Category Archives: Spacex

SpaceX dropped an early Christmas present for space fans everywhere this week with an amazing video recap of its first major test launch of a Starship rocket.

The video, which SpaceX unveiled Wednesday (Dec. 23), shows the company's first high-altitude launch of its giant Starship SN8, a rocket prototype for a fully reusable space launch system for trips to the moon and Mars. SpaceX launched the Starship SN8 on Dec. 8 from a pad it its test facility near the village of Boca Chica in South Texas.

"12 story rocket turns off its engines & does a controlled fall," SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk wrote on Twitter.

Starship and Super Heavy: SpaceX's Mars-colonizing vehicles in images

During the Dec. 8, SpaceX's Starship SN8 launched to an altitude of about 7.8 miles (12.5 kilometers) using its three Raptor engines. At its peak, the rocket shut down its engines and performed a "belly flop" to make a controlled glide to a landing site near its launch pad.

Just before touchdown, Starship SN8 fired up one of its engines once more to flip the rocket around to attempt an upright landing similar to those regularly performed by SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters. But the rocket landed a bit too fast due to a lower than expected fuel tank header pressure, cause it to crash and explode in a brilliant fireball.

In the new video, SpaceX catches that moment with a camera just below the booster at the landing pad, as well as from afar. Musk and SpaceX celebrated the launch test despite the explosion, adding that the mission proved Starship's ability not only to launch on the company's new Raptor engines, but also glide itself back to Earth to a landing spot.

"SN8 did great!" Musk wrote on Twitter on Dec. 9. "Even reaching apogee would've been great, so controlling all the way to putting the crater in the right spot was epic."

"Mars, here we come," Musk wrote later.

SpaceX expressed similar sentiments in the recap video.

"SN8 demonstrated a first-of-its-kind controlled aerodynamic descent and a landing flip maneuver," SpaceX states in the video. "Together these will enable landing where no runways exist including the moon, Mars and beyond."

Musk has said the company may save the SN8 wreckage to preserve its memory.

Indeed, NASA has tapped SpaceX's Starship vehicle as a contender for crewed moon landing missions under its Artemis program. The company's final Starship vehicle will include both the Starship spacecraft and a massive reusable booster called Super Heavy to launch deep-space missions.

SpaceX is already hard at work preparing its next Starship prototype, the SN9 rocket, for its own test launch, possibly later this month. The rocket required some extra work earlier this month after it appeared to tip slightly inside its hangar at Boca Chica, according to images captured by Starship watchers and posted on Twitter.

But the rocket has since rolled out to to its launch pad.

"Next up: SN9," SpaceX said.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.

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Relive SpaceX's Starship SN8 test launch with this epic recap video - Space.com

SpaceX aimed for up to 39 launches in 2020. The company wound up with 26, which still makes it the most prolific year for Elon Musk and his team, and second only to China and its Long March family of rockets with an unofficial count of 30.

Most notably, SpaceX's number includes two missions that carried astronauts to the International Space Station aboard a Crew Dragon, setting a number of milestones for human spaceflight. The Demo 2 mission that took NASA's Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the space station was the first crewed commercial flight and the first from US soil since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011. SpaceX did it again with four astronauts, including one from Japan's space agency, JAXA, on the Crew-1 mission in November.

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The 14 Starlink satellite launches made up more than half the SpaceX flights this year, brought the broadband constellation closer to its first 1,000 flying routers in orbit and enabled the Better Than Nothingbeta to begin in October.

In addition to those 26 Falcon 9 flights, SpaceX also continued development of its next-generation Starship rocket at its south Texas facility. This culminated in the dramatic first high-altitude flight of a prototype, which was deemed a success despite the hard, explosive landing after reaching about 8 miles (12.5 kilometers) in altitude.

In 2021 we can expect even more of the same, with scheduled Falcon 9 missions carrying Starlinks, bigger satellites and more astronauts to space. There are even a few Falcon Heavy launches on the calendar, which we didn't get to see in 2020. And certainly we'll be seeing more from the Starship development team in Texas.

Meanwhile, sit back and enjoy every launch Elon and his pals brought us during what was otherwise a year we'd rather forget.

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Watch every SpaceX launch from 2020 and say Auld Lang Syne with fire - CNET

Suzie Dills| Special to Akron Beacon Journal

Although 2020 was a very difficult year for us, it gave us a chance to take time to observe astronomical highlights and night sky delights and view live broadcasts of historic launches. Many of us enjoyed the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn and the surprise visit of Comet NEOWISE. We watched the launch of the next Mars rover, Perseverance, in July. History was made with the NASA SpaceX Crew Dragon flight, the first American rocket launch since 2011 and the NASA SpaceX Crew-1 Mission.

