When SpaceX launches the Polaris Dawn mission this month, it will go higher than any crewed mission since Apollo - but there's more to the story.
Polaris Dawn launch recap: Live updates from SpaceX liftoff Tuesday from Kennedy Space Center
Launch recap: Scroll down to review live updates from the Tuesday, Sept. 10, liftoff of the Polaris Dawn mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
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Polaris Dawn crew launches Tuesday with plans for daring spacewalk outside SpaceX Dragon
After rainfall finally cleared from Cape Canaveral, the Polaris Dawn crew roared skyward aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 amid Tuesday's humid pre-dawn darkness, their rocket's tremendous orange flame slicing through spooky, low-lying layers of hazy clouds resembling fog and smoke.
"Wow!!! The Polaris Dawn crew is now in space!!! This is just the beginning of an incredibly exciting and important mission for the future of human spaceflight, and humanity," SpaceX webcast host Jessie Anderson tweeted after the 5:23 a.m. EDT launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
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'It got really quiet': Spectators gather in Titusville to watch Polaris Dawn launch
The crowd was silent as the sky lit up like a sunrise over Kennedy Space Center. Almost like it was moving in slow motion, a bright Falcon 9 rose up into the scattered clouds above the Cape.
Onboard that Falcon 9 rocket were four private astronauts in a SpaceX Dragon, headed to orbit the Earth on a mission of firsts. The Polaris Dawn crew will be flying higher than humans have been since the Apollo missions, and they will conduct the first ever spacewalk by private astronauts in new SpaceX spacesuits.
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Ahead of SpaceX spacewalk, Polaris Dawn astronauts venture the furthest since Apollo 17
The SpaceX Polaris Dawn crew made it further from Earth than any astronauts have been in 52 years.
Blasting off early Tuesday on a mission that is a first of its kind, the crew's Dragon spacecraft traveled higher than any human-rated spacecraft since the NASA Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
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SpaceX launch recap: Live updates from BlueBird mission Thursday morning from Cape Canaveral
Launch recap: Scroll down to review live updates from the Thursday, Sept. 12, liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on the AST SpaceMobile BlueBird 1-5 mission.
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SpaceX launches AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird satellites for future direct-to-cell communications
Hoping for a liftoff amid dreary weather, dozens of AST SpaceMobile executives and shareholders gathered during the wee hours Thursday at the Apollo/Saturn V Center at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex to watch a milestone event in their quest to create a space-based broadband network for smartphones.
Mission successful. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched at 4:52 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, lifting the company's first five BlueBird communications satellites into low-Earth orbit for future testing.
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Polaris Dawn spacewalk recap: SpaceX crew venture outside Dragon on spacewalk
Spacewalk recap: Scroll down to read updates from the September 12 SpaceX Polaris Dawn spacewalk.
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'Looks like a perfect world': SpaceX Polaris Dawn spacewalk achieves space industry first
"SpaceX, back at home we all have a lot of work to do. But from here, Earth looks like a perfect world."
That's what Polaris Dawn commander Jared Isaacman said as he became the first private citizen to conduct a spacewalk early Thursday. SpaceX's live stream footage broadcast exactly what Isaacman was seeing: stunning views of the blue Earth below him.
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SpaceX launch plans: Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral to deliver Galileo satellites
Coming off an eventful week, SpaceX isn't slowing down. Now on Tuesday evening, the space company plans to launch the next two Galileo satellites into orbit for the European Space Agency (ESA).
The launch has been delayed twice, yet no official reason has been stated. It is noteworthy that the 45th Weather Squadron only predicted a 50% chance of favorable weather conditions for Monday.
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'Miss our families': Starliner astronauts say they're resilient and with friends on ISS
It's things like family. A daughter's senior year in high school. Spouses. Pet dogs. Even just regular exercise routines are missed.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams admitted Friday that, yes, of course, their year did not turn out as they'd expected. When they headed to the International Space Station onboard Starliner on a test flight in June, they thought they'd be returning home just eight days later. Williams referenced fall activities she'd had in mind, including spending time with her mom.
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After a mission of firsts, SpaceX Polaris Dawn crew returns to Earth early Sunday
After an expected blackout period while the Dragon spacecraft reentered the Earth's atmosphere, images of drogue chutes deploying appeared on the SpaceX live stream. This was followed by the opening of the main parachutes minutes later as the spacecraft carrying the Polaris Dawn crew slowed its decent towards the water early Sunday.
Cheers erupted from the SpaceX employees in mission control at Hawthorne, California.
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Space Perspective sends balloon and capsule up 100K feet during Gulf of Mexico test flight
Space Perspective, the Titusville-based company building hydrogen-balloon-powered capsules to lift tourists to the brink of space, just completed an uncrewed flight test from the deck of a customized ship off the St. Petersburg coast.
The company's Spaceship Neptune pressurized capsule took flight Sunday from the deck of 294-foot-long MS Voyager in the Gulf of Mexico, embarking on a six-hour journey to about 100,000 feet above the Earth's surface before descending for a splashdown.
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SpaceX, Blue Origin and ULA: Here are space sights you can see via Port Canaveral
The charter boat bobbed in the waves while at the dock -- awaiting space enthusiasts to board not for a regular boat ride, but for an evening of rocket sighting.
While the Cape Canaveral launch pads may be off limits to everyday spectators, one way to get a closer look at all the launch activity happening on the Space Coast is by boat. FLORIDA TODAY bought a ticket and rode along with Star Fleet Tours on the boat "Sea Trident."
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ULA's second-ever Vulcan rocket launch could occur Oct. 4 from Cape Canaveral
United Launch Alliance is targeting the second-ever launch of its next-generation Vulcan rocket for no earlier than Oct. 4 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
ULA's first red-and-white Vulcan lifted off Jan. 8 from the company's pad at Launch Complex 41. Deemed a success by company officials, that marked the new rocket's first certification flight to carry Space Force national security payloads on future missions.
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For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.