A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has successfully launched a privately-developed Japanese Moon lander and a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory cubesat on their way to lunar orbit. Following five back-to-back delays that pushed the launch from November to mid-December, Falcon 9 lifted off with Japanese startup ispace’s first HAKUTO-R Moon lander on December 11th, kicking off…
SpaceX filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission to put payloads on 2,016 of its satellites for its direct-to-cell system with T-Mobile. In August, SpaceX and T-Mobile announced a partnership to end mobile dead zones by connecting T-Mobile phones with Starlink in late 2023. In the documents shared by CNBC’s Micheal Sheetz, SpaceX said that its direct-to-cellular system would consist…
For the sixth time this year, SpaceX has returned the same Super Heavy booster prototype to its South Texas Starship factory after completing several tests. Why is unclear. Super Heavy Booster 7 left the factory for the first time in March 2022 and has been stuck in a seemingly continuous state of testing, rework, and…
While SpaceX’s near-term manifest continues to be impacted by an abrupt uptick in unexplained delays, the company appears to be on track to launch the first of at least two batches of satellites for internet provider OneWeb later this week. SpaceX and OneWeb’s first launch has already missed its original target of November 2022 and its…
SpaceX says it’s on track to launch Japanese startup ispace’s first Moon lander, HAKUTO-R M1, no earlier than (NET) 3:39 am EST (08:39 UTC) on Wednesday, November 30th. The mission will be the third Moon launch from US soil in less than four months after SpaceX’s successful launch of the South Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) in…
A SpaceX Starship booster has successfully fired up 14 of its 33 Raptor engines, likely becoming the most powerful active rocket in the world. Throughout the history of spaceflight, only three or four other rockets have produced as much or more thrust than Super Heavy Booster 7 (B7) could have theoretically produced on November 14th.…
For the first time since January 2020, SpaceX has intentionally expended a Falcon 9 booster instead of attempting to recover the rocket at sea or on land. Weighing around 6.6 tons (~14,600 lb) at liftoff, the rare mission sent Intelsat’s twin Maxar-built Galaxy 31 and 32 communications satellites to a high geostationary transfer orbit (GTO)…
The Information reports that SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell “will assume oversight” of the company’s Starship program and Starbase facilities, seemingly stepping in for Elon Musk as the CEO shifts his focus to Twitter. In his own words, Twitter appears to be in a precarious position after the Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder purchased the social media platform…
SpaceX is busy preparing for the orbital launch debut its next-generation Starship rocket, but the company’s South Texas rocket factory is also working around the clock to prepare several more sets of ships and boosters for the flight testing that will follow. That was more obvious than usual on November 8th, when SpaceX made moves…
SpaceX, NASA, and the rest of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) are doing what they can to prepare for Tropical Storm Nicole’s imminent arrival. The somewhat unexpected storm grew quickly in recent days and has become a system that could at least partially threaten the Space Coast and…