SpaceX has aborted Starhopper’s inaugural untethered flight test shortly after the planned T-0 liftoff time and is in the process of analyzing telemetry to see if another attempt is possible tonight. At the planned T-0, Starhopper successfully ignited its single Raptor engine before quickly shutting down, at which point a fairly large fire began at […]
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According to updates from NASASpaceflight.com, SpaceX’s Starhopper prototype remains on track for a planned hover test debut later this evening (July 24th), set to become the first time the vehicle has flown in an untethered configuration. Despite suffering a minor fireball on July 17th following a successful Raptor static fire test, Starhopper was quickly deemed […]
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SpaceX announced during its CRS-18 Cargo Dragon webcast that the twice-flown orbital spacecraft will feature a handful of ceramic Starship heat shield tiles, meant to flight-test a critical component of the next-generation SpaceX spacecraft. Extremely unfavorable weather forced SpaceX to scrub today’s scheduled CRS-18 launch around T-30 seconds to liftoff and tomorrow’s backup window (July […]
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Late at night on July 22nd, SpaceX’s South Texas team of technicians and engineers were busy testing a small but critical component of Starhopper, a testbed and low-fidelity Starship prototype meant to attempt its first untethered flight test as early as July 24th. Monday evening’s testing centered around Starhopper’s cold gas nitrogen thrusters, multi-nozzle assemblies […]
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SpaceX is set to become the only company in history to launch the same commercial space capsule to orbit three times, a milestone of orbital spacecraft reuse in an otherwise ‘routine’ Cargo Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Known as CRS-18, the mission will (hopefully) see Cargo Dragon capsule C108 and a fresh […]
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SpaceX’s Elon Musk may imagine a nuclear device acting as an artificial sun on Mars for his long-term terraforming plans, but NASA has ultimately disagreed with his and others’ proposals thus far for the planet. With this in mind, Harvard University scientists have conducted a study using silica aerogel to create regionally terraformed parts of […]
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Speaking in a mid-July interview with a CNBC correspondent, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stated that he believed the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft was likely 6-8 months away from an inaugural launch with astronauts aboard. Elaborating a bit, he noted that SpaceX was aiming to realize that milestone in four months, while he expected – per […]
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SpaceX has just completed its fourth hosted Hyperloop competition since its 2017 debut and Hyperloop inventor and CEO Elon Musk has capped the successful event with a big claim: in 2020, SpaceX will host Competition 5 at a brand-new track (“tunnel”) offering new freedom and challenges to the student teams. According to Musk, that new […]
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According to tweets published by CEO Elon Musk on July 21st, SpaceX’s combined Starship and Super Heavy launch vehicle (BFR) could have as many as 41 Raptor engines at liftoff. As with all other aspects of SpaceX’s next-generation rocket, this is a sign that things remain in flux as the company nears the point at […]
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WARNING This column will be unabashedly full of pop culture references in honor of its topic. Check out the end of the piece for a Where’s Waldo-style treasure hunt to identify where they are. And by that I mean like the list at the back of the book. Or the companion list on the main […]
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