Tag: SpaceX
-
Blue Origin’s rocket-landing patent canceled in victory for SpaceX
The “autonomous spaceport drone ship” that SpaceX built to recover the Falcon 9 first stage. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has capitulated to Elon Musk’s SpaceX in a dispute over a Blue Origin patent covering the landing of rockets at sea. In an order made public today, the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board granted…
-
Suffredini leaves NASA – $490m heads to Roscosmos
The International Space Station (ISS) Program has named Kirk Shireman as its new manager, following the departure of Mike Suffredini. The news came hours after NASA administrator Charlie Bolden modified the Agency’s contract with Roscosmos, to the tune of an extra $490m, to cover projected delays to the Commercial Crew Program. New ISS Chief: Mr. Shireman –…
-
Saving Spaceship Dragon – Software to provide contingency chute deploy
SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk has ordered the installation of contingency abort software into all future Dragon cargo spacecraft, providing them with an option to deploy their parachutes after an off-nominal launch scenario. Such software may have allowed the CRS-7 Dragon to save herself after she was thrown free of the failing Falcon…
-
First flight of Falcon Heavy delayed again
Artist’s concept of the Falcon Heavy rocket, which will lift off powered by 27 Merlin main engines, generating nearly 4 million pounds of thrust. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX has slowed development of the Falcon Heavy rocket, a mega-booster made of three Falcon 9 booster cores strapped together, as the company recovers from a launch failure last…
-
SpaceX Falcon 9 failure investigation focuses on COPV struts
SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk has updated the status of the investigation into the failure of the Falcon 9 rocket during its ill-fated CRS-7 Dragon mission. The preliminary findings point to a support strut in the Second Stage LOX tank breaking, releasing a helium pressurization bottle (Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel) that began the…
-
Support strut probable cause of Falcon 9 failure
Updated at 9 p.m. EDT with SpaceX statement A faulty support strut inside the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage liquid oxygen tank likely broke free during a June 28 space station resupply launch, destroying the booster minutes after liftoff in a cloud of debris over the Atlantic Ocean, SpaceX chief Elon Musk said Monday. While…
-
SpaceX’s Elon Musk traces Falcon 9 rocket failure to busted strut
The unexpected breakdown of a tank strut apparently caused last month’s failure of a Falcon 9 rocket launch to the International Space Station, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reported Monday. Elon Musk in Seattle last year. The June 28 loss of the Falcon, plus SpaceX’s robotic Dragon capsule and more than two and a half tons of…
-
Stephen Hawking searches for aliens, and Elon Musk explains the SpaceX explosion
Alan Boyle We’ve been thrilled to have longtime space and science reporter Alan Boyle covering two big stories for GeekWire today: Stephen Hawking’s announcement of a $100 million initiative to find alien life, and Elon Musk’s news conference about a preliminary finding in the recent SpaceX Falcon 9 explosion. Before leaving the GeekWire offices this afternoon, Alan sat down and talked with us…
-
SpaceX delays next Crew Dragon abort test
SpaceX’s hangar at Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A. Credit: SpaceX The next test of a critical safety system on SpaceX’s human-rated Dragon spaceship will be delayed, likely until at least late next year, as the company adjusts the development schedule for the new commercial crew capsule designed to take astronauts to the International Space…
-
Musk: Falcon 9 rocket failure a “huge blow” to SpaceX
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket broke apart approximately 139 seconds after launch June 28. Credit: Walter Scriptunas II/Scriptunas Images Speaking publicly for the first time since a Falcon 9 rocket failure that destroyed a Dragon cargo capsule for the International Space Station, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Tuesday that engineers are still piecing together what happened…