SpaceX’s busiest month of launches ever is just around the corner

With the turn of the new year, SpaceX has just entered what could become the busiest few weeks of Falcon 9 launches in the company’s history, breaking previous records for the most launches it has performed in a single month. As of now, SpaceX is already scheduled to perform the first orbital and suborbital launches […]

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SpaceX rings in the New Year with preparations for first Falcon 9 launch of 2020

SpaceX’s first Falcon 9 launch of 2020 – and the new decade – is just around the corner after drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) departed Port Canaveral on Monday to prepare for its 27th booster landing attempt. Known as Starlink-2, SpaceX’s first launch of the new year slipped a handful of […]

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SpaceX borrows Tesla’s tent factory strategy for new Starship production HQ

Confirmed yesterday morning by CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX has copied Tesla’s approach to factory expansion and is building a giant tent to upgrade its South Texas Starship production facilities. A big step towards more traditional aerospace-style manufacturing facilities, SpaceX has contracted the same company used by Tesla to create a fourth general assembly line (GA4) […]

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SpaceX’s Elon Musk reveals schedule for Crew Dragon’s astronaut launch debut

On the heels of a brand new animation simulating the spacecraft’s next orbital launch milestone, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has revealed a tentative schedule for Crew Dragon’s astronaut launch debut. Known as Demo-2, short for Crew Dragon’s second orbital demonstration mission, the launch could make SpaceX the first commercial company in history to send astronauts […]

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SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft photobombed in orbit by solar eclipse

On December 26th, SpaceX’s second-to-last Cargo Dragon spacecraft was photobombed in orbit by the shadow cast on Earth by a solar eclipse, likely a little over a week before the vehicle is set to reenter the atmosphere and splash down in the Pacific Ocean. Cargo Dragon lifted off atop a rare new Falcon 9 booster […]

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SpaceX’s Elon Musk works through holidays on Starship’s “most difficult part”

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he has been working through the holidays at the company’s Boca Chica facilities to get Starship’s “most difficult part” ready for the next-generation spacecraft’s next prototype and flight tests. Known as tank domes or bulkheads, Musk says that the hardware is the most difficult part of building and assembly Starship’s […]

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SpaceX ships Starship hardware from Florida to Texas to speed up production

After appearing unexpectedly at SpaceX’s Port Canaveral docks last month, several large pieces of Starship flight and manufacturing hardware were successfully shipped from Florida to Texas, arriving at the company’s Boca Chica build and launch site two weeks ago. Previously discussed on Teslarati, the hardware transfer signals a significant shift in the development strategy for […]

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SpaceX leaps closer to launching NASA astronauts after parachute testing milestone

SpaceX says it has completed a test campaign of Crew Dragon’s upgrade parachutes, reaching a milestone that CEO Elon Musk recently described as a necessity before the spacecraft can be certified to launch NASA astronauts. Beginning in late-October 2019, SpaceX kicked off an extensive test campaign of Crew Dragon’s recently-upgraded “Mark 3” parachute system, performing […]

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SpaceX wraps up a decade of reusable rocketry with fastest booster recovery yet

SpaceX has completed its 13th and final launch and landing of the year and decade, marked by a Falcon 9 booster’s successful return to Port Canaveral and subsequent processing to prepare it for another orbital-class mission. Over the course of that recovery, SpaceX broke the record for the fastest Falcon 9 processing by several hours, […]

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Boeing’s astronaut capsule flies off course, fate uncertain after launch debut

Roughly 30 minutes after lifting off for the first time on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket, Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule suffered a major failure when it attempted to raise its orbit with onboard engines. A few hours after the failure came to light, NASA and Boeing held a press conference to update […]

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