Tag: SpaceX
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Vast space station qualification article passes major milestone
Vast is one step closer to launching its first private commercial space station. The company recently completed testing of its Haven-1 qualification article in Mojave, California, and reported that it successfully passed its tests. The company’s current goal is to launch the flight article aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than May 2026.…
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Launch Roundup: Starlink and CZ-8A launches planned; Falcon booster to land in Bahamas
China conducted the debut flight of an upgraded version of the Chang Zheng 8 medium-lift rocket this week. Three Starlink launches from Florida were planned, with just the Feb. 18 flight remaining to be done, and a NROL flight from Vandenberg aboard a Falcon 9 is now set for Feb. 17. All three Starlink flights…
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SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from California
A streak shot of the Falcon 9 rocket as it flys away from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base on Feb. 10, 2025. Image: SpaceX SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket its latest batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Monday evening. The company stood…
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Rocket Report: Another hiccup with SpaceX upper stage; Japan’s H3 starts strong
Welcome to Edition 7.30 of the Rocket Report! The US government relies on SpaceX for a lot of missions. These include launching national security satellites, putting astronauts on the Moon, and global broadband communications. But there are hurdles—technical and, increasingly, political—on the road ahead. To put it generously, Elon Musk, without whom much of what…
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Concern about SpaceX influence at NASA grows with new appointee
Like a lot of the rest of the federal government right now, NASA is reeling during the first turbulent days of the Trump administration. The last two weeks have brought a change in leadership in the form of interim administrator Janet Petro, whose ascension was a surprise. Her first act was to tell agency employees…
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SpaceX launches final block 1 WorldView Legion satellites for Maxar Technologies
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket as seen from Central Florida, making its ascent from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Onboard were two WorldView Legion Satellites that will be operated by Maxar Intelligence, a division of Maxar Technologies. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now Update 7:32 p.m. EST (0032 UTC): SpaceX confirmed deployment of the fifth…
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Starlink profit growing rapidly as it faces a moment of promise and peril
Two new independent estimates of revenue from SpaceX’s Starlink Internet service suggest it is rapidly growing, having nearly tripled in just two years. An updated projection from the analysts at Quilty Space estimates that the service produced $7.8 billion in revenue in 2024, with about 60 percent of that coming from consumers who subscribe to…
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Launch Roundup: Soyuz flies; New Shepard simulates lunar gravity
This week’s launch manifest is quite diverse, featuring the launches of four different rockets worldwide. Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket has simulated the Moon’s gravity from just beyond the Kármán line, and Rocket Lab launched Electron for the first time this year from New Zealand. Russia launched Soyuz for the first time in 2025…
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SpaceX launches 21 Starlink satellites on foggy Tuesday morning
Blanketed by early morning fog, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket takes off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on the Starlink 12-3 mission on Feb. 4, 2025. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now Update 5:42 a.m. EST (1042 UTC): SpaceX landed the first stage booster on its droneship. Against a densely foggy backdrop, SpaceX completed its second…
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It seems the FAA office overseeing SpaceX’s Starship probe still has some bite
The seventh test flight of SpaceX’s gigantic Starship rocket came to a disappointing end a little more than two weeks ago. The in-flight failure of the rocket’s upper stage, or ship, about eight minutes after launch on January 16 rained debris over the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Atlantic Ocean. Amateur videos recorded from…