Starship Reaches Orbit on SpaceX’s Third Test but Breaks Up on Re-Entry
Universe Today » SpaceX
by Alan Boyle
1w ago
After falling short in its first two attempts, SpaceX got its Starship super-rocket to an orbital altitude today during the launch system’s third integrated flight test. Now it just has to work on the landing.  Today’s test marked a major milestone in SpaceX’s effort to develop Starship as the equivalent of a gigantic Swiss Army knife for spaceflight, with potential applications ranging from the deployment of hundreds of Starlink broadband satellites at a time to crewed odysseys to the moon, Mars and beyond. The 396-foot-tall (120-meter-tall) rocket lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase faci ..read more
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SpaceX is Gearing Up for the Starship’s Third Orbital Test Flight
Universe Today » SpaceX
by Matt Williams
2w ago
The Starship/Super Heavy is the world’s first fully reusable launch system and the most powerful rocket in history. It is also the key to fulfilling SpaceX’s long-term vision of broadband satellite internet, delivering crews and cargo to the lunar surface, and creating the first self-sustaining city on Mars. After years of development, design changes, and “hop tests” at the company’s launch facility near Boca Chica, Texas, orbital test flights finally began in April last year. The first two flights ended in the loss of both vehicles, though the second flight saw the Starship prototype reach or ..read more
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Now We Know Why Starship’s Second Flight Test Failed
Universe Today » SpaceX
by Mark Thompson
2M ago
SpaceX is often in the headlines, unfortunlatey its not always good news. On 18th November we saw the second of the Starship and SuperHeavy booster get off the launchpad successfully, it failed before reaching orbit. In a recent event, Elon Musk explained how a fuel venting near the end of the burn was responbie but entirely avoidable next time! The Starship and SuperHeavy booster are an impressive combination. Standing at over 120 metres tall together they are one of the most powerful and versatile rocket systems ever built. It can produce 16,700,000 pound force of thrust making it twice as p ..read more
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A Chinese Booster (and Additional Secret Payload) Caused a Double Crater on the Moon
Universe Today » SpaceX
by Nancy Atkinson
4M ago
Last year, astronomers warned that a large piece of debris was on a collision course with the Moon. Initially, they speculated that it was a SpaceX booster but later zeroed in on a Chinese Long March 3C rocket booster that launched the Chang’e 5 mission. When it did impact on March 4, 2022, astronomers noted a strange double crater. A new paper suggests that it couldn’t have been a single object breaking up since there’s no atmosphere on the Moon. Instead, the booster must have been carrying an additional, undisclosed payload. The object was originally discovered on March 14, 2015 with the Cat ..read more
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SpaceX Tested Its Starship Again. Successful Launch But Both Vehicles Were Destroyed
Universe Today » SpaceX
by Matt Williams
4M ago
After months of waiting, SpaceX made its second attempt at an orbital flight this past Saturday (November 18th). During their previous attempt, which occurred back in April, a fully-stacked Starship (SN24) and Super Heavy (BN7) prototypes managed to make it off the landing pad and reach an altitude of about 40 km (25 miles) above sea level. Unfortunately, the SN24 failed to separate from the BN7 booster a few minutes into the flight, causing the vehicle to fall into an uncontrolled tumble and forcing the ground teams to detonate the onboard charges. Things went better this time as the SN25 and ..read more
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Starship Could Be Ready to Launch on Friday
Universe Today » SpaceX
by Mark Thompson
4M ago
Space exploration should never be run of the mill nor something that finds itself on the back pages of the newspaper.  Captain James T. Kirk was right that space really is the final frontier and making it more accessible is one of the driving forces behind SpaceX.  Their mission to seek out new life and new civilisations, wait that’s wrong – that’s Starfleet.  The SpaceX mission ‘to revolutionise space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets is at the forefront of the development of the enormous Starship which may make another launch attemp ..read more
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SpaceX Test Fires a Raptor Engine, Simulating a Lunar Landing
Universe Today » SpaceX
by Nancy Atkinson
6M ago
When NASA astronauts return to the surface of the Moon in the Artemis III mission, the plan is to use a modified SpaceX Starship as their lunar lander. NASA announced last week that SpaceX has now demonstrated an important capability of the vacuum-optimized Raptor engine that will be used for the lander: an extreme cold start.   A test last month successfully confirmed the engine can be started in the frigid conditions of space, even when the vehicle has spent an extended time in space, where temperatures will drop lower than a shorter low-Earth orbit mission. The Raptor vacuum engine was ..read more
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Crew-7 Reaches the International Space Station
Universe Today » SpaceX
by Nancy Atkinson
7M ago
SpaceX Crew-7, the next group of four astronauts, are now on board the International Space Station, and this diverse crew is definitely putting “International” in the ISS. The new crew hails from four different countries: the US, Denmark, Japan and Russia. There will be 11 people on board the station for a few days before the Crew-6 foursome head back to Earth. NASA has at least 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations queued up for Crew-7[‘s six months space, many of which will help prepare for the upcoming Artemis missions. Crew-7 arrived on Sunday, August 27 aboard the SpaceX D ..read more
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Even Though They’re Bigger, Generation 2 Starlinks are Fainter than Gen 1
Universe Today » SpaceX
by Andy Tomaswick
10M ago
We’ve filed plenty of reports here at UT warning about the potential impact of Starlink and similar satellites on the field of astronomy. We’ve gone so far as to point out that the granddaddy of space-based telescopes – Hubble – has already had some of its images tarnished by passing Starlink satellites. However, SpaceX has been aware of the problem and is working to limit their product’s brightness. The recently launched Gen2 satellites seem to have made a significant step forward – research from a team of amateur astronomers finds that the new Gen2 Starlinks are more than 10x fainter than pr ..read more
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Four Private Astronauts Are Now on the International Space Station
Universe Today » SpaceX
by Nancy Atkinson
11M ago
On Sunday, May 21, the 4-person crew of Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) blasted off to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon, and today, May 22, the private astronaut crew boarded the International Space Station for a scheduled 10-day stay. Commander (and former NASA astronaut) Peggy Whitson, pilot and businessman John Shoffner, and Mission Specialists Ali Alqarni — a captain in the Royal Saudi Air Force — and Rayyanah Barnawi, a biomedical researcher, will do scientific research, public outreach, and other commercial activities for their stay in space. This is the second ..read more
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