Tag: SpaceX
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Blue Origin Captures Major Defense Contracts from SpaceX
How is Blue Origin competing with SpaceX for defense contracts? Blue Origin has secured $2.8 billion in Pentagon launch contracts over the past six months, directly challenging SpaceX’s dominance in the national security launch market. The company’s New Glenn rocket, which achieved operational status in late 2025, now offers launch services at $89 million per…
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FCC Dismisses SpaceX Spectrum Bids as D2D Market Consolidates
Why Did the FCC Block SpaceX’s Satellite Spectrum Challenge? The Federal Communications Commission has dismissed challenges by SpaceX and other companies seeking access to Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) spectrum, effectively protecting incumbent operators’ rights to frequencies increasingly valuable for Direct-to-Device (D2D) connectivity. The FCC ruling comes as the D2D market rapidly consolidates, with spectrum rights…
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Starship Progress at the Cape with Hoping to Launch this year
As the first flight of Block 3 approaches, SpaceX continues to make progress on the Gigabay at Roberts Road and the launch pads at LC-39A and the first pad at SLC-37. SpaceX hopes to launch from LC-39A sometime this year. Roberts Road Over the past several months, SpaceX and its contractors have been making great…
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SpaceX launches final GPS III satellite for the U.S. Space Force
A Falcon 9 streaks through a sky filled by the Milky Way in this long duration streak shot. It carried a Global Positioning System satellite for the U.S. Space Force. Photo: John Pisani/Spaceflight Now. The U.S. Space Force launched its final Global Positioning System (GPS) III satellite into medium Earth orbit in the predawn hours…
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Launch Preview: GPS, Progress, and Starlink missions to launch during busy week
Seven missions, four countries, and five launch vehicles make the week of April 20 one of the more diverse on the 2026 manifest. GPS III SV10 carries the week’s most technically significant payload in its first-ever GPS laser communications demonstration, while South Korea’s ADD vehicle attempts its first complete four-stage orbital flight. Rocket Lab pulls…
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SpaceX Falcon 9 Achieves 600th Booster Landing Milestone
How did SpaceX achieve its 600th Falcon 9 booster landing? SpaceX successfully completed its 600th Falcon 9 first-stage booster landing during a West Coast Starlink deployment mission on April 18, 2026, cementing its position as the world’s most experienced launch provider in rocket reusability. The milestone landing occurred on the autonomous spearhead drone ship “Of…
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SpaceX makes 600th Falcon booster landing during West Coast Starlink mission
File: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base ahead of the Starlink 17-31 mission on March 13, 2026. Image: SpaceX SpaceX completed its 600th Falcon booster landing during a Starlink mission Sunday. The Falcon 9 rocket departed Vandenberg Space Force Base on a south-southwesterly trajectory at…
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Pentagon Drone Tests Hit by Starlink Outage Shows DoD SpaceX Risk
Pentagon Drone Operations Face Critical Risk from SpaceX Dependency A recent Starlink service disruption directly impacted Pentagon drone testing operations, underscoring the Department of Defense’s deepening reliance on SpaceX’s commercial satellite network for critical military communications. The outage affected unmanned aerial vehicle trials that depend on Starlink’s satellite constellation for beyond-line-of-sight command and control links.…
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Ship 39 and Booster 19 Both Complete Full Engine Static Fires
Following the successful return of Orion, attention for the Artemis program has now shifted to SpaceX and Blue Origin to prepare a crewed lander in time for Artemis III. For SpaceX, this means getting Starship Block 3 flying and fully operational so that teams can begin building and launching the Human Landing System (HLS) variant.…
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Starship Super Heavy completes static fire with 33 Raptor engines
How many Raptor engines fired in SpaceX’s latest Super Heavy test? SpaceX completed a full-duration static fire test of its Super Heavy booster with all 33 Raptor engines igniting successfully on April 16, marking a critical milestone toward the next Starship integrated flight test. The test generated approximately 16.7 million pounds of thrust at sea…