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Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) Mission

SpaceX is targeting Thursday, December 9 for Falcon 9’s launch of NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission to low Earth orbit from historic L...

Watch NASA's IXPE Observatory Launch Into Space — Official Live Broadcast

We're sending a new pair of X-ray eyes into the universe!NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is our first satellite dedicated to measuring the p...

IXPE

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission: Astrophysics

Low Earth Orbit Launch Complex 39A Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA Probability: 90%
B1061 - Just Read the Instructions

Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is a space observatory tasked with measuring the polarization of cosmic X-rays. This data will help to learn more about objects that emit these X-rays, such as black holes and neutron stars.

Updates

Cosmic_Penguin • Dec. 9, 2021, 6:41 a.m.

Launch success



Nosu • Dec. 4, 2021, 5:13 p.m.

T-0 confirmed by NASA



Nosu • Oct. 19, 2021, 6:16 a.m.

Moving forward to December 9 and adding launch time.


Falcon 9

Family:
Configuration: Block 5

Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The Block 5 variant is the fifth major interval aimed at improving upon the ability for rapid reusability.

See Details
Specifications
  • Minimum Stage
    1
  • Max Stage
    2
  • Length
    70.0 m
  • Diameter
    3.65 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    5.2 m
  • Launch Mass
    549.0 T
  • Thrust
    7607.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Falcon 9
  • Family
  • Variant
    Block 5
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Falcon 9 Block 5
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $52000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    22800.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    8300.0 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Booster Info


B1061

Status: Expended


Type: Core
Flight Proven: Yes
First Flight: November 16, 2020
Last Flight: October 7, 2024
Flights: 23
Landings Attempted: 22
Landings Successful: 22
Previous B1061 Flights

Landing Information

B1061 has landed on ASDS JRTI after its fifth flight.

Result: Successful Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship landing at Just Read the Instructions.

SpaceX

SpaceX

(SpX)

CEO: Elon Musk Founded: 2002 Successes: 462 Failures: 13 Pending: 112

Agency Type:

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.

INFO WIKI

Related News

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NASA’s IXPE Details Shapes of Structures at Newly Discovered Black Hole

NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) has helped astronomers better understand the shapes of structures essential to a black hole – specifically, the disk of material swirling around it, and the shifting plasma region called the…

NASA

NASA’s IXPE Helps Researchers Determine Shape of Black Hole Corona

New findings using data from NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission offer unprecedented insight into the shape and nature of a structure important to black holes called a corona. A corona is a shifting plasma region that …

NASA

How Students Learn to Fly NASA’s IXPE Spacecraft

The large wall monitor displaying a countdown shows 17 seconds when Amelia “Mia” De Herrera-Schnering tells her teammates “We have AOS,” meaning “acquisition of signal.” “Copy that, thank you,” Alexander Pichler replies. The two are now in…

NASASpaceflight

IXPE investigates microquasar jets, finds unexpected magnetic field structure

Creating some of the most powerful gravitational forces and fields in the universe, black holes are known for their extreme nature, including the ways in which they can devour and destroy whole planets and stars in a matter of seconds. Whe…

Spaceflight Now

Landsat 9 declared operational, IXPE returns first science imagery

Two NASA satellites launched late last year are operational and returning imagery — one looking back at planet Earth and another peering into the cosmos in search of new insights into the remnants of dead stars.

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Launch Complex 39A


Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M
In Flight
1 hour, 18 minutes ago
Glonass-K2 No. 14
Unknown Pad - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Glonass-K2 are the fourth generation of satellite design for GLONASS satellite navigation system. GLONASS is a Russian space-based navigation system …


Kuaizhou
Go
1 day, 13 hours ago
Unknown Payload
Launch Area 95A - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Details TBD.


Soyuz 2.1a
Success
3 days, 2 hours ago
Progress MS-30 (91P)
31/6 - Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.


Long March 2
Success
3 days, 16 hours ago
SuperView Neo 1-03 & 04
Launch Area 4 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Commercial Earth observation satellites (~540 kg each) built by CAST for China Siwei Survey and Mapping Technology Co. Ltd., with resolution down to …


Falcon 9
Success
3 days, 20 hours ago
Starlink Group 12-13
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 21 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Falcon 9
Success
3 days, 23 hours ago
Nova-C IM-2 & Others
Launch Complex 39A - Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

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New Shepard
Success
5 days, 7 hours ago
NS-30
West Texas Suborbital Launch Site/ Corn Ranch - Corn Ranch, Van Horn, TX, USA

NS-30 is the 10th crewed flight for the New Shepard program and the 30th in its history.


Falcon 9
Success
1 week ago
Starlink Group 15-1
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 22 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Long March 3
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
ChinaSat 10R
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) - Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Ku-band geostationary communication satellite for China Satcom at 110.5° East, replacing ChinaSat 10.


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 2 days ago
Starlink Group 12-14
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 23 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.