.a WGPSN) approved the naming convention for features on Bennu, the asteroid currently being orbited and studied by the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft. The naming theme chosen was “birds and bird-like creatures in mythology.”

The first twelve features thusly named have now been announced. But more importantly, some of these features will be instrumental in helping to guide OSIRIS-REx to the surface of the asteroid later this year.

SpaceX Launches its Last Dragon 1 Mission to the ISS

On Friday, March 6th, as part of the company’s 20th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-20) mission, SpaceX launched a Dragon 1 capsule destined for the International Space Station (ISS). The mission involved the transport of supplies, as well as materials related to the more than 250 science investigations taking place aboard the ISS. More than that, it represented a milestone for the aerospace manufacturer.

OSIRIS-REx did its Closest Flyover Yet, just 250 Meters Above its Sample Site

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx is getting closer, physically and temporally, to its primary goal. The spacecraft arrived at Bennu at the end of 2018, and for just over a year it’s been studying the asteroid, searching for a suitable sampling site. To do that, it’s getting closer and closer.

Europe’s Mission to Jupiter’s Moons Just Got its First Instrument

The space agencies of the world have some truly ambitious plans in mind for the coming decade. Alongside missions that will search for evidence for past (and maybe present) life on Mars, next-generation space telescopes, and the “return to the Moon”, there are missions will which will explore Jupiter’s moons for signs of extra-terrestrial life. These include the ESA’s JUpiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE), which will launch in 2022.

As part of the agency’s Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program, this spacecraft will conduct detailed observations of Jupiter and three of its large moons – Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa – to see if they could indeed harbor life in their interiors. Late last month (Feb. 25th), the first instrument that will fly aboard JUICE and aid in these efforts was delivered and began the process of integration with the spacecraft.

Every Part of Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket is Gigantic, Including its Nose Cone

Massive. Enormous. Huge. Gigantic. And whatever other words you find in the thesaurus all do the job when it comes to describing Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket. Especially its nosecone.

Artwork Inspired by Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

Artist Mik Petter has created a vibrant new piece of art based on JunoCam images of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS). The piece makes use of fractals, which are recursive mathematical creations; increasingly complex patterns that are similar to each other, yet never exactly the same.

Curiosity Finds Organic Molecules That Could Have Been Produced by Life on Mars

What do coal, crude oil, and truffles have in common? Go ahead. We’ll wait.

The answer is thiophenes, a molecule that behaves a lot like benzene. Crude oil, coal, and truffles all contain thiophenes. So do a few other substances. MSL Curiosity found thiophenes on Mars, and though that doesn’t conclusively prove that Mars once hosted life, its discovery is an important milestone for the rover. Especially since truffles are alive, and oil and coal used to be, sort of.

Mars 2020’s New Name is… “Perseverance”

Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity… For decades, NASA’s robotic rovers have explored the surface of Mars looking for clues about its past and subsequent evolution. With every success and discovery, their names became part of the public discourse, infiltrating our vocabulary the same way iconic figures like Armstrong, Einstein, and Hubble did. But what of the next rover that will be sent to explore Mars this summer?

NASA has serious plans for the Mars 2020 rover, the next installment in the Mars Exploration Program after its sister-rover Curiosity. But before this mission can launch and add its impressive capabilities to the hunt for life on Mars (past and present), it needed a proper name. Thanks to Alexander Mather (a grade 7 student from Burke, Virginia), it now has one. From this day forward, the Mars 2020 rover will be known as the Perseverance rover!

The Chemicals That Make Up Exploding Stars Could Help Explain Away Dark Energy

Astronomers have a dark energy problem. On the one hand, we’ve known for years that the universe is not just expanding, but accelerating. There seems to be a dark energy that drives cosmic expansion. On the other hand, when we measure cosmic expansion in different ways we get values that don’t quite agree. Some methods cluster around a higher value for dark energy, while other methods cluster around a lower one. On the gripping hand, something will need to give if we are to solve this mystery.

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Florida’s 2019 rocket launch schedule: astronauts, moon landers and mighty rockets

The new year is ramping up to be a historic one for the private space industry as it endeavors — along with its partners at NASA — to return humans to space from the United States.

The Space Coast will be ground zero for those launches and other notable flights in 2019. Though the overall number of liftoffs will likely be lower than in 2018, when the Cape played host to 20 launches, the high-profile nature of 2019’s launch manifest is likely to bring crowds back to the region.

Private space, led by SpaceX and Boeing, will play prominent roles as the purveyors of the first crewed U.S. space flights to low-Earth orbit since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. In between, satellite, lunar lander and International Space Station resupply missions from SpaceX and United Launch Alliance will round out the year.

Mark your calendars, here are the launches coming to the Space Coast in 2019:

SpaceX

If current schedules hold, SpaceX would be the first to return astronauts to low-Earth orbit from American soil in eight years, beginning the process of easing the nation’s dependency on Russia to shuttle American astronauts to the International Space Station.

Before it can do that, though, SpaceX will have to perform a successful test flight of its Crew Dragon capsule without humans. That demo flight is scheduled for March 2 from Kennedy Space Center’s launch complex 39A. SpaceX will then perform an in-flight abort test in June.

If successful, astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will then hop inside Crew Dragon for the crewed launch, now on track for July.

SpaceX is also expected to draw big crowds for the return of the Elon Musk-led company’s mighty Falcon Heavy rocket, which had its debut in the Space Coast in early 2018 to a crowd of thousands. The three-booster, 27-engine Falcon Heavy will have its two first official contracted missions from the Space Coast in early- to mid-2019.

SpaceX is currently targeting as early as March for the first Falcon Heavy mission, carrying Saudi Arabia’s Arabsat 6A, a communications satellite providing coverage to the Middle East and North Africa region. A second mission, for the Air Force’s Space Test Program 2, which would launch more than two dozen military satellites, is also expected to come this year.

Also of interest will be the company’s Falcon 9 launch of a lunar lander for private Israeli company SpaceIL. The company competed for the Google Lunar X Prize, a moon race that would have awarded $20 million to the first company that built and launched a commercial lunar lander. The competition ended without a winner.

But SpaceIL kept working toward its mission and will make good on its promise to send the first privately developed lander to the moon. The mission is scheduled for mid-February.

