Tag: SpaceX
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Starship’s heat shield appears to have performed quite well in test
One of the more curious aspects of the 10th flight of SpaceX’s Starship rocket on Tuesday was the striking orange discoloration of the second stage. This could be observed on video taken from a buoy near the landing site as the vehicle made a soft landing in the Indian Ocean. This color—so different from the…
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SpaceX’s Sunday morning Falcon 9 launch sends 1,900th Starlink to orbit in 2025
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soars past the American flag at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as it began the Starlink 10-14 mission on Aug. 31, 2025. Image: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now Update Aug. 31, 10 a.m. EDT: SpaceX confirmed deployment of the 28 Starlink satellites. SpaceX capped off the month of August with a…
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NASA, NOAA prep spacecraft trio to study the Sun and its impacts
A group of technicians works to complete final inspections and checkouts of NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft inside a cleanroom at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida. Image: John Pisani / Spaceflight Now Technicians inside a pair of clean rooms at the Astrotech facility in Titusville, Florida, are busily readying a trio…
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SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites into polar orbit
File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands in the vertical position at sunset at Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Image: SpaceX Update Aug. 30, 1:15 a.m. EDT: SpaceX landed the booster on the drone ship. SpaceX launched 24 Starlink broadband satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base Friday evening on…
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With recent Falcon 9 milestones, SpaceX vindicates its “dumb” approach to reuse
As SpaceX’s Starship vehicle gathered all of the attention this week, the company’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket continued to hit some impressive milestones. Both occurred during relatively anonymous launches of the company’s Starlink satellites but are nonetheless notable because they underscore the value of first-stage reuse, which SpaceX has pioneered over the last decade. The…
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SpaceX launches record-breaking 30th flight of a Falcon 9 booster
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket flies from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on the Starlink 10-11 mission. This launch featured the Falcon 9 booster, tail number B1067, making its 30th trip to space and back. Image: John Pisani/Spaceflight Now Update Aug. 28, 5:20 a.m. EDT: SpaceX confirmed deployment of the 28 satellites.…
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SpaceX completes 400th Falcon booster landing on a drone ship
SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster completes a landing on the droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions,’ during the Starlink 10-56 mission on Aug. 27, 2025. The recovery was the 400th landing of an orbital class rocket. Image: SpaceX A Falcon 9 rocket placed another 28 Starlink satellites into orbit shortly after sunrise on Wednesday and…
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The Starship Program rises from the ashes of Block 2 with Ship 37
Going into Flight 10, SpaceX was having a down year with the Starship program. Following the successes of Block 1, the hope was to have immediate success with Block 2 and possibly catch a Starship in 2025. However, with four straight ship failures, including one during ground testing, SpaceX needed a win. Flight 10 gave…
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SpaceX successfully launches Super Heavy-Starship on critical test flight
A SpaceX Starship-Super Heavy rocket thunders away from Starbase, Texas to begin the Starhip Flight 10 mission on Aug. 26, 2025. Image: SpaceX Running two days late, SpaceX launched its huge Super Heavy-Starship rocket Tuesday, chalking up what appeared to be a remarkably successful test flight in the wake of three back-to-back failures earlier this…
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Ship 37 Completes the Redemption Arc and Lands in the Indian Ocean
SpaceX had not experienced much success with the Block 2 version of Starship since its introduction earlier this year. What was intended to usher in a new era for the program, including a possible ship catch in 2025, has instead devolved into SpaceX repeatedly attempting to achieve the same objectives that were targeted across several…