Category Archives: Spacex

SpaceX private spaceflight ambitions got a big boost in 2018 when Japanese entrepreneur and billionaire Yusaku Maezawa announced hed be taking a trip aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon on a round-trip flight passing the moon. Maezawa is still on track to make that trip by 2023, according to current schedules, but hes so eager to get to space that he just announced hell make a visit to the International Space Station as a private astronaut this December.

Maezawa will go as a client of Space Adventures, on a Russian Soyuz rocket set to take off from Kazakhstan on December 8, and hell be accompanied by his production assistant Yozo Hirano. Space Adventures is the same company behind prior Soyuz commercial spaceflight missions, including the trip made by Anousheh Ansari in 2006 and Guy Lalibert in 2009, among others. Laliberts trip was the most recent, with space tourism at the station officially on hold since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011 since Soyuz has been the only means to access the ISS. Now that SpaceX is flying regular astronaut shuttle missions, however, tourist trips are back on.

The trip that Maezawa plans to take will take place over the course of 12 days, and hell be doing three months of training in Russia to get ready for the experience. In addition to being the first private astronaut visit to the ISS in more than 10 years, this is also the first time that two private astronauts will fly onboard the same Soyuz at the same time. Maezawa and Hirano will also be the first Japanese citizens to make the journey as private individuals.

It may seem like overkill to get to visit space twice in a lifetime as a private astronaut, but Maezawa says hes driven by a curiosity of whats life like in space? which will of course be useful information to have on the planned moon mission, which will spend three days getting there, make a loop around our natural satellite, and then spend three days coming back. Hes also planning to post the experience to YouTube, which is why Hirano is accompanying him to document the trip.

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SpaceXs inaugural moon-tour private astronaut is heading to the International Space Station first - TechCrunch