If successful, the lander named Beresheet — Hebrew for “in the beginning” — would spend several weeks traveling to the moon before landing and taking images and videos.

Those missions will be the high points in a major year for SpaceX, while it also performs several resupply missions to the International Space Station and satellite launches, continuing to raise its profile as a go-to launch provider.

Boeing

Boeing will get its shot at making history this year, too, with its two launches of its CST-100 Starliner astronaut capsule as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program.

The company is eyeing April for the test launch of its astronaut capsule — without crew — and May for a pad abort test from launch complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Then, in August, the company will endeavor to send astronauts Michael Fincke, Christopher J. Ferguson and Nicole Mann in a crewed launch to space. Due to unspecified medical reasons, astronaut Eric Boe, who was originally scheduled to be on the flight, was replaced by Fincke.

Following successful launches from SpaceX and Boeing, NASA will assign the two companies to crew rotation missions to the International Space Station.

United Launch Alliance

For United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, 2019 will be a year dominated largely by launches from the Space Coast.

The company has seven launches planned for the year, one of which already took off from California. A Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Jan. 19.

The next six launches will be from the Space Coast.

First in the line up is a Delta IV rocket in a medium configuration carrying a Boeing communications spacecraft for the U.S. military called 10th Wideband Global SATCOM. The launch, scheduled for March 13, will take off from complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Several other military launches are also on the manifest for ULA, including one for the Air Force’s third-generation navigation satellites for the Global Positioning System. The satellite will be the second in a series of 10 ordered by the Air Force.

Built by Lockheed Martin, the GPS satellites have better accuracy, improved anti-jamming capabilities and 25 percent longer spacecraft lifespan. The first in that series was launched by SpaceX in December 2018.

When Will Astronauts Launch From U.S. Soil Again?

NASA is hopeful SpaceX and Boeing will soon free the country from dependency on Russia, but delays abound.

A Soyuz spacecraft, which carries astronauts to space, sits on the launchpad at Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Shamil Zhumatov / AP

In 2010, as the United States prepared to wind down the Space Shuttle program that carried Americans into orbit for three decades, NASA asked some commercial companies to start thinking about what came next. The space agency gave them a combined $50 million to design the transportation technologies of the future. Until then, NASA would pay Russia to send American astronauts to their shared home above Earth, the International Space Station.

On Wednesday, some of the people involved in this partnership convened on Capitol Hill to face lawmakers and provide an update on their progress.

On one end of the table sat Bill Gerstenmaier, the associate administrator for human exploration and operations at NASA, who gave a positive picture of the partnership, known as the Commercial Crew Program, as it’s going right now.

“This is a critical time in the program as manufacturing is in high gear, testing is being completed, and verification and validation requirements are being addressed by NASA,” he said. “The program is approximately one year away from the first crewed flights to ISS.”

On the other end of the table was Cristina Chaplain, the director at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) who has overseen multiple reviews of the Commercial Crew Program. Her testimony included some bad news on the effort to restore the country’s astronaut-launching capabilities.

SpaceX and Boeing, the two companies NASA ended up hiring to develop space transportation, may send a human crew on a test flight to the International Space Station in 2019, yes, but they would then need to undergo and pass rigorous safety tests—and the timeline for that is slipping. The companies’ contracts with NASA, established in 2014, had called for passing final certification tests in 2017. Based on a new GAO report released Wednesday, SpaceX may not get certified for regular flights to the ISS until December 2019, and Boeing until February 2020. The companies have a “considerable amount of work” to do to meet safety standards, Chaplain noted.

“Aggressive schedules and delays are not atypical for programs developing new launch vehicles or crew vehicles,” Chaplain said. “But in this case, the delays and final certification dates raise questions about whether the United States will have uninterrupted access to the space station beyond 2019.”

In between Gerstenmaier and Chaplain sat representatives for SpaceX and Boeing. Hans Koenigsmann, a SpaceX vice president, and John Mulholland, a Boeing vice president, both assured the members of Congress at the hearing that their companies would be ready to meet this demand on time.

But the GAO report suggests a different story, and Wednesday’s hearing, held by the House Subcommittee on Space, began with some sharp words from the subcommittee’s chairman about the report’s prediction of more delays.

Brian Babin, a Republican congressman from Texas, said SpaceX and Boeing are “behind schedule, may not meet safety and reliability requirements, and could even slip into cost overruns.”

“Both companies are making progress, but certainly not at the rate that was expected and not without significant challenges to safety and reliability,” Babin said. “In order to remedy these problems, NASA may seek additional funding or accept significant risks. Neither of those options is viable.”

The Commercial Crew Program has been plagued with delays since its inception. NASA’s initial target date of 2015 was pushed to 2017, and then again to mid-2018. Last week, NASA announced some more delays: Un-crewed demonstrations by both SpaceX and Boeing are now scheduled to take place in August, and crewed flights are expected to follow in November and December.

“The work completed took longer than originally planned, but many technical issues were discovered and resolved,” Gerstenmaier told the subcommittee. “This extra time that was taken in this development phase will help reduce the risk and magnitude of additional scheduled delays.”

Chaplain said SpaceX and Boeing have reported delays nine and six times, respectively, since NASA awarded them a combined $6.8 billion to work on crew transportation systems. She said both companies are currently working on addressing some safety problems. Boeing is trying to figure out how to prevent its spacecraft, the CST-100 Starliner, from tumbling during some mission-abort scenarios, which could threaten the safety of the crew. The company is also investigating the possibility that the spacecraft’s heat shield would damage the parachute system during reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. SpaceX, meanwhile, is trying to address safety concerns from NASA safety advisory boards about fueling its Dragon spacecraft while astronauts are inside.

Right now, the United States pays between $70 million and $80 million per seat for a ride on Russian Soyuz spacecrafts to the ISS. And the government has bought a couple more rides through 2019, just in case delays of the Commercial Crew Program continue. After that, if SpaceX or Boeing still aren’t ready to fly, NASA may be out of luck. If the space agency wanted to attempt to buy seats from Russia then, it may need to wait until new Soyuz launch vehicles are assembled and built, a process that takes three years.

