The US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has confirmed that its next spy satellite is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the same day the company is planning to launch four NASA and ESA astronauts. Following SpaceX’s flawless NROL-87 spy satellite launch last month, the NRO has announced that the company is…
Ukraine Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov recently confirmed that a fresh batch of Starlink terminals has arrived in the country. In a post on Twitter, Fedorov noted that the satellite internet system not only helps Ukrainians be connected to the internet today — it is also helping the country fight…
For the second time ever, SpaceX has used Starbase’s ‘Mechazilla’ tower and arms to stack a Starship upper stage on top of a Super Heavy booster. This time around, though, SpaceX clearly learned a great deal from its second February 9th Starship stack and was able to complete the stacking process several times faster on March 15th. During the…
SpaceX appears to be preparing Starship 20 and Super Heavy Booster 4 for their third ‘full stack’ demonstration after two seemingly successful tests in August 2021 and February 2022. The first, completed in early August 2021, was mostly for show and saw SpaceX stack the unfinished prototypes with a giant crane – fighting the coastal…
This past Sunday, the Starlink mobile app, which allows users to connect to Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, became the most downloaded application from the Apple App Store in Ukraine. The app had about 21,000 installs globally on Sunday from the App Store and Google Play, with most of the downloads coming from the besieged…
SpaceX drone ship Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) has departed Port Canaveral in anticipation of the company’s sixth consecutive Starlink launch. Known as Starlink 4-12, the mission will be SpaceX’s sixth uninterrupted Starlink launch – just shy of the company’s record of seven Starlink launches between commercial payloads. Though SpaceX would probably prefer to avoid…
SpaceX has been spotted transporting a Falcon Heavy booster through NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) facilities, offering a slight glimpse behind the scenes amid a seemingly unending series of launch delays for the most powerful operational rocket in the world. Continuing a recent surge of Falcon Heavy booster appearances at or around SpaceX facilities, the…
AST Space Mobile says it has chosen SpaceX to launch its first operational BlueBird satellite after contracting the company to launch BlueWalker 3, its first major prototype. An SEC filing made around the same time states that AST SpaceMobile will pay SpaceX at least $22.75 million to “adjust” its upcoming BlueWalker 3 launch contract, cover an “initial…
Approximately 11 weeks after the process began, SpaceX has finished stacking its newest Super Heavy booster prototype – the first of its kind intended to host 33 new Raptor V2 engines. Designed to launch Starship’s massive, namesake upper stage part of the way to orbit, Super Heavy is in many ways simpler than Starship but…
Ukraine Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov recently confirmed that a second truckload of Starlink terminals has arrived in Ukraine. The shipment was confirmed by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who noted that SpaceX also sent power adapters for car cigarette lighters, solar and battery packs, and generators for the satellite internet…