The Daily Beast

Photos GettySenator Kyrsten Sinema is confused. At a private caucus meeting last week, she pointedly asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer why Democrats cant overcome Republican opposition to the major ethics and voting rights reforms that Joe Biden promised voters, and that over 60 percent of Americans across party lines support. But Sinema wasnt talking about the For the People Act that Schumer hopes to squeak through. She was referring to her own competing legislation.Not to be outdone, last week Senator Joe Manchin announced his own plan to address the GOPs nationwide war on voting rights, a not-so-subtle way of saying he wont be signing on to Schumers consensus bill, either.The GOP Destroyed Its Brand. Joe Manchin Wants Dems To Follow Suit.If Sinema and Manchin breaking ranks didnt complicate matters enough, neither is willing to end or even modify the filibuster to get voting rights passed. Instead, theyre telling Democratsand the millions of Americans at risk of losing their votes in 2022 and beyondto trust in the myth of Senate bipartisanship. So Schumer should issue an ultimatum: find 10 Republicans to pass your bill or Democrats are taking down the filibuster.Without any modifications to the filibuster, Manchin and Sinema will need to come up with 10 Republican senators willing to oppose the GOPs sweeping attempts to gut the right to vote. Good luckalmost 90 percent of all voting-related legislation in the states this year has come from Republican lawmakers.Spoiler alert: Those bills arent about helping voters, but stopping them. In Georgia, Republicans remain so traumatized by Bidens upset victory that theyre now considering targeting the same suburbs that once elected Newt Gingrich with a new round of Trump-inspired voter suppression laws.Voter suppression is one of the few unifying ideas left in a Republican Party hollowed out and pillaged by Trumpism. Manchin has as much chance at persuading them to undermine their own electoral fortunes as he does at convincing Elizabeth Warren to pass a tax cut for Big Tech.Manchin made media hay of a joint statement calling for the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act that he authored with GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski, but Murkowski has pointedly not signed on to any of the voting rights bills before the Senate. And even if she did, Senate Republicans have abandoned Murkowski for her insufficient loyalty to Donald Trump.Inaction is not an option, Manchin and Murkowski wrote. Congress must come togetherjust as we have done time and againto reaffirm our longstanding bipartisan commitment to free, accessible, and secure elections for all.Left unsaid in that soaring rhetoric is the fact that the Senate that voted 77-19 to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was not in thrall to a far right as dominant as todays MAGA movement. Manchin doesnt seem to notice or care that the broad bipartisan coalition of Rockefeller Republicans and progressive Democrats who passed the original VRA hasnt existed for over 40 years. Those critical liberal Republicans, now entirely extinct, didnt even survive the GOPs rightward lurch at the end of the 1970s.For his part, Biden seems committed to fostering some kind of progress on voting rights. The president has lavished attention on both Manchin and Sinema, despite or because of their resistance to both his infrastructure plan and other Democrats dream of ending the filibuster. He doesnt have much of a choice. Biden has excoriated Republican voter suppression efforts in Georgia, calling them Jim Crow in the 21st century and arguing that we have a moral and constitutional obligation to act.Biden is acutely aware that Black votersmore than any other single groupare responsible for installing him in the White House. He also knows that as Manchin and Sinema go speed-dating for GOP votes, Republicans in the states are busy chipping away at what few voter protections remain.How Democrats Can Revive Their Doomed Voting Rights LegislationWhen Sinema and Manchin fail to deliver on their big talk about the power of bipartisanship, Schumer and Senate Democrats must be prepared to force a serious effort to kill the filibuster. Without it, GOP efforts to undermine the vote in 2022 and 2024 will proceed with impunity, undermining the marginalized communities that delivered a Democratic Senate and White House on the explicit promise that they would be protected from Republican reprisals.Those reprisals are now here, and Senate Democrats are nowhere to be found.Earlier this month Florida Governor and rumored 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis signed a sweeping voter suppression law restricting the use of vote-by-mail and ballot drop boxes, both of which helped Black Democrats in Georgia overcome intentionally long lines and shuttered polling places in 2020. DeSantis made sure his supporters saw his attack on voting rights by arranging to sign the legislation live on Fox & Friends, a right-wing morning show that now explicitly serves as the GOP press office. And that was just one of the nearly 3,000 draconian voter suppression bills introduced this year.Every day of inaction to protect voting rights is another day for Republican operatives in Congress and in the states to purge voter lists, as Mississippi is doing, or enact tough new voter ID requirements while closing DMVs, as North Carolina Republicans did. Voters cant afford to wait while Manchin talks up his role as the Great Compromiserwithout ever striking a compromise in Democrats favor.The activist base of the Democratic Party has reached its boiling point with Sinema and Manchins empty promises that bipartisan victories are just around the corner. If moderate Democratic senators can create a viable voting rights plan with Republican buy-in, it will deserve high praise for achieving the impossible.But if they fail, Schumer and Biden must be prepared to take all steps necessary to ensure the right to vote is protected from unprecedented Trumpist attacks. At least Sinema and Manchin can say they tried.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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What is the SpaceX Starlink mission? - Yahoo News

Elon Musk's SpaceX has accepted the meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin as payment to launch a satellite to the moon next year.

Musk announced that his rocket company will now accept Dogecoin as payment in a tweet Sunday night calling it the first crypto and first meme in space. He added that SpaceX will launch the "DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon" in the first quarter of 2022.

Last month, on April Fool's Day, the billionaire and self-proclaimed "Dogefather" tweeted that SpaceX was going to put a "literal Dogecoin on the literal moon."

The Geometric Energy Corporation, which is funding the mission, called it the first-ever commercial lunar payload in history paid for entirely with Dogecoin, which was started as a joke. It plans to launch an 88-pound satellite on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

GEC said its payload "will obtain lunar-spatial intelligence from sensors and cameras on-board with integrated communications and computational systems."

The announcement comes the same day SpaceX set a new record for its Falcon 9 rockets, landing its booster for the 10th time. It was the company's 14th launch so far this year and its fifth flight to orbit in less than five weeks.

"Having officially transacted with DOGE for a deal of this magnitude, Geometric Energy Corporation and SpaceX have solidified DOGE as a unit of account for lunar business in the space sector," GEC's CEO Samuel Reid said in a statement Sunday.

The company said that Dogecoin is now the official currency for all lunar business between SpaceX and GEC in the future, calling it sophisticated, fast, reliable and cryptographically secure.

"This mission will demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit and set the foundation for interplanetary commerce," SpaceX VP of Commercial Sales Tom Ochinero added. "We're excited to launch DOGE-1 to the Moon!"