At some point, the race between SpaceX and Boeing to test their crew capsules becomes a race that pits the two companies, together, against time. The United States and its international partners are committed to operating the station only through 2024. If the start of regular flight operations slips even further—from late 2019 and early 2020, as GAO now predicts, into later in the 2020s—the very purpose of this effort would be at stake. NASA has already picked the astronauts that will participate in the test flights of commercial transportation systems. Should delays continue or worsen, these astronauts may find themselves all dressed up with nowhere to go.

SpaceX launches Dragon cargo ship on three-day flight to space station

Updated on: December 5, 2019 / 1:23 PM / CBS News

Taking advantage of calmer winds, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket vaulted away from the Florida coast and climbed smoothly into orbit Thursday, putting a Dragon cargo ship on course for a three-day flight to the International Space Station. On board: 5,700 pounds of supplies, research gear and holiday gifts for the crew.

It was the first of two space station supply runs in just two days as Russian engineers ready a Progress freighter for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan early Friday morning. The SpaceX Dragon is expected to reach the lab complex Sunday with the Progress following suit early Monday.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket climbs away from Cape Canaveral, boosting a Dragon cargo ship into orbit for a three-day flight to the International Space Station. Steven Young/Spaceflight Now

“It’s these kind of dynamic events that everybody looks forward to because it really is an opportunity to get some new cargo, some new tools on board and get some new science,” said Kenny Todd, a senior space station program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. “So we’re really excited about this particular time frame.”

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Delayed Wednesday by high upper-level winds, the Falcon 9 roared to life at 12:29 p.m. EST and shot away from launch complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, following a northeasterly trajectory directly into the plane of the space station’s orbit.

Two-and-a-half minutes later, the first stage fell away and descended to a touchdown on a SpaceX droneship stationed east of Jacksonville, Florida. The second stage continued the climb to orbit, releasing the Dragon cargo ship seven minutes later.

The Dragon is packed with nearly three tons of crew supplies and equipment, along with science gear and a colony of 40 rodents, including eight genetically modified “mighty mice” that are part of a study to learn more about medications that might help astronauts counteract bone and muscle loss in space.

The view from a camera on the side of the Falcon 9 rocket, showing launchpads at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Florida’s east coast. SpaceX

Also on board: an experiment sponsored by beermaker Anheuser-Busch to study the germination of barley in space and an advanced combustion experiment to shed more light on how flames propagate in microgravity.

As for Christmas gifts for the station’s four-man, two-woman crew, “I’m not sure I want to divulge anything,” Todd told reporters earlier this week. “But I think Santa’s sleigh is certified for the vacuum of space.”

With the SpaceX cargo ship on its way, the Russian space agency Roscosmos plans to launch the Progress space freighter from Kazakhstan at 4:34 a.m. Friday (12:34 p.m. local time). On board are 1,433 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water and 3,014 pounds of dry cargo.

The Dragon is expected to reach the station Sunday morning around 6 a.m., pulling up to within about 30 feet of the lab complex and then standing by while Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, operating the station’s robot arm, locks onto a grapple fixture.

From there, flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston will take over, remotely operating the arm to pull the supply ship in for berthing at the forward Harmony module’s Earth-facing port.

The Progress MS-13/74P spacecraft will reach the station Monday morning, executing an autonomous docking at the Earth-facing port of the Russian Pirs module around 5:38 a.m.

The Dragon cargo ship separates from the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage, beginning a three-day trip to the International Space Station. SpaceX

The cargo ship arrivals will set the stage for a flight readiness review next week to clear Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft for launch on a long-awaited unpiloted test flight to the station. Liftoff atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket currently is targeted for December 19 with a landing in New Mexico on Christmas Eve.

NASA is counting on Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsules to end the agency’s sole reliance on Russian Soyuz ferry ships to carry astronauts to and from the space station. NASA astronauts have not been able to launch aboard U.S. spacecraft since the space shuttle’s retirement in 2011.

Boeing and SpaceX are both required to launch unpiloted test flights before initial missions with astronauts aboard. SpaceX completed an uncrewed flight to the station earlier this year, and Boeing’s upcoming mission should set the stage for both companies to launch initial piloted test flights in the first half of 2020.

First published on December 5, 2019 / 10:25 AM

© 2019 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. He covered 129 space shuttle missions, every interplanetary flight since Voyager 2’s flyby of Neptune and scores of commercial and military launches. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood is a devoted amateur astronomer and co-author of “Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia.”

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Space calendar 2020: Rocket launches, sky events, missions & more!

LAST UPDATED March 10: These dates are subject to change, and will be updated throughout the year as firmer dates arise. Please DO NOT schedule travel based on a date you see here. Launch dates collected from NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, Spaceflight Now and others.

Watch NASA webcasts and other live launch coverage on our “Watch Live” page, and see our night sky webcasts here. Find out what’s up in the night sky this month with our visible planets guide and skywatching forecast.

Wondering what happened today in space history? Check out our “On This Day in Space” video show here!

March

March 14: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is expected to launch a fifth batch of approximately 60 satellites for the company’s Starlink broadband network in a mission designated Starlink 5. It will lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, at 9:35 a.m. EDT (1335 GMT).

March 16: A Russian Soyuz rocket will launch a Glonass M navigation satellite from the Plesetsk Cosmosdrome in Russia, at 2:23 p.m. EDT (1823 GMT).

March 16: India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk. 2 (GSLV Mk.2) may launch the county’s first GEO Imaging Satellite, or GISAT 1. It is scheduled to lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India, at 8:13 a.m. EDT (1213 GMT). The launch was postponed from March 6 due to technical problems with the rocket.

March 19: Happy Equinox! Today marks the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of fall in the Southern Hemisphere.

March 19: A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will launch the sixth Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite for the U.S. military. The AEHF-6 mission will lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, during a 2-hour launch window that opens at 3:22 p.m. EDT (1922 GMT).

March 20: The waning, crescent moon will make a close approach to Jupiter in the dawn sky. It will be in conjunction with Jupiter at 2:21 a.m. EDT (0621 GMT), and the pair will be above the southeastern horizon for a few hours before sunrise.

March 21: A Russian Soyuz rocket will launch approximately 32 satellites into orbit for the OneWeb satellite constellation. The mission, called OneWeb 3, will lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, at 1:07 p.m. EDT (1707 GMT).