Mars Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is scheduled to land inside the 28-mile Jezero Crater, on Feb. 18. Perseverance will search for signs of ancient life in Jezero Crater, which harbored a lake and river delta billions of years ago. The rover will collect and store samples for future return to Earth, along with demonstrating technology that could aid in future exploration. A tiny helicopter, namedIngenuity, hitched a ride on the belly of Perseverance. After the rover lands, it will find a place for Ingenuity to conduct test flights. Then Ingenuity will make a few short flights into the Martian skies. This will be the first ever flight by a rotorcraft on a planet beyond Earth.

SpaceX crew In May, the NASA SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts will return to Earth. Soon after the NASA SpaceX Crew-2 Mission with four astronauts aboard will head to the International Space Station. The Crew-2 astronauts will spend six months at the ISS.

Boeing crew Boeing Orbital Flight Test-2 is targeted to launch March 29. The first crewed mission for Boeings CST-100 Starlinerwill be slated for June or later.

Moon The first stage of the Artemis program for the return to the moonby humanswill begin with the launch of Artemis Iin November 2021. The mission is designed to test the crew spacecraft Orion and the Space Launch System. Crewed Artemis missions will follow.

Space telescope The James Webb Telescope is still on track for launch on Oct. 31. The James Webb Telescope will be the largest and most powerful space telescope ever built and launched into space. With the Webb, we will be able see much closer to the beginning of time, when the first stars and galaxies started to form.

March 10 The thin crescent moon joins Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn in the morning twilight.

April 25 Mercury and Venus will be about a degree apart, low in the western sky after sunset.

April 26 Supermoon: closest full moon of the year.

May 12 Venus and the thin crescent moon, less than 1 degree apart, low in the west-northwest at dusk.

May 26 Partial lunar eclipse, begins at 5:44 a.m. with the moon setting at 6:02 a.m.

June 10 Partial solar eclipse, will be underway with the sunrise at 5:52 am. Maximum at 5:55 a.m., and eclipse will end at 6:35 a.m.

July 11 The thin crescent moon will be 5 degrees from Venus and Mars, which will be separated by 1 degree low in the western sky at dusk.

Aug. 22 Seasonal blue moon, occurs when we have four full moonsin one season. The third is called the blue moon. This is the original definition of a blue moon.

Nov. 19 Near-total lunar eclipse. Partial eclipse begins at 2:18 a.m., maximum at 4:02 a.m. and eclipse ends at 5:47 a.m.

Dec. 5 Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and the moon form a spectacular line in the western sky after sunset.

Planets and moon:Jupiter and Saturn start the month low in the southwestern sky, right after sunset. By mid-month, they drop from view, but will return to the morning sky next month. Mercury returns to the evening sky in January and creates a spectacular trio with Jupiter and Saturn, in the southwest, right after sunset Jan. 10. Mercury will continue to climb higher and remains visible through the end of the month. Mercury reaches greatest elongation Jan. 23, 19 degrees east of the sun. Mars shines brightly overhead all month but continues to move away from Earth. At the beginning of the month, Mars is 84.3 million miles from Earth, at months end it will be 111 million miles away. Brilliant Venus will be low in the predawn southeastern at the beginning of January but lost in the suns glare at months end. Jan. 18-22 will be a great time to spot Uranus. Mars will pass north of Uranus, with Jan. 21 as the best night, when Uranus is 1.7 degreesdue south of Mars. On Jan. 1, Neptune will be 1 degree east of Phi Aquarii in eastern Aquarius. On Jan.14, the moon pairs with Mercury, 35 minutes after sunset. Then on Jan. 17 the moon passes south of Neptune and on Jan. 21 passes south of Mars and Uranus. In the predawn sky, the moon pairs with Venus on Jan. 11.

Constellations:East Great star hopping in this part of the sky! Start with the most magnificent picture in our stars, Orion, the Hunter. Look for the three stars in a line, which make up the belt of Orion. The bright red-orange star up and to the left of the belt is Betelgeuse. The bright blue-white star down and to the right of the belt is Rigel. Draw a line up from the belt to a red, orange star, Aldebaran, which is the eye of Taurus, the Bull. The sideways V shape is the face of Taurus. Above Taurus, the small cluster of stars is the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. Making a counterclockwise loop from the Pleiades, the next bright star is Capella. Continuing down, the two stars you see are Gemini, the Twins.

