Tag: SpaceX
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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…
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Blue Origin has a new employee stock plan, but not everyone is happy
Blue Origin released details about a new stock option plan in an internal communication on Tuesday. Ars was able to review the materials and connect with some employees to gather their thoughts. Some of the early reviews are not positive, with one employee going so far as to describe the plan as “pure f—king trash.”…
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SpaceX Version 3 Starship Static Fire Targets May Orbital Test
What’s New in SpaceX’s Version 3 Starship That Just Completed Static Fire Testing? SpaceX successfully completed a static fire test of its Version 3 Starship prototype on April 15, marking a critical milestone before the vehicle’s planned May orbital test flight. The test fired all six Raptor engines for approximately 8 seconds at the company’s…
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SpaceX launches 1,000th Starlink satellite of 2026 on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral
A streak shot of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket as it tears away from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on the Starlink 10-24 mission on April 14, 2026. Image: John Pisani/Spaceflight Now SpaceX launched its 1,000th Starlink satellite so far in 2026 with an early morning Falcon 9 rocket launch Tuesday…
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Former NASA Executive Bets on Narrow-Beam LEO Broadband Against Starlink
Can narrow-beam technology challenge Starlink’s LEO dominance? A 63-year-old former NASA Branch Chief and Google executive is launching a narrow-beam satellite constellation strategy to compete against established mega-constellations like Starlink in an increasingly contested Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband market. The approach focuses on higher-frequency, precision-targeted beams rather than the wide-coverage architecture deployed by SpaceX’s…
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Launch Preview: Falcon 9 to launch Starlink satellites, New Glenn to launch with flown booster
Six launches are scheduled worldwide this week, with the third launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn, featuring a previously-flown booster, highlighting the week. SpaceX is expected to launch three Starlink missions this week: two from California and one from Florida. Internationally, two Chinese rockets, a Lilian-1 and Chang Zheng 2D, are scheduled to launch unknown…
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New Glenn Third Flight Tests Booster Reuse Strategy
Will New Glenn’s booster reuse strategy match SpaceX’s economics? Blue Origin’s New Glenn is preparing for its third orbital mission this week using a previously flown first-stage booster, marking a critical test of the company’s reusability strategy against SpaceX’s proven Falcon 9 economics. The mission represents Blue Origin’s first attempt at operational booster reuse, coming…