March 23: An Arianespace Vega rocket will launch on the Small Spacecraft Mission Service, or SSMS, proof-of-concept mission carrying 42 microsatellites, nanosatellites and cubesats. The rideshare mission will lift off from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou, French Guiana, at 9:51 p.m. EDT (0151 GMT on March 24). Watch it live.

March 24: New moon

March 26: Rocket Lab will launch an Electron rocket on a rideshare mission carrying three payloads for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. Also on board will be the ANDESITE CubeSat for Boston University and NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative, which will study Earth’s magnetosphere and space weather, and the M2 Pathfinder satellite, a technology demonstration mission that is a collaboration between the Australian government and the University of New South Wales Canberra Space. The mission, nicknamed “Don’t Stop Me Now,” will lift off from the company’s New Zealand launch facility on the Mahia Peninsula.

March 28: The waxing, crescent moon will make a close approach to Venus in the evening sky. It will be in conjunction with Venus at 6:37 a.m. EDT (1037 GMT), and the pair will still appear close the evenings before and after. Look for them above the southwestern horizon after sunset.

March 30–April 2: The 36th annual Space Symposium takes place in Colorado Springs.

March 30: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the SAOCOM 1B Earth observation satellite for Argentina. It will lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, at 7:21 p.m. EDT (2321 GMT).

March 31: A Russian Proton rocket will launch the Express 80 and Express 103 communications satellites for the Russian Satellite Communication Company. It will lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

March 31: Conjunction of Saturn and Mars. The Ringed Planet and the Red Planet meet up for a special conjunction in the dawn sky. Saturn will pass less than 1 degree north of Mars at 6:56 a.m. EDT (1056 GMT).

Also scheduled to launch in March (from Spaceflight Now):

• A Chinese Long March 7A rocket will launch a satellite known as TJS 6. This will be the first flight of the Long March 7A rocket variant. It will lift off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan, China.
• India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will launch the RISAT 2BR2 radar Earth observation satellite for the Indian Space Research Organization. It will lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India.

April

April 2: SpaceX’s Dragon CRS-20 cargo craft will depart the International Space Station and return to Earth. NASA will provide live coverage of its departure beginning at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), and it is scheduled to be released at 11:24 a.m. EDT (1524 GMT). The capsule will splash down in the Pacific Ocean a few hours later, but NASA will not broadcast the splashdown. Watch it live.

April 7: Super Pink Moon. The full moon of April, known as the Pink Moon, coincides with a supermoon.

April 9: A Russian Soyuz rocket will launch the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft to the International Space Station with three new Expedition 62 crewmembers: NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and two Russian cosmonauts, Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. (Originally, cosmonauts Nikolai Tikhonov and Andrei Babkin were slated for this flight, but they were replaced by their backup crew for “medical reasons” in February). The rocket will lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Watch it live.

April 10: An Arianespace Soyuz rocket will launch the second Composante Spatiale Optique (CSO-2) military reconnaissance satellite for the French space agency CNES and DGA, the French defense procurement agency. It will lift off from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. Watch it live.

April 14: The last-quarter moon will make a close approach to Jupiter and Saturn in the dawn sky. It will be in conjunction with Jupiter at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 GMT), followed by a conjunction with Saturn on April 15 at 5:18 a.m. EDT (0918 GMT). Catch the trio in the morning sky, before sunrise.

April 21-22: The Lyrid meteor shower peaks.

April 22: New moon

April 25: A Russian Soyuz rocket will launch the 75th Progress cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. It will lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Watch it live.

April 26: The waxing, crescent moon will make a close approach to Venus in the evening sky. It will be in conjunction with Venus at 11:23 a.m. EDT (1523 GMT), and the pair will still appear close the evenings before and after. Look for them above the southwestern horizon after sunset.

April 28: Shining brightly at mag -4.5, the “evening star” Venus reaches its greatest brightness of the year.

April 29: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the U.S. Air Force’s third third-generation navigation satellite, designated GPS 3 SV03, for the Global Positioning System. It will lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Also scheduled to launch in April (from Spaceflight Now):

• An Arianespace Soyuz rocket will launch the Falcon Eye 2 Earth-imaging satellite for the United Arab Emirates. It will lift off from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana.
• A Chinese Long March 5B rocket will launch on a test flight with an unpiloted prototype for China’s new human-rated crew capsule, which is designed for future human missions to the moon. This will be the first flight of a Long March 5B rocket. It will lift off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan, China.
• India’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) will launch on its first orbital test flight from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India.

May 7: Crew Dragon Demo 2: SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to take its first crewed test flight to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on board. This will be the Crew Dragon’s first test flight with astronauts on board following the uncrewed Demo-1 mission in March. It will lift off on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

May 7: The full moon of May, also known as the Flower Moon, occurs at 6:45 a.m. EDT (1045 GMT).

May 12: See the moon, Jupiter and Saturn huddled together in the predawn sky. The waning, gibbous moon will be in conjunction with Jupiter at 5:41 a.m. EDT (0941 GMT), followed by a conjunction with Saturn at 2:11 p.m. EDT (1811 GMT).

May 14: The last-quarter moon will make a close approach to the Red Planet. It will be in conjunction with Mars at 10:02 p.m. EDT (0202 GMT on May 15). Look for the pair above the southeastern horizon before sunrise.

May 18: Jupiter and Saturn will make a close approach in the early morning sky. The pair will be in conjunction at 12:45 a.m. EDT (0445 GMT).

May 22: New moon

May 23: The one-day-old moon will make a close approach to Venus in the evening sky. It will be in conjunction with Venus at 10:40 p.m. EDT (0240 GMT on May 24). Look for them above the southwestern horizon just after sunset.

May 31–June 4: The 236th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society takes place in Madison, Wisconsin.

Also scheduled to launch in May (from Spaceflight Now):

• A Japanese H-2B rocket will launch the HTV-9 cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. It will lift off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan.
• A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will launch the AFSPC-7 mission for the U.S. Air Force. The mission’s primary payload is the X-37B space plane, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, will fly on the program’s sixth mission (OTV-6).
• A Russian Soyuz rocket will launch approximately 36 satellites into orbit for the OneWeb constellation of communications satellites. The mission, titled OneWeb 4, will launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia.
• A Chinese Long March 3B rocket will launch a satellite for the country’s Beidou navigation network toward geostationary orbit. It will lift off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the country’s Sichuan Province.