North The Big Dipper is beginning to swing up on its handle. Following the two stars at the end of the cup to the next bright star, is Polaris, or the North Star. The constellation Cassiopeia is above and to the left of Polaris and resembles the letter M.

West There you will see four stars that form the Great Square of Pegasus.

Binocular highlights When facing north, locate the M shape of Cassiopeia. From the left point of the M shape, scan slowly up to the left. You will see a fuzzy circular shape. That is the Andromeda Galaxy. It is 2.5 million light years away. From the right point of the M,scan up slightly. You will come upon the Double Cluster in Perseus. High overhead, you will see the small cluster of stars, the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters. ThePleiades is a beautiful open star cluster. Head to Orion, the Hunter. Scan below the three stars of Orions belt. You will see fuzzy area with bright stars. This is the Orion Nebula, a hydrogen gas cloud where new stars are forming.

The peak of the Quadrantid Meteor Shower is Jan. 3.

For further night sky details, maps and audio, visit my website http://www.starrytrails.com.

Visit the Hoover Price Planetarium: Visit http://www.mckinleymuseum.org, for limited show dates and times. Planetarium shows are free with museum admission. Seating is limited and will be on a first-come, first-served basis. The planetarium is located inside the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum, 800 McKinley Monument DriveNWin Canton. For more information,call the museum at 330-455-7043.

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What's Up in the Sky: Here's what to expect in 2021 - Akron Beacon Journal

Elon Musk outlines his Neuralink brain implant trial on pigs

The billionaire Tesla CEO shared a controversial image apparently mocking users who specify their preferred pronouns on their profile description.He had been previously called out by members of the public and his partner, Grimes, he tweeted that pronouns suck.

The image depicts a British Redcoat wearing a hat featuring the words I love to oppress on a backdrop showing a painting of the American Revolutionary War.

The subject is seen smearing blood on his face with the caption to the bizarre image reading: When you put he/him in [your] bio.

Other social media users were quick to condemn the alleged transphobic connotations.

One Twitter user said: I was sure people put he/him she/her etc in bios to normalise putting pronouns in there so people who ate gender fluid, non binary etc can feel more comfortable and state their pronouns without people thinking it's weird or out of nowhere.

Another person added: I dont get the joke. If/when I put my preferred pronouns in my email sig or bio it would be to normalise the usage.

As a way of showing support to the movement. Just like 99% of the times Ive seen it in emails/bios. No big deal.

A third commenter said: Man you guys are straight up delusional. Transphobia rots your brain.

However, some users did not agree with accommodating to other peoples preferred pronouns.

Some even classed the inclusion of pronouns in Twitter bios as authoritarian.

One user wrote: Our obligation to people is to treat them with dignity and respect.

Our obligation is not to change our language and culture to accommodate the preferences of a few and demands to do so have strong authoritarian overtones.

Another commenter, who echoed similar claims, added: Polite requests are perfectly acceptable.

DON'T MISS:Elon Musk and SpaceX want to get humans to Mars in just six years[REVEAL]SpaceX Starink launch: Watch Falcon 9 launch SpaceX Starlink mission[INSIGHT]Elon Musk states first Mars settlers will have to live in glass domes[UPDATE]

Trying to get people fired/divorced/arrested/cancelled because they refuse your request is where it becomes authoritarian.

Mr Musks partner, Canadian singer Grimes, previously called him out over a tweet claiming pronouns suck.

Grimes, whos real name is Claire Boucher, wrote in a now-deleted tweet: I love you but please turn off ur phone or give me a [call].

I cannot support this hate. Please stop this. I know this is not your heart.

The singer has openly spoken out about trans issues, refusing to reveal the gender of her baby when she was pregnant in case that's not how they feel.

Asked about the gender of her baby during a YouTube live stream, Grimes said: I don't want to say the gender of the baby ... because I feel like their privacy should be protected.

I don't think they can consent to being famous or being in public.

I don't want to gender them in case that's not how they feel in their life.

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Elon Musk sparks Twitter meltdown as SpaceX boss accused of sharing 'transphobic' meme - Daily Express

NASA astronaut Victor Glover, one of the four astronauts aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, posted a video on Twitter of the stunning view from Earth on his first-ever trip to space.

The video shows Glover sitting by a window soaking in the view from outer space. The astronaut, who is serving as a pilot and second-in-command on the Dragon, said the view was amazing but the video "doesn't do it justice."

NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins and Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi are also members of the mission, called Crew-1.

It marks the second-ever crewed flight of a SpaceX spacecraft.