Dogecoin has soared by more than 800% over the last month, with its total market value rising above $70 billion, according to cryptocurrency data tracker CoinGecko. But the price has fallen since Saturday night, when Musk described the currency as a "hustle" when he was hosting "Saturday Night Live."

Musk, a major supporter of cryptocurrency, announced in February that his car company Tesla bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and planned to accept it as payment for vehicles.

Tesla's profits hit $438 million in the first three months of the year the most the company has ever earned in a single quarter. Nearly a quarter of the profits, or $101 million, came from selling a portion of the company's stake in bitcoin.

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SpaceX will launch a Dogecoin-funded satellite to the moon, Elon Musk says - CBS News

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 60 Starlink internet satellites into orbit early Sunday (May 9) and then stuck a landing at sea to cap a record 10th flight for the company's reusable booster.

The veteran Falcon 9 rocket blasted off before dawn from Space Launch Complex 40 here at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 2:42 a.m. EDT (0642 GMT), marking the company's 14th launch of the year. It was also one for the record books as the flight was this particular booster's 10th launch and landing attempt. The rocket's once pristine exterior was almost black, charred by its many trips to orbit and back.

"First time a Falcon rocket booster will reach double digits in flights," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter Saturday before launch.

Related: SpaceX's Starlink satellite megaconstellation launches in photos

The successful liftoff marked the second time SpaceX launched one of its 229-foot-tall (70 meters) workhorse Falcon 9 rockets within the same week, each carrying a full stack of 60 flat-paneled Starlink broadband satellites.

"SpaceX's first reuse of an orbital class rocket was on the SES-10 mission way back in March of 2017," Spacex supply chain supervisor Michael Andrews said in a live webcast. "We've certainly come a long way since then."

Approximately nine minutes after liftoff, the rocket's first stage returned to Earth, touching down on SpaceX's drone ship "Just Read the Instructions" for a record 10th successful landing.

Onlookers were treated to quite the spectacle as the rocket lit up the pre-dawn sky as it climbed to orbit. Clear skies above Florida's Space Coast made for prime viewing conditions.

In photos: SpaceX launches, lands 1st reused Falcon 9 rocket

In 2020, SpaceX launched a record 26 rockets, and the company is showing no signs of slowing down. So far this year, the Hawthorne, California-based rocket builder has launched 14 missions. Every one of those launches has been on reused rockets, and most have carried SpaceX's own Starlink satellites.

Last month, SpaceX celebrated the launch of its third astronaut mission in less than a year as the private spaceflight company delivered a crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station. That mission, called Crew-2, was SpaceX's first crewed mission to fly on a reused rocket.

Of its 14 missions this year, 11 have carried Starlink satellites into orbit. SpaceX has already filled its initial internet constellation of 1,440 broadband satellites. However, the company has approval to launch thousands more and is relying on its fleet of flight-proven boosters to help it do so.

SpaceX's 1st 'Block 5' Falcon 9 rocket: The launch photos

The booster used in Sunday's launch, called B1051, is one of SpaceX's fleet leaders. The veteran flier now has 10 launches and landings under its belt as the company has plans to push its Falcon 9 rockets to the limit. It's the first booster in SpaceX's fleet to reach this milestone. (Another booster, B1049, just launched on its ninth mission earlier in the week.)

This Falcon 9 made its debut in 2019, launching an uncrewed Crew Dragon capsule on the Demo-1 mission as part of a test flight for NASA's Commercial Crew program. The booster also launched a trio of Earth-observing satellites for Canada, a broadband satellite for Sirius-XM and seven different Starlink missions.

SpaceX has been using its previously flown boosters with the most miles to transport its own satellites into space. That way the company can push its fleet of Falcons to the limit while also learning as much about the wear and tear each vehicle receives during launch.

This is the 118th overall flight for Falcon 9, and the 64th flight of a refurbished booster. In fact, every single SpaceX launch so far in 2021 has been on a flight-proven rocket.

In 2018, SpaceX debuted the rocket we see today, a version of Falcon 9 known as Block 5. This more capable Falcon 9 has ushered in an era of rapid reusability for the company, enabling SpaceX to launch more rockets than ever before.