June 5: A penumbral lunar eclipse will be visible from Asia, Australia, Europe and Africa. The moon will begin passing through Earth’s shadow at 1:45 p.m. EST (1745 GMT), and the eclipse will last for 3 hours and 18 minutes.

June 5: The full moon of June, known as the Strawberry Moon, occurs at 3:12 p.m. EDT (1912 GMT).

June 8: The waning, gibbous moon will form a small triangle with Jupiter and Saturn in the morning sky. It will be in conjunction with Jupiter at 1:21 p.m. EDT (1721 GMT), followed closely by a conjunction with Saturn about 9 hours later at 10:12 p.m. EDT (0212 GMT on June 9).

June 12: Just a day before reaching last quarter phase, the moon will make a close approach to Mars in the predawn sky. The pair will be in conjunction at 7:55 p.m. EDT (2355 GMT), but they will be below the horizon for skywatchers in the U.S. at that time. You can find them above the southeastern horizon for a few hours before sunrise.

June 19: The one-day-old moon will make a close approach to Venus in the evening sky. It will be in conjunction with Venus at 4:53 EDT (0853 GMT). Look for them above the eastern horizon just before sunrise.

June 20: Happy Solstice! Today marks the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of Winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

June 20: An Arianespace Vega rocket will launch the SEOSat-Ingenio Earth observation satellite and the Taranis scientific research satellite from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.

June 21: An annular solar eclipse will be visible from parts of Africa and Asia.

Also scheduled to launch in June (from Spaceflight Now):

• A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavyrocket will launch a classified spy satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. The mission, titled NROL-44, will lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

July 4: Happy Aphelion Day! Earth is farthest from the sun today.

July 4-5: A penumbral lunar eclipse will be visible from the Americas and parts of Africa and Antarctica. The moon will begin passing through Earth’s shadow on July 4 at 11:07 p.m. EST (0307 GMT on July 5), and the eclipse will last for 2 hours and 45 minutes.

July 5: The full moon of July, known as the Beaver Moon, occurs at 12:44 a.m EDT (0444 GMT). That same day, the moon will be in conjunction with Jupiter at 5:38 p.m. EDT (2138 GMT). The moon will also be in conjunction with Saturn on July 6 at 4:38 a.m. EDT (0838 GMT). The trio will form a small triangle in the night sky before fading into the dawn.

July 8: The “morning star” Venus is at its greatest brightness for the year, shining at magnitude -4.5 in the morning sky.

July 11: The waning, gibbous moon will make a close approach to the Red Planet in the early morning sky. It will be in conjunction with Mars at 3:38 p.m. EDT (1938 GMT).

July 14: Jupiter reaches opposition, which means the planet will appear at its biggest and brightest. This happens about once a year, when Jupiter’s position is almost directly opposite the sun in the sky. Around the same time, Jupiter will also make its closest approach to Earth.

July 17: NASA’s Mars 2020 rover launches to the Red Planet! It will lift off on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Watch it live.

July 17: The crescent moon will be in conjunction with Venus, the “morning star,” at 3:27 a.m. EDT (0727 GMT). Look for the pair above the eastern horizon before dawn.

July 20: New moon

July 20: Saturn reaches opposition, which means the planet will appear at its biggest and brightest. This happens about once a year, when Saturn’s position is almost directly opposite the sun in the sky. Around the same time, Saturn will also make its closest approach to Earth.

July 23: A Russian Soyuz rocket will launch the 76th Progress cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. It will lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Watch it live.

July 26: The ExoMars lander, a joint effort by the European Space Agency and Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, will launch to the Red Planet. It will lift off on a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Also scheduled to launch in July (from Spaceflight Now):

• The United Arab Emirates plans to launch its first Mars orbiter, the Hope Mars Mission. It will launch from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on a Japanese H-2A rocket.
• China plans to launch an orbiter and a small rover to Mars. The mission, called Huoxing 1, will lift off on a Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan, China.

August

Aug. 1: The nearly-full moon will be in conjunction with Jupiter at 7:32 p.m. EDT (2332 GMT). The following morning (Aug. 2), it will be in conjunction with Saturn at 9:10 a.m. EDT (1310 GMT). Look for the trio in the evening sky.

Aug. 3: The full moon of August, known as the “Sturgeon Moon,” occurs at 11:59 a.m. EDT (1559 GMT).

Aug. 9: The waning, gibbous moon will make a close approach to the Red Planet in the early morning sky. It will be in conjunction with Mars at 4 a.m. EDT (0800 GMT).

Aug. 11-12: The Perseid meteor shower peaks.

Aug. 15: The crescent moon will be in conjunction with Venus, the “morning star,” at 9:01 a.m. EDT (1301 GMT). Look for the pair above the eastern horizon before dawn.

Aug. 18: Black Moon: The third new moon in a season with four new moons is known as a “black moon.” (A black moon can also be the second new moon in a single calendar month.)

Aug. 28/29: The waxing, gibbous moon will be in conjunction with Jupiter at 9:35 p.m. EDT (0235 GMT on Aug. 29). The following day, it will be in conjunction with Saturn at 12:32 p.m. EDT (1632 GMT). Look for the trio in the evening sky.

Aug. 31: Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus NG-14 cargo spacecraft will launch to the International Space Station on an Antares rocket. It will lift off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Also scheduled to launch in August (from Spaceflight Now):

• A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the U.S. Air Force’s fourth third-generation navigation satellite, designated GPS 3 SV04, for the Global Positioning System. It will lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida

September

Sept. 1: Asteroid 2011 ES4 will make a close flyby of Earth, passing by at a safe distance of 0.0005 AU, or 46,000 miles (75,000 kilometers).

Sept. 2: The full moon of September, known as the “Harvest Moon,” occurs at 1:22 a.m. EDT (0522 GMT).

Sept. 6: The waning, gibbous moon will make a close approach to the Red Planet in the early morning sky. It will be in conjunction with Mars at 12:46 a.m. EDT (0446 GMT).

Sept. 11: Neptune is at opposition. If you have the right equipment and a sky dark enough to see it, now is the best time all year to look!

Sept. 14: The crescent moon will be in conjunction with Venus, the “morning star,” at 12:44 a.m. EDT (0444 GMT). Look for the pair above the eastern horizon before dawn.