The Crew-1 astronauts are expected to spend about six months on board the ISS, where they'll work on a variety of science experiments and conduct space walks to continue updates and repairs on the space station's exterior.

CNN's Jackie Wattles contributed to this report.

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Here's how Earth looked to astronauts aboard the SpaceX capsule - CNN

Once again, Elon Musk and his SpaceX team fulfill the space mission, in this case the 100th launch was achieved with Falcon 9, which put 60 Starlink satellites into orbit.

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November26, 20203 min read

On Tuesday, November 24 at night, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket was successfully launched and not only that, it also managed to break the record - for the seventh time - of sending 60 satellites that will be put into orbit to provide satellite internet through of Starlink, which is a company that originated as a SpaceX project to create a constellation of internet satellites in order to provide broadband service, low latency and global coverage at a low cost. This launch made history with SpaceX's 100th space trip - Falcon 9 spacecraft - and Starlink's sixteenth mission.

The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket left Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:13 p.m. Tuesday. Subsequently, the booster returned to Earth and landed on the platform called "Of course I still love you." Falcon 9 was recovered in good condition and without mishaps. SpaceX has launched approximately 830 Starlink satellites that are already working.

The purpose of Starlink is to cover the planet with a network of 42,000 satellites that transfer the internet at high speed.

While we know that the Falcon 9 rocket can be reused. In September 2018, it participated in the Telstar 18 VANTAGE mission, in January 2019 it completed the Iridum-8 mission and four subsequent Starlink missions in 2019 and 2020.

An all-time record was met on this 23rd SpaceX 2020 launch mission, as it was the most trips made by the company in just this year.

As is already known, the project known as "Beta Better Than Nothing" is committed to bringing the Internet globally. On October 18, the SpaceX company began its public beta test for Starlink. Trials were conducted in the northern US and southern Canada, a public beta test is now planned for the entire North America launch. Based on this, the company continues to send satellites into our orbit.

According to the Starlink website, coverage is sought with its signal in the United States and Canada by the end of 2020 and "almost global coverage" by 2021.

Find out more: Prices for SpaceX's Starlink, Elon Musk's 'space internet' are leaked

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Falcon 9 is SpaceX's 100th rocket to be launched historically - Entrepreneur

SpaceX recently announced that it would continue beta testing its Starlink broadband Internet service into 2021. The announcement highlights a delay as the service was previously planned to roll out in 2020. Its unclear exactly when, in 2021, the service will exit beta. As close as we have to a date at this point comes from a SpaceX engineer named Kate Tice, who said that the company plans to expand its beta testing early next year.

According to Tice, the company will expand in a notable way in early 2021, specifying a timeframe of late January into early February. Its unclear how long after that expanded beta test it might take before the service is ready for everyone. Space X has been pushing hard to get more Starlink satellites into orbit.

On November 24, SpaceX put 60 new satellites into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. That mission was also notable because it marked the seventh launch for the Falcon 9 first stage used. There are plenty of videos online that show early beta testers installing the hardware and testing speeds offered in some parts of the US by the Starlink service.

Those beta testers have paid $499 for the Starlink hardware and $99 a month. Users have reported speeds as high as 100 Mbps and upload speeds and ping times plenty fast enough for video streaming and online gaming. Eventually, Starlink will offer broadband service globally. The last time we heard from SpaceX, it intended to launch the service in India by the middle of 2021.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sees the broadband Internet service as a way to fund other SpaceX missions in space. The service also aims to connect parts of the world that are underserved or unserved by broadband Internet access.

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SpaceX Starlink beta test will continue into next year - SlashGear

Regina Jorgenson

WednesdayNov25,2020at10:20AM

(Nov. 25, 2020) Last week the NASA SpaceX Crew-1 mission successfully launched and took four astronauts to the International Space Station, also known as the ISS.

A few minutes after launch, a Baby Yoda doll floated free in the cabin, indicating that zero-gravity had been achieved. A short 27 hours later, the craft docked with the ISS.

While a rotating crew of astronauts has been on the ISS continuously for the past two decades, this mission is remarkable for several reasons.

First, it marks the first in a series of regularly-crewed SpaceX missions to the ISS. Until this year, the United States has relied upon the Russian Soyuz spacecrafts to carry astronauts to and from the ISS, since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.

To read the complete story, pick up the Nov. 25 print edition of The Inquirer and Mirror or register for the I&Ms online edition byclicking here.

Click hereto sign up for Above the Fold, The Inquirer and Mirrors twice-weekly newsletter, bringing you both the news and a slice of island life, curated with content created by Nantuckets only team of professionally-trained journalists.