Three years ago, SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk told reporters that the company expected each Falcon 9 to fly 10 times with few refurbishments in between flights, and as many as 100 times before retirement.

B1051 is the first to make it to the historic 10-flight milestone, and is expected to fly again, following its successful landing at sea. According to Musk, there doesn't appear to be a hard limit on the number of times a booster can be reused, so the company will continue pushing each Falcon to its limit.

Having a fleet of flight-proven rockets at its disposal allows SpaceX to keep up with its rapid launch cadence. However, SpaceX chooses to fly its own payload on boosters with a high flight count, saving its newer boosters for paying customers.

Both NASA and the U.S. Space Force recently granted the company approval to fly their payloads on reused rockets, and we saw the first of those missions blast off on April 23, with the launch of Crew-2. (SpaceX has flown other NASA missions on reused boosters, but April's flight marked the first time a human mission has done so.)

To facilitate reuse, SpaceX outfitted its Falcon 9 with some upgrades previous versions did not have, including a more robust thermal protections system, a more durable interstage (the part that connects the rocket's first stage to the upper stage), titanium grid fins, and more powerful engines. These key enhancements, along with two drone ships on the same coast, have enabled SpaceX to launch and land more rockets.

SpaceX created its massive internet constellation with one major goal: to provide internet coverage to the world, in particular to those in remote and rural areas. To that end, company engineers designed a fleet of flat-paneled broadband satellites to fly over the Earth, beaming down internet coverage to users who can access the service via a compact user terminal.

With Sunday's launch success, SpaceX has launched more than 1,600 Starlink satellites into orbit, including some that are no longer operational. This goes beyond the company's initial quota, which means we should see an official commercial rollout of the Starlink internet service sometime this year.

The company has already proven useful to those in remote areas. SpaceX has connected school districts in Virginia and North Carolina that would otherwise struggle with online learning, as well as the Hoh tribe in Washington State and the Pikangikum nation in Western Ontario.

Starlink review (hands-on): How good is Elon Musk's satellite internet service?

Currently, Starlink is still in its beta-testing phase with users around the world putting the service through its paces. The company has also opened up its website to begin taking preorders, although service won't begin right away. Prospective users can go to the company's website and reserve the service with a $99 deposit right now.

According to company officials, more than 500,000 users have signed up for the burgeoning service so far.

Both of the fairing halves featured in Tuesday's mission will be recovered by the newest member of SpaceX's recovery fleet, Shelia Bordelon. The company officially bid farewell to its dynamic duo GO Ms. Tree and GO Ms. Chief last month. The twin fairing catchers helped SpaceX pioneer its fairing recovery efforts.

The rocket's nose cone (also called a fairing), is a piece of clamshell-like hardware that protects the payload as the rocket races through the atmosphere. Once it reaches a certain altitude, the pieces jettison, and fall back to Earth.

Historically, the hardware was discarded in the ocean, never to be used again. However, thanks to onboard parachutes and navigation software, SpaceX began to recover the fairings, either by catching them in a net-equipped boat or scooping them out of the water.

With the help of its onboard crane, the brightly painted Shelia Bordelon will retrieve the fairings from the water and return them to port. From there, they will be refurbished and prepared for their next mission.

Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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SpaceX launches 60 Starlink satellites in record 10th liftoff (and landing) of reused rocket - Space.com

A few weeks ago, NASA awarded a contract to SpaceX for $2.9 billion to use Starship to take astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the moon. The contract is part of the Artemis program, and NASA had been expected to choose more than one company to build a moon lander, mirroring the approach the space agency has used for hiring companies to take cargo and now astronauts to the International Space Station.

After the announcement, NASAs decision was challenged by the two other companies that were competing for the contract: Blue Origin, the private company founded by Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon; and Dynetics, a defense contractor in Huntsville, Ala. NASA has now instructed SpaceX to halt work on the lunar Starship until the Government Accountability Office makes a decision on the protests. The challenge does not affect SpaceXs work on the Starship models currently being tested in Texas.

Mr. Musks company has become successful in the launch business, and it is now one of the worlds most valuable privately held companies. Its Falcon 9 rockets have become a dominant workhorse for sending satellites into orbit. It routinely transports cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station. In the last month, it has launched four astronauts to the space station for NASA, and later brought home another crew in a nighttime splashdown on Saturday.