Sept. 17: New moon

Sept. 22: Happy Equinox! At 9:15 a.m. EDT (1315 GMT), autumn arrives in the Northern Hemisphere while the Southern Hemisphere will have its first day of spring.

Sept. 25: The waxing, gibbous moon will be in conjunction with Jupiter at 2:48 a.m. EDT (0648 GMT). The following day, it will be in conjunction with Saturn at 4:38 p.m. EDT (2038 GMT). Look for the trio in the evening sky.

Also scheduled to launch in September (from Spaceflight Now):

• A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will launch a classified spacecraft payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. The mission, NROL-101, will lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

October

Oct. 1: The full moon of October, known as the “Hunter’s Moon,” occurs at 5:05 p.m. EDT (2105 GMT).

Oct. 2: The waning, gibbous moon will make a close approach to the Red Planet in the early morning sky. It will be in conjunction with Mars at 11:25 a.m. EDT (0325 GMT).

Oct. 7-8: The Draconid meteor shower peaks.

Oct. 13: Mars is at opposition, which means it’s bigger and brighter than any other time of year. Look for the glowing Red Planet above the eastern horizon after sunset.

Oct. 14: A Russian Soyuz rocket will launch the crewed Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft to the International Space Station with members of the Expedition 65 crew: Russian cosmonauts Anatoli Ivanishin, Ivan Vagner and Nikolay Chub. It will lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Watch it live.

Oct. 16: New moon

Oct. 21-22: The Orionid meteor shower peaks.

Oct. 22: Just a day before reaching first quarter phase, the moon will be in conjunction with Jupiter at 1:12 p.m. EDT (1712 GMT). That same day, it will be in conjunction with Saturn at 11:42 p.m. EDT (0324 GMT on Oct. 23). Look for the trio in the evening sky.

Oct. 29: The waxing, gibbous moon will be in conjunction with Mars at 12:16 p.m. EDT (0325 GMT). Look for the pair above the eastern horizon after sunset.

Oct. 30: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a Dragon cargo resupply mission (CRS-21) to the International Space Station. It will lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Watch it live.

Oct. 31: Uranus is at opposition. This is the best time of year to view the planet, as it is at its biggest and brightest. If the sky is dark enough, you may be able to spot it with your bare eyes.

Oct. 31: This month has two full moons, which means we’ll have a “Blue Moon” on Halloween. The moon reaches full phase at 10:49 a.m. EDT (1449 GMT).

November

Nov. 12: The crescent moon will be in conjunction with Venus, the “morning star,” at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT). Look for the pair above the eastern horizon before dawn.

Nov. 15: New moon

Nov. 16-17: The Leonid meteor shower peaks.

Nov. 19: The waxing, crescent moon will be in conjunction with Jupiter at 3:57 a.m. EST (0857 GMT). Shortly afterward, it will be in conjunction with Saturn at 9:51 a.m. EST (1451 GMT). Look for the trio in the evening sky.

Nov. 25: The waxing, gibbous moon will be in conjunction with Mars at 2:46 p.m. EST (1946 GMT). Look for the pair above the eastern horizon after sunset.

Nov. 30: A penumbral lunar eclipse will be visible from the Americas, Australia and Asia. The moon will begin passing through Earth’s shadow at 2:32 a.m. EST (0732 GMT), and the eclipse will last for 4 hours and 20 minutes.

Nov. 30: The full moon of November, known as the “Beaver Moon,” occurs at 4:30 a.m. EST (0930 GMT).

Also scheduled to launch in November (from Spaceflight Now):

• A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Sentinel 6A satellite (also known as Jason-CS A), a joint mission between the European Space Agency, NASA, NOAA, CNES and Eumetsat to continue recording sea level data that was previously collected by the Jason series of satellites. It will lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

December

Dec. 13-14: The Geminid meteor shower peaks.

Dec. 14: The only total solar eclipse of 2020 will cross through the southern tip of South America. The moon’s shadow will take a similar path to the one it did for the “Great South American Eclipse” of July 2, 2019.

Dec. 16/17: The waxing, crescent moon will be in conjunction with Jupiter at 11:30 p.m. EST (0430 GMT on Dec. 17). A few hours later on Dec. 17, it will be in conjunction with Saturn at 12:20 a.m. EST (0520 GMT). Look for the trio near the southwestern horizon just after sunset. .

Dec. 21: The solstice arrives at 4:47 a.m. EST (0947 GMT), marking the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

Dec. 21: Jupiter and Saturn will make a close approach in the evening sky. The pair will be in conjunction at 8:24 a.m. EST (1324 GMT).

Dec. 21-22: The Ursid meteor shower peaks.

Dec. 23: The waxing, gibbous moon will be in conjunction with Mars at 1:31 p.m. EST (1831 GMT). Look for the pair above the eastern horizon after sunset.

Dec. 29: The full moon of December, also known as the Cold Moon, occurs at 10:28 p.m. EST (0328 GMT).

Also scheduled to launch in December (from Spaceflight Now):

• A Russian Soyuz rocket will launch the 77th Progress cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. It will lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Abort System Delivers a Flawless Victory

Crew Dragon’s in-flight abort test is a critical step in launching astronauts from U.S. soil.

• SpaceX is scheduled to launch its Crew Dragon spacecraft on Sunday, January 19 at 10:30 a.m. EST from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
• The launch is a critical test of Crew Dragon’s in-flight abort system, which will test whether the capsule can safely disengage from its launch vehicle in the event of an anomaly.
• If everything goes according to plan, the company will get the green light from NASA to send astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station.

Update: At 10:30 a.m. EST, SpaceX performed its Crew Dragon launch escape demonstration.

As planned, at about T-plus 1:30 seconds, the Falcon 9 rocket suffered a planned anomaly, splitting apart over the Atlantic Ocean.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft, equipped with eight SuperDraco engines, separated successfully from the rocket.

Four recovery boats were standing by as Crew Dragon splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean at just before nine minutes after launch.

Update: Further delays have pushed the launch back to 10:30 a.m EST. There is a six hour launch window. The live stream is set to begin at 10:12 a.m.

Launch Update @NASA and @SpaceX are now targeting 10:30am ET for the In-Flight Abort Test.

