321 Launch: Space news you may have missed over the past week (Dec. 26)
Spaceship Neptune balloon capsule taking shape in Titusville hangar for 2024 test flight
Resembling a white whiffle ball spanning 14½ feet across, Space Perspective's prototype Spaceship Neptune is taking shape to soar on a series of test flights to the brink of space — beneath a huge hydrogen-filled balloon.
Spaceship Neptune is a pressurized circular capsule expected to take its inaugural flight during the first quarter of 2024, said Taber MacCallum, co-founder and co-CEO of Space Perspective.
SpaceX targets Friday night for record-extending 70th launch this year from Cape Canaveral
Unprecedented: SpaceX's next rocket launch, which is scheduled for late Friday night, will mark the record-extending 70th this year from Cape Canaveral.
And afterward — with nine days remaining on the 2023 calendar — will SpaceX send up another orbital launch or two for good measure?
Updates: SpaceX Starlink launch Saturday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida
Welcome to FLORIDA TODAY's Space Team live coverage of tonight’s SpaceX Starlink 6-32 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
SpaceX Falcon 9 launches early Saturday; rocket booster logs 19th landing atop drone ship
After its target launch time pushed back past midnight, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocketed into low-Earth orbit early Saturday morning amid a moderate risk of upper-level wind shear.
The SpaceX Starlink 6-32 mission lifted off from Launch Complex 40 at 12:33 a.m. EST at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. That represented a 93-minute delay from the original 11 p.m. Friday target.
Titusville large-scale industrial park near airport to house space, aerospace tenants
Officials hope to kick off construction early next year on Space Coast Innovation Park, a future 1.1-million-square-foot, five-building industrial spaceport complex across 100 acres alongside Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville.
The opening construction phase calls for a trio of buildings spanning a combined 639,040 square feet for space-industry and aerospace tenants off Grissom Parkway. For comparison's sake, Amazon's recently built distribution center in Melbourne between West Eau Gallie Boulevard and Sarno Road measures 141,360 square feet, a site plan shows.
SpaceX Falcon 9 booster tips over at sea, returns to Port Canaveral as battered wreckage
Like long spaghetti strands, cables dangled from the mangled cylindrical base of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster into the waters of Port Canaveral as it floated home via a small watercraft flotilla following a Christmas mishap at sea.
Identified as B1058, this bashed-up booster tipped over atop its drone ship early Monday morning amid rough seas and gusty winds, SpaceX announced.
For the latest launch schedule updates from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.
Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: 321 Launch: Space news you may have missed over the past week (Dec. 26)