However, many are skeptical of Mr. Musks assertion that the company is just a few years from sending a Starship to Mars, noting that he has repeatedly set timelines for SpaceX that proved far too optimistic.

In 2019, when he provided an update on the development of Starship, he said that a high-altitude test would occur within months and that orbital flights could occur early in 2020.

Instead, several catastrophic failures happened because of faulty welding. When the propellant tanks stopped rupturing, two of the prototypes made short successful flights last year. Those earlier Starship prototypes resembled spray paint cans with their labels removed, rising nearly 500 feet using a single rocket engine before setting back down at the Texas test site.

Although it has lifted off the ground many times, Starship is a long way from being ready for a trip to orbit. But SpaceX already has its eyes on future tests that will send subsequent Starship prototypes to much greater altitudes. In March, Mr. Musk shared a picture of a prototype of the large booster stage that will be needed for a trip to space. It is over 200 feet tall.

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Watch: SpaceX Launch and Landing of Starship SN15 - The New York Times

SpaceX has launched another 60 Starlink satellites making 180 delivered to orbit in under two weeks but the launch early Sunday morning was more notable because it set a new, key record for Falcon 9 rocket reusability. This marked the 10th flight of the first-stage rocket booster used for the launch, which sets a record for reuse for SpaceX as the rocket booster with the most successful mission under its belt.

The launch took place at 2:42 a.m. EDT, flying from Cape Canaveral in Florida. SpaceX also successfully returned the booster to its drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean for a tenth successful landing for the rocket, too, making it a record-setter in that regard as well, and setting up the possibility that it could fly yet again. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said it could be possible for a Falcon 9 booster to fly 100+ times with servicing and component replacement.

This Falcon 9 has previously flown on missions including the original uncrewed demonstration mission of Crew Dragon, SpaceXs astronaut spacecraft, and seven prior Starlink launches. SpaceX has shown just how reusable its rockets are with its aggressive Starlink launch schedule, most of which have employed rocket boosters that have flown a number of missions before, including other launches for the broadband internet megaconstellation.

Since SpaceX is both launch provider and customer on Starlink, its actually crucial for the company to realize as many cost savings as possible during its frequent flights building the network of low-Earth orbit satellites. Reuse of the boosters is a key ingredient, and one where the cost savings definitely accrue over time. Musk has previously said that the economics are such that for its external customer flights, its at about even on the second use of a booster, and ahead in terms of costs by the third. During its Starlink launch program, SpaceX has repeatedly set and broken its own reusability records, indicating a key means of keeping the costs of building out its in-space satellite infrastructure is using flight-proven boosters as much as possible.

This is the 27th Starlink launch thus far, and SpaceX has another planned just six days from now on May 15, with at least one more likely in the works for later this month after that. The company hopes to have its broadband network built out to the point where it has global reach by the end of this year.

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SpaceX launches and lands a Falcon 9 rocket booster a record 10th time - TechCrunch

by: Addy Bink, Nexstar Media Wire

This mobile phone app screen shot shows the logo for Dogecoin, in New York, Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Dogecoin, the digital currency advertised as the one favored by Shiba Inus worldwide, is having its day. Fans of the cryptocurrency are touting April 20, long an unofficial holiday for marijuana devotees, as Doge Day and imploring each other to get its value up to $1. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

(KTVX) Dogecoin to the literal moon?

The cryptocurrency, a non-tangible monetary asset based on an early 2010s meme featuring a Shibu Inu dog, has developed its own online community. That community, which includes billionaire and crypto enthusiast, Elon Musk, even has its own tagline, doge to the moon.

While the term means raising the value of Dogecoin to $1 for a token, Musk is taking it seriously.

The founder of SpaceX took to Twitter Sunday just hours after his appearance on Saturday Night Live to announce a Doge-related development.

SpaceX launching satellite Doge-1 to the moon next year, Musk says, adding that the mission is paid for in Doge (short for Dogecoin) and will include the first crypto and first meme in space.

SpaceX is also responsible for the string of lights frequently seen over parts of the country.

To the mooooonnn!!