The demonstration has a six-hour launch window ending at 2pm ET this afternoon. https://t.co/YeWrpz41EN pic.twitter.com/UG3o3Ka7dJ

— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) January 19, 2020

Update: The launch has yet again been postponed to 10 a.m. EST, according to a Tweet from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The agency reports that teams are continuing to monitor the weather.

.@NASA and @SpaceX are now targeting 10am ET for launch of the company’s In-Flight Abort Test.

Teams continue to monitor the weather conditions for today’s launch attempt, splashdown and recovery of the #CrewDragon: https://t.co/YeWrpz41EN pic.twitter.com/pVSBOfAEIR

— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) January 19, 2020

Standing down from today’s in-flight Crew Dragon launch escape test attempt due to sustained winds and rough seas in the recovery area. Now targeting Sunday, January 19, with a six-hour test window opening at 8:00 a.m. EST, 13:00 UTC

SpaceX will aim to pass a critical test of its Crew Dragon spacecraft this weekend. It will sacrifice one of its Falcon 9 rockets in the process.

The company plans to launch Crew Dragon from Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8 a.m. EST on Saturday, January 18. (Backup launch opportunities are scheduled for Sunday and Monday at 8 a.m.)

You can tune in to watch the launch below. It will also be streaming live on SpaceX’s website and on NASA TV starting at 7:45 a.m.

If all goes according to plan, the test will prove that the Crew Dragon will be able to safely separate from its launch vehicle in the event of an incident. Approximately a minute and a half after liftoff, nine Merlin 1D engines will be turned off. This will signal an anomaly to Crew Dragon’s onboard computer, which will then prompt the capsule’s eight SuperDraco engines to turn on and pull the capsule away from the rocket.

The Crew Dragon capsule will then continue on its intended path for a while before it repositions itself for the journey back toward Earth. Parachutes will deploy and Crew Dragon will splash down in the Atlantic ocean, where recovery boats will pluck it from the frigid waters.

Florida’s 2019 rocket launch schedule: Astronauts, moon landers, mighty rockets

Saturday

The new year is ramping up to be a historic one for the private space industry as it endeavors — along with its partners at NASA — to return humans to space from the United States.

Florida’s Space Coast will be ground zero for those launches and other notable flights in 2019. Though the overall number of liftoffs will likely be lower than in 2018, when the Cape played host to 20 launches, the high-profile nature of 2019’s launch manifest is likely to bring crowds back to the region.

Private space, led by SpaceX and Boeing, will play prominent roles as the purveyors of the first crewed U.S. space flights to low-Earth orbit since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. In between, satellite, lunar lander and International Space Station resupply missions from SpaceX and United Launch Alliance will round out the year.

Mark your calendars, here are the launches coming to the Space Coast in 2019:

If current schedules hold, SpaceX would be the first to return astronauts to low-Earth orbit from American soil in eight years, beginning the process of easing the nation’s dependency on Russia to shuttle American astronauts to the International Space Station.

Before it can do that, though, SpaceX will have to perform a successful test flight of its Crew Dragon capsule without humans. That demo flight is scheduled for Saturday from Kennedy Space Center’s launch complex 39A. SpaceX will then perform an in-flight abort test in June.

If successful, astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will then hop inside Crew Dragon for the crewed launch, now on track for July.

SpaceX is also expected to draw big crowds for the return of the Elon Musk-led company’s mighty Falcon Heavy rocket, which had its debut in the Space Coast in early 2018 to a crowd of thousands. The three-booster, 27-engine Falcon Heavy will have its two first official contracted missions from the Space Coast in early- to mid-2019.

SpaceX is currently targeting as early as March for the first Falcon Heavy mission, carrying Saudi Arabia’s Arabsat 6A, a communications satellite providing coverage to the Middle East and North Africa region. A second mission, for the Air Force’s Space Test Program 2, which would launch more than two dozen military satellites, is also expected to come this year.

Also of interest was the company’s Falcon 9 launch of a lunar lander for private Israeli company SpaceIL. The company competed for the Google Lunar X Prize, a moon race that would have awarded $20 million to the first company that built and launched a commercial lunar lander. The competition ended without a winner.

But SpaceIL kept working toward its mission and made good on its promise to send the first privately developed lander to the moon. The mission launched Thursday.

The lander named Beresheet — Hebrew for “in the beginning” — will spend several weeks traveling to the moon before landing and taking images and videos.

Those missions will be the high points in a major year for SpaceX, while it also performs several resupply missions to the International Space Station and satellite launches, continuing to raise its profile as a go-to launch provider.

Boeing will get its shot at making history this year, too, with its two launches of its CST-100 Starliner astronaut capsule as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program.

The company is eyeing April for the test launch of its astronaut capsule — without crew — and May for a pad abort test from launch complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Then, in August, the company will endeavor to send astronauts Michael Fincke, Christopher J. Ferguson and Nicole Mann in a crewed launch to space. Due to unspecified medical reasons, astronaut Eric Boe, who was originally scheduled to be on the flight, was replaced by Fincke.

Following successful launches from SpaceX and Boeing, NASA will assign the two companies to crew rotation missions to the International Space Station.

For United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, 2019 will be a year dominated largely by launches from the Space Coast.

The company has seven launches planned for the year, one of which already took off from California. A Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Jan. 19.

The next six launches will be from the Space Coast.

First in the line up is a Delta IV rocket in a medium configuration carrying a Boeing communications spacecraft for the U.S. military called 10th Wideband Global SATCOM. The launch, scheduled for March 13, will take off from complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Several other military launches are also on the manifest for ULA, including one for the Air Force’s third-generation navigation satellites for the Global Positioning System. The satellite will be the second in a series of 10 ordered by the Air Force.

Built by Lockheed Martin, the GPS satellites have better accuracy, improved anti-jamming capabilities and 25 percent longer spacecraft lifespan. The first in that series was launched by SpaceX in December 2018.

ULA is also providing the thrust in the form of Atlas V rockets for Boeing’s two launches through the Commercial Crew program, one uncrewed in April and one with astronauts aboard in August.

Meanwhile, ULA will be preparing for a busy 2020 by ramping up its manufacturing pace at its Decatur, Ala., factory with 30 boosters in production during 2019 and 2020. The company is working on its upcoming Vulcan Centaur rocket for a scheduled first launch in 2021.