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SpaceX mission reaches International Space Station - Nantucket Island Inquirer

When Shafqat Zaman takes photos of the International Space Station (ISS) from Calgary, it may help that hes about one kilometre closer than photographers shooting from sea level.

However, the ISS is still about 399 kilometres away and moving at a speed of about 7.66 kilometres per second relative to the ground. No matter how you measure it, snapping a shot of the orbiting laboratory is an incredible feat.

Zaman captured an amazing shot Wednesday evening. It features a clear view of the SpaceX Dragon capsule, which lifted off Nov. 15 and docked with the station about 27 hours later. Its the white cone-shaped object on the left side, near the middle.

This wasnt his first snapshot of the most expensive object ever constructed. Zaman captured several images of the ISS, showing different angles as it passed overhead in late September.

He also captured this stunning transit of the ISS in front of the sun.

Zaman said he uses an eight-inch Meade SCT telescope with a Canon M5 camera.

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Calgary man captures photo of SpaceX Dragon docked at the International Space Station - Calgary Herald

Other experts have questioned the concept altogether, noting that point-to-point space launches will usher in a new host of issues that must be addressed before this concept gets off the ground. Victoria Samson at the Secure World Foundation told Breaking Defense's Theresa Hitchens that TRANSCOM's plans open up a regulatory can of worms:

It seems like it would provide a host of traffic management questions, as well as spaceport issues. Where would these craft be taking off/landing? Will we have spaceport bases in allied territory, and if not, how does this benefit our troops overseas if we still have to move them through ground transportation systems?

It isn't exactly clear what kind of scenarios would require this type of high-cost rapid transport, either. One could imagine using the system for moving very time-sensitive equipment and supplies to forward operating locations, but even if the cost is far less than an actual SpaceX orbital launch, it would still likely be a huge investment every time it is used. The exact infrastructure requirements are also unknown as is just how such heavy loads will be delivered safely. Suborbital flights would drastically increase the available payload of a system like Falcon 9, as opposed to its orbital insertion mission, but safely landing tens of tons of cargo in some sort of a cost-effective manner remains a question mark, albeit one that will be really interesting to see solved.

This certainly isn't the first time the U.S. military has fancied the ability to move things around the globe, including people, far faster than existing airlift concepts can provide. In 2018, now-retired Air Force General Carlton Everhart, then-head of that service's Air Mobility Command (AMC), which is part of TRANSCOM, made similar comments about space-based logistics after having sat down with SpaceX, as well as Virgin Orbit.

Think about this. Thirty minutes, 150 metric tons, [and] less than the cost of a C-5 [cargo plane], Everhart said. I said, I need to get me some of that. How do I do that?

Those remarks prompted many of the same questions that still exist now. Those same issues have dogged similar efforts that have come and gone since the 1960s, including the abortive Small Unit Space Transport and Insertion (SUSTAIN) effort, which received support from the Pentagon's National Security Space Office and U.S. Marine Corps in the 2000s and was said to be "doable" by the end of the 2010s. You can read more about that project and other efforts in the context of Everhart's 2018 comments in this past War Zone piece.

Still, SpaceX is no stranger to giving the DoD what it wants. It has previously teamed up with the U.S. Air Force to offer datalink services through their Starlink satellite constellations for the USAFs burgeoning Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS). ABMS is designed to link U.S. forces and allies across all domains, enabling real-time data fusion and sharing on an unprecedented level. Dr. Will Roper, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, has previously stated that data is now an essential warfighting resource as valuable as jet fuel, and is the key to next-gen warfare. SpaceX was recently awarded around 40% of the U.S. Space Forces launch service contracts through 2024 and another $149 million to develop early warning satellites for the Space Development Agency (SDA).

While Lyonss comments about the potential for planet-wide deliveries in one hour may sound like an exaggeration, it does follows along with other recent comments made by other military brass. Just last year, retired Air Force Lieutenant General Steven Kwast claimed that existing cutting-edge technology makes it possible to deliver any human being from any place on planet Earth to any other place in less than an hour."

While TRANSCOM hasn't mentioned delivering personnel using rockets, SpaceX founder Elon Musk has stated that the company's Starship rocket will soon enable point-to-point travel - for those willing to withstand the Gs such a trip would exert on the body. Kwast's comments remain peculiar, but using rockets for rapid transport across the globe could point in the direction of his claims. Still, we are not talking about a man rating for the system at this time, at least according to TRANSCOM.

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The Military's Puzzling Plan To Have SpaceX Deliver A C-17's Worth Of Cargo Anywhere In An Hour (Updated) - The Drive