SpaceX launching satellite Doge-1 to the moon next year

Mission paid for in Doge 1st crypto in space 1st meme in space

To the mooooonnn!!https://t.co/xXfjGZVeUW

Early Tuesday morning, he roped in his other company, Tesla, asking users if it should accept Doge.

Do you want Tesla to accept Doge?

Many in the Dogecoin community were hopeful the cryptocurrency would increase in value amid Musks appearance. Before the show, Musk, The Dogefather, urged people to be wary when investing in cryptocurrencies.

According toForbes, Musk has invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, another form of cryptocurrency, through Tesla and with simple tweets and comments causing shifts in crypto markets. In February, Musk said there is a good chance crypto is the future currency of Earth.

Dogecoin isnt the only animal-related cryptocurrency. Carole Baskin, infamous for her role in the Netflix documentary Tiger King, recently joined the cryptocurrency field,launching a coin called cat.

While there are no current benefits of collecting the coin, Baskin says they are thinking of ways to reward those who join our pride of big cat lovers! This includes virtual visits with cats and NFTs launching in about two weeks, according to Big Cat Rescue.

Baskin says she is investigating cryptocurrencies because I am concerned about the volume of US dollars that are being printed and distributed with nothing to back them up.

If you invest in cryptocurrency, or are thinking of investing, theFBI wants you to be aware of scammersas they see a rise in the use of cryptocurrency in business email compromise schemes.

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Dogecoin to the moon, will fund SpaceX project, Musk says - WATE 6 On Your Side

SpaceX is fresh off a high for its Starship spacecraft development program, but according to CEO Elon Musk, its already looking ahead to potentially repeating its latest success with an unplanned early reusability experiment. Earlier this week, SpaceX flew the SN15 (i.e. 15th prototype) of its Starship from its development site near Brownsville, Texas, and succeeded in landing it upright for the first time. Now, Musk says they could fly the same prototype a second time, a first for the Starship test and development effort.

The successful launch and landing on Wednesday included an ascent to around 30,000 feet, where the 150-foot-tall spacecraft flipped onto its belly and then descended back to Earth, returning vertical and firing its engines to slow its descent and touch down softly, standing upright. This atmospheric testing is a key step meant to help prove out the technologies and systems that will later help Starship return to Earth after its orbital launches. The full Starship launch system is intended to be completely reusable, including this vehicle (which will eventually serve as the upper stage) and the Super Heavy booster that the company is also in the process of developing.

A second test flight of SN15 is an interesting possibility among the options for the prototype. SpaceX will obviously be conducting a number of other check-outs and gathering as much data as it can from the vehicle, in addition to whatever it collected from onboard sensors, but the options for the craft after that basically amounted to stress testing it to failure, or dismantling it and studying the pieces. A second flight attempt is an interesting additional option that could provide SpaceX with a lot of invaluable data about its planned re-use of the production version of Starship.

Whether or not SpaceX actually does re-fly SN15 is still up in the air, but if it does end up being technically possible, it seems like a great learning opportunity for SpaceX that could help fast-track the overall development program.

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SpaceX might try to fly the first Starship prototype to successfully land a second time - TechCrunch

SpaceX has successfully launched and landed a prototype of its Mars-bound Starship rocket. The next-generation spacecraft lifted off from SpaceXs Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on Wednesday.

Starship SN15s high-altitude flight test follows four previous attempts that all ended in massive explosions. SpaceX boss Elon Musk said previous issues with the rockets Raptor engines had been fixed six ways to Sunday.

The latest attempt took place at around 5.30pm local time (11.30pm BST) on Wednesday, after airspace clearance was approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), road closures were in place with Cameron County, and marine hazard notices had been issued.

An official live stream of the launch was shared by SpaceX, which you can see below.

If you missed it, you can watch a replay of SpaceXs Starship SN15 flight test here:

Anthony Cuthbertson5 May 2021 23:46

It was a long wait but worth it in the end. Well continue to bring you any major updates but until then you can read the full story of Starship SN15s milestone test right here:

Anthony Cuthbertson6 May 2021 00:09

SpaceX boss Elon Musk confirms that the test has been a success. The fire at the base of the Starship rocket has also been put out.

