Russia has invaded Ukraine without provocation, triggering a series of diplomatic responses – sanctions in particular – that recently culminated in the aggressor deciding to cut ties with Europe on a number of cooperative spaceflight projects. Dmitry Rogozin, director of Russia’s national ‘Roscosmos’ space agency, went as far as implying that the country might respond…
Elon Musk has confirmed that SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service is now available in Ukraine, and more terminals are being sent over. The CEO’s update came as a response to a request from a Ukrainian government official, who asked Musk if he could help the country’s citizens gain internet access amidst the ongoing attacks from…
Relativity Space has announced that it will only launch the first version of its small Terran 1 rocket a handful of times before upgrading the vehicle in ways that will aid work on a much larger, fully reusable rocket. Relativity co-founder and CEO Tim Ellis revealed the news in a recent interview, explaining that while…
Northrop Grumman subsidiary SpaceLogistics has selected SpaceX to launch its first Mission Robotic Vehicle (MRV) – better described as the company’s “next-generation satellite-servicing” spacecraft. As far as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is concerned, MRV-1 is just another geostationary satellite for it to deliver to a transfer orbit around 35,800 kilometers (~22,200 mi) above Earth’s surface…
In a brief Twitter exchange, the Brownsville/South Padre Island International Airport (BRO) appears to have talked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk into turning a retired Starship prototype into a public exhibit. Operational in some form since 2020, SpaceX’s ‘Starbase’ Starship factory is already a bit of a tourist destination for Brownsville, Texas and the local Rio…
For the second time, a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster has completed its eleventh launch, spaceflight, and landing – helping deliver dozens of new Starlink satellites to orbit in the process. After a one-day delay for “recovery weather,” Falcon 9 booster B1058 lifted off with 46 Starlink 4-8 satellites on February 21st. The well-worn rocket performed…
Less than four months after construction began, the newest addition to SpaceX’s South Texas Starship factory is now the facility’s tallest building. While substantially shorter than the Starship launch tower SpaceX has constructed a few miles down the highway and likely still a few months away from completion, Starbase’s new ‘wide bay’ became the tallest…
SpaceX has slowly but surely begun the process of building Starship’s first Florida launch pad – including preparations for the off-site assembly of a second skyscraper-sized ‘launch tower.’ This is not the first time. Back in late 2019, SpaceX began work on a Starship launch pad located at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) LC-39A pad,…
For the first time in more than half a year, SpaceX has stacked a new Starship prototype to its full height, hopefully marking the end of a period of relatively slow progress. That period began when Starship S20 was stacked to its full height in early August 2021. Until very recently, Ship 20 was said…
Almost five months after SpaceX began the process of filling and testing the first custom-built propellant storage system for Starship, the largest rocket ever built, the company has finally begun to fill the fuel half of the ‘tank farm’. SpaceX began delivering truckloads of liquid nitrogen (LN2) to the LN2 and liquid oxygen (LOx) sections of the…