It’ll also be making preparations for the 2020 launch of a new Mars rover. An Atlas V rocket will carry the rover to space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in July or August or 2020, making it a highlight in what already looks like a busy 2020 rocket launch schedule.

Space Coast rocket launches to watch in the new year

Commercial Crew test flights, Mars 2020 launch are highlights of 2020 launch schedule

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The first few months of the new decade will be a busy time for the Space Coast as SpaceX plans to accelerate the pace of its plans to create a space-based internet, launching dozens of Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit and conducting a critical test of its astronaut capsule.

First up, SpaceX plans to launch a second round of Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Jan. 3. It’s the first of three Starlink launches the company has planned in the first half of 2020.

Elon Musk’s commercial space company launched the first round of 60 satellites into low-Earth orbit in May. SpaceX plans to eventually have a constellation of thousands of spacecraft that will provide affordable high-speed internet around the world, according to Musk.

SpaceX is set to carry out a launch abort test of its Crew Dragon spacecraft no earlier than Jan. 18. While this doesn’t include a trip to space, it is an important part of certifying the spacecraft to fly NASA astronauts in the new year.

“The demonstration of Crew Dragon’s launch escape system is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and is one of the final major tests for the company before NASA astronauts will fly aboard the spacecraft,” according to a NASA news release.

NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX to independently develop human-rated spacecraft as part of the Commercial Crew Program to launch American astronauts. The U.S. currently pays Russia around $84 million a seat to transport NASA astronauts into space.

During the abort test, SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 rocket with Crew Dragon and then trigger a launch abort jettisoning the spacecraft away to safety for a water landing. The Crew Dragon abort system is critical to ensuring the safety of the future astronauts on board should something go wrong during liftoff.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen as it is rolled to the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Demo-1 mission, Feb. 28, 2019 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

This past spring, SpaceX launched the Crew Dragon on its first test flight –without astronauts on board– to the International Space Station and successfully docked and returned the capsule to Earth.

If the abort test goes well, SpaceX will launch NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken next year, marking the first time NASA astronauts have launched from U.S. soil since 2011.

In December, Boeing launched its astronaut spacecraft, the CST-100 Starliner, on an orbital flight test on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The uncrewed spacecraft was meant to dock with the space station and return home but failed to reach the necessary orbit to catch up to the ISS due to a timing error on the spacecraft. Instead, Starliner’s week-long mission was cut short and the spacecraft landed in New Mexico about 48 hours after launch.

Boeing’s first Starliner spacecraft on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket that will fly an unpiloted Orbital Test Flight stands ready at Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Staton in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019. (AP Photo/Terry Renna) (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Boeing and NASA are conducting an investigation into the problem. A launch date for the next Starliner test flight, this time with astronauts, has not been set.

In February, United Launch Alliance will launch NASA and European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft. The probe will provide new perspectives of the sun, including the first images of the sun’s polar regions, according to ESA.

That launch is currently slated for Feb. 5 from Cape Canaveral.

Other highlights of this year include NASA’s new roving robot set to launch to Mars on a ULA Atlas V rocket in July. The rover follows in the tracks of its predecessor, the Mars Curiosity Rover currently on the Red Planet.

According to the 45th Space Wing, there are 48 launches slated for the Eastern Range in 2020.

What are you most looking forward to in space news this year? Send me an email at [email protected] or find me on Twitter @emspeck.

Copyright 2019 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.

SpaceX launch schedule 2019 dates: Elon Musk firm to launch Falcon 9 NEXT WEEK

SPACEX has shaken-up the space industry with its reusable rockets. Here are the key SpaceX Falcon 9 launch dates for February and beyond.

Elon Musk has already disrupted digital transactions with PayPal and the electric car market with Telsa. And in the same vein, the entrepreneur’s SpaceX is revolutionising the business of building rockets. The SpaceX project is already slashing the cost of space travel with his reusable rockets, and a packed launch schedule is testament to SpaceX’s success.

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How to watch the next SpaceX Falcon 9 launches:

Targeting March 2 for Crew Dragon’s first flight to the @Space_Station

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch two missions on Monday, February 18 at 1.58 am GMT (8:58 pm EST).

These are the first-ever Israeli lunar mission, dubbed SpaceIL, and an Indonesian communications satellite at on Feb. 19). [Watch Live]

Both missions will blast-off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and the launch can be watched live HERE.

SpaceX launch: The next SpaceX Falcon 9 launch will blast off on February 18 (Image: Getty)

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch: Space travel’s cost is being slashed with reusable rockets (Image: SpaceX)

The next SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch the takes place from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Saturday, March 2.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft is an unmanned test flight to the International Space Station (ISS).

Liftoff is scheduled for 7.48 am GMT (2.48 am EST) and this too can be watched live HERE.

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But arguably the most exciting of the upcoming SpaceX takes place on Thursday March 7.

SpaceX will launch its Falcon Heavy rocket with the Arabsat 6A communications satellite.

This will be only the second flight of the Falcon Heavy following its debut this time last year.

The Falcon Heavy will lift off from Kennedy Space Centre’s historic Pad 39A.

Two of the three boosters will land at Cape Canaveral, and the third will attempt a drone-ship landing nearby.

This historic launch can be watched live online from HERE.

SpaceX launch: Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster could eventually crash into Earth (Image: SpaceX )

SpaceX launch: Falcon Heavy will lift off from Kennedy Space Centre on March 7 (Image: Getty)

Could Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster crash into Earth?

SpaceX blasted Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster into space on February 6, 2018.

And the bizarre stunt has seen the Tesla Roadster now barreling through space beyond the orbit of Mars.

The Tesla Roadster and its pilot were chosen as a dummy payload for the maiden launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

Elon Musk described at the time how a deadweight payload of metal blocks would have been too boring.

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However, following the anniversary of the launch, a study of Starman’s trajectory around the Sun put the Roadster on a potential collision path with Earth.

A team of has scientists mapped Starman’s likely journey over the next few million years.

The space experts have calculated Earth, Venus and the Sun are the three most likely crash targets for Starman.

Collisions with Mercury and Mars are the least likely scenario as is Jupiter’s gravity catapulting the car out of the solar system.