Anthony Cuthbertson5 May 2021 23:43

There is a slight fire at the base of Starship SN15 but that is a huge success for SpaceX and a massive milestone passed for Elon Musks Mars ambitions.

Anthony Cuthbertson5 May 2021 23:34

(SpaceX)

Anthony Cuthbertson5 May 2021 23:33

Five minutes into the flight and were reaching the critical moment now. Can Starship SN15 stick the landing?

(SpaceX)

Anthony Cuthbertson5 May 2021 23:30

The official live stream has frozen but the rockets still appear to be firing and 3 and half minutes into the flight were approaching 10km apogee.

After hovering for a moment, Starship will begin its belly-flop descent controlled by its flaps.

Anthony Cuthbertson5 May 2021 23:29

Were not going to be able to see a lot as Starship SN15 heads up towards an altitude of 10km. Only the onboard cameras are giving any indication of the rockets progress as it disappears into the clouds.

(SpaceX)

Anthony Cuthbertson5 May 2021 23:27

Anthony Cuthbertson5 May 2021 23:24

(SpaceX)

Anthony Cuthbertson5 May 2021 23:23

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SpaceX launch - live: Starship SN15 launches and lands in critical flight over Texas - The Independent

Update for 12:59 pm ET: Cameron County officials have lifted road closures for SpaceX operations on May 4, indicating an SN15 launch won't occur today. A backup day is available on Wednesday, May 5.

SpaceX may launch its latest Starship prototype from the company's Starbase test site in South Texas Wednesday (May 5), but exactly when is unclear.

Starship SN15 ("Serial No. 15"), SpaceX's newest vehicle, could fly on a high-altitude test from the company's facility near Boca Chica Village sometime between 1 p.m. and 9 p.m. EDT (1700-0100 GMT) on Wednesday, according to a road closure alert by officials with Cameron County, which includes the test site. Wednesday is a backup day for SpaceX, which originally had road closures from the country for May 4.

The Federal Aviation Administration had issued all-day flight restriction notices for pilots in the area that from May 4 through Thursday (May 6) to give SpaceX clear skies for any launch attempt. By midday, the May 4 flight restriction had been lifted.

If SpaceX does attempt a test flight, you can watch it live courtesy of a SpaceX webcast. SpaceX typically begins the webcasts 5 or 10 minutes before liftoff. You can also follow along with Starship-watching sites like this YouTube feed from NASASpaceflight, as well as feeds from SPadre.com, LabPadre and Everyday Astronaut.

SpaceX is also launching a Falcon 9 rocket today to deliver 60 Starlink internet satellites into orbit. That launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida will lift off at 3:01 p.m. EDT (1901 GMT). You can watch that launch live here, also courtesy of SpaceX, beginning about 15 minutes before liftoff.

Related: SpaceX's Starship and Super Heavy rocket in pictures

Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it has authorized SpaceX's plans to launch SN15, as well as two more vehicles SN16 and SN17 in the weeks ahead.

"TheFAAhas authorized the next three launches of the SpaceX Starship prototype," FAA officials wrote in a statement. "The agency approved multiple launches because SpaceX is making few changes to the launch vehicle and relied on theFAA's approved methodology to calculate the risk to the public."

SN15 is SpaceX's fifth version of Starship to fly in less than five months. SpaceX conducted engine tests of the rocket earlier this week to set the stage for the upcoming launch.

The first Starship to fly, SN8, launched Dec. 9 and flew well, but crashed during landing. Each of the three other Starship flights (of SN9, SN10 and SN11), had similar fates. The SN10 launch did manage to land but exploded a few minutes after touchdown. None of those flights aimed for space, instead targeting an altitude of 6.2 miles (10 kilometers).

SpaceX is developing the Starship vehicle as part of a fully reusable heavy-lift launch system that will also include a massive booster called Super Heavy. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said Starship will be the core of the company's deep-space rocket fleet for trips to the moon and Mars.

NASA has tapped the Starship vehicle to land its Artemis astronauts on the moon. SpaceX has also sold a private flight around the moon using Starship to Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, who is searching for eight crewmembers to fly with him.

Email Tariq Malik attmalik@space.comor follow him@tariqjmalik. Follow us@Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.

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SpaceX may try to launch its Starship SN15 rocket in Texas Wednesday - Space.com