SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 launch – a dedicated Starlink mission scheduled no earlier than November 11th – appears to be set to debut twin fairing recovery vessels GO Ms. Chief and GO Ms. Tree, a fairing recovery milestone that will be paired with at least two more rocket reusability firsts. Captured below on October 31st […]
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At the same time as SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas team is working around the clock to prepare Starship Mk1 for several major tests, the company is building a second dedicated Starship launch complex at Pad 39A and as of November 4th, that construction effort has reached a symbolic milestone. According to photos taken by local […]
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SpaceX has announced that a thrice-flown Falcon 9 booster successfully completed a static fire test ahead of the company’s first launch in three months, set to be Starlink’s ‘v1.0’ launch debut. In a twist, SpaceX says that the mission will be the first to reuse a full payload fairing, recovered after Falcon Heavy Block 5’s […]
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SpaceX’s first Falcon 9 launch in more than three months finally has a launch date and it looks like the company’s growing fleet is going to attempt to catch (or land) almost every piece of the rocket, a big first for Falcon 9 reusability if SpaceX can pull it off. After an exceedingly long wait, […]
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SpaceX has begun to install Starship Mk1’s second of two forward ‘canards’, aerodynamic flaps the rocket prototype will soon use to attempt the first radical skydiver-style landing. SpaceX technicians are likely working to fully outfit the rocket before transporting its nose section to the launch pad, where it can be mated to Starship Mk1’s lower […]
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A little over a month after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk presented an update on Starship in Boca Chica, Texas and technicians dressed the rocket up for the show, SpaceX has begun to install Starship Mk1’s flaps for the second time. This time, with any luck, those flaps are here to stay until Starship Mk1’s inaugural […]
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According to SpaceX, Crew Dragon’s upgraded ‘Mk3’ parachutes have successfully completed more than a dozen tests in a row, a feat accomplished by SpaceX engineers and technicians in just a handful of weeks. Although SpaceX will likely continue to test the upgraded parachutes over the next several weeks and months, Mk3’s success up to now […]
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During a recent NASA council meeting, SpaceX’s response to a Crew Dragon capsule’s April 20th explosion was repeatedly praised by the agency’s senior Commercial Crew Program (CCP) manager, her optimism clearly rekindled after several undeniably challenging months. On October 29th and 30th, NASA held its second 2019 Advisory Council (NAC) meeting, comprised of a number […]
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SpaceX has transported (half of) its Starship Mk1 prototype to its South Texas launch pad for the first time ever, signifying that the company is about to enter a major new stage of testing. The move, however, raises the question: why is SpaceX transporting only half of Starship Mk1 to the launch pad? Following SpaceX […]
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Formerly responsible for developing Falcon 9 (and Heavy) into the routinely-landing reusable rocket it is today, senior SpaceX engineer Lars Blackmore says he now has one primary focus: figuring out how to land Starship on Earth, the Moon, and Mars. A graduate of University of Cambridge and MIT, the latter of which interviewed him on […]
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