On July 28th, SpaceX wrapped up modifications to a rented robotic lift vehicle and carefully moved Starhopper back to its launch facilities three days after its inaugural flight. Another two days after that, SpaceX filed road closure requests confirming the date for the Starship prototype’s next launch. According to those road closures, SpaceX is preparing […]
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NASA has announced 19 technology partnerships between the agency’s many spaceflight centers and 13 companies, including SpaceX, Blue Origin, and more. This round of Space Act Agreements (SAAs) shows a heavy focus on technologies and concepts that could benefit exploration of the Moon and deep space more generally, including lunar landers, food production, reusable rockets, […]
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Photos published on July 28th by customer Spacecom show a sooty SpaceX Falcon 9 booster and fresh upper stage on their way to LC-40 for the launch of the AMOS-17 communications satellite, scheduled to lift off no earlier than 6:51 pm EDT (22:51 UTC), August 3rd. Sadly, the booster will reportedly be expended during the […]
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Following the Falcon 9 booster’s second successful NASA launch in less than three months, SpaceX recovery technicians have once again rapidly retracted B1056’s four landing legs, also reused from the booster’s May 2019 launch debut. On the heels of Falcon 9 B1056’s first speedy, leg-retracting recovery, a repeat of the booster’s impressive landing leg retraction […]
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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has posted a unique, uninterrupted view of Falcon 9’s latest landing, completed by booster B1056 on July 25th after successfully launching Cargo Dragon on its 18th mission (CRS-18) to the International Space Station (ISS). Combining four separate views, the video also happens to feature an extremely rare instance of audio clearly […]
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Some two hours after Starhopper’s inaugural untethered flight, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to post an uncut video showing the ungainly rocket’s launch and landing from the perspective of both a drone and Starhopper’s lone Raptor engine. As noted by commenters, Starhopper’s first flight also marks perhaps an even more fascinating milestone: it’s […]
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Starhopper has completed its first untethered flight ever, simultaneously a small step for the awkward prototype and a giant leap for SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy program as the next-gen launch vehicle is carried into a new phase: flight testing. Despite the spectacular and reportedly successful hover and divert test, Starhopper’s powerful Raptor engine appears to have […]
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SpaceX has nailed its 24th Falcon booster reuse and 44th Falcon booster landing with Falcon 9 B1056’s flawless Landing Zone-1 recovery, setting the booster up to become the first SpaceX rocket NASA has flown on three times. According to NASASpaceflight.com, NASA had already moved from a conservative “maybe” to a much firmer “yes, but…” on […]
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After exceptionally bad weather conditions forced SpaceX to scrub its first CRS-18 launch attempt on Wednesday, July 24th, the weather has significantly improved in the hours leading up to attempt #2. The launch forecast now shows 50% favorable conditions, a major improvement from a 10% favorable forecast that came minutes before yesterday’s attempt. The CRS-18 […]
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In the latest entry of SpaceX’s ever-changing Starship design process, CEO Elon Musk has indicated that the nominally reusable orbital spacecraft has moved away from a liquid-cooled steel heat shield to something slightly more traditional. This information came as a SpaceX engineer announced during Cargo Dragon’s CRS-18 webcast that the twice-flown spacecraft would mark the […]
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