Tag: spacex’s
SpaceX’s Next-Gen Starlink Satellites Have Started Falling From Space
It’s been a little over a month since SpaceX launched 21 mini versions of its next-generation Starlink satellites, but it appears that one of those little guys just couldn’t cling to orbit any longer.
Hype grows for SpaceX’s Starship orbital flight test, but barriers remain
More and more hype is building for the first orbital flight test of Starship, SpaceX’s ultra-heavy launch system. That hype has started to reach a crescendo this week as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released an air traffic advisory identifying April 10 as a primary launch date. Adding gasoline to the fire, earlier today […]
Hype grows for SpaceX’s Starship orbital flight test, but barriers remain by Aria Alamalhodaei originally published on TechCrunch
SpaceX’s Starship will carry an SUV-sized rover to the Moon in 2026
While its next-generation rocket has yet to fly, that’s not stopping SpaceX from booking Starship flights. On Friday, a startup named Astrolab revealed that it had recently signed an agreement with Elon Musk’s private space firm to reserve a spot on an uncrewed Starship cargo mission that could launch as early as mid-2026. “This is SpaceX’s first commercial cargo contract to the lunar surface,” Jaret Matthews, CEO of Astrolab, told The New York Times, adding his company was one of a few customers involved in the flight.
Astrolab is building a vehicle it hopes will one day carry equipment, supplies and people across the lunar surface. The Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rover is about the size of a Jeep Wrangler, making it a bit bigger than NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. It also features a robotic arm for assisting with cargo and can travel up to 15 miles per hour. Oh, and FLEX can carry up to two astronauts.
Once it lands on the Moon, Astrolab claims FLEX will become the largest rover to travel the lunar surface. Matthews told The Times Astrolab already has customers waiting to use the rover to carry cargo during the 2026 Starship mission. Looking further to the future, Matthews said FLEX could assist with building a permanent human presence on the Moon and beyond. “Ultimately our goal is to have a fleet of rovers both on the Moon and Mars,” he said. “And I really think I see these vehicles as the catalysts ultimately for the off-Earth economy.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spacexs-starship-will-carry-an-suv-sized-rover-to-the-moon-in-2026-213926510.html?src=rss
SpaceX’s Starship Gets Its First Commercial Contract to Moon’s Surface
On Friday, Astrolab announced that it had signed an agreement with SpaceX for its Flexible Logistics and Exploration Rover, or FLEX, to be a payload on an uncrewed Starship cargo mission that is to take off as early as mid-2026….” SpaceX, which did not respond to requests for comment, has yet to announce that it is planning this commercial Starship mission to the moon’s surface, headed to the south polar region. Astrolab would be just one of the customers sharing the voluminous cargo compartment of the Starship flight, Mr. Matthews said.
Mr. Matthews, an engineer who previously worked at SpaceX and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, founded Astrolab less than four years ago. Located a stone’s throw from SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., it has about 20 full-time employees, he said…. Mr. Matthews declined to say how much it would cost to get FLEX to the moon or how much money Astrolab has raised. He said Astrolab would make money by lifting and deploying cargo for customers on the lunar surface. That could include scientific instruments. In the future, the rover could help build lunar infrastructure. “Essentially providing what I like to call last-mile mobility on the moon,” Mr. Matthews said. “You can kind of think of it like being U.P.S. for the moon. And in this analogy, Starship is the container ship crossing the ocean, and we’re the local distribution solution….”
Mr. Matthews said Astrolab already had several signed agreements for payloads. That appears to be part of the expanding potential market for [SpaceX’s] Starship…. For NASA, Starship is how its astronauts will land on the moon during the Artemis III mission, currently scheduled for 2025. Before that, SpaceX is to conduct an uncrewed flight to demonstrate the capability of spacecraft to get to the moon and set down there in one piece. If those schedules hold, the commercial cargo mission with the Astrolab rover could take place the next year….
Farther into the future, the company has even grander visions. “Ultimately our goal is to have a fleet of rovers both on the moon and Mars,” Mr. Matthews said. “And I really think I see these vehicles as the catalysts ultimately for the off-Earth economy.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
SpaceX’s Crew-5 mission safely returns to Earth after five months in space
SpaceX’s Crew-5 mission has safely returned to Earth. On Saturday evening, the company’s “Endurance” Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the coast of Florida following a five-month stay at the International Space Station. The capsule was carrying NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, Japan’s Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina.
The four spent 157 days in orbit during an ISS rotation that was one for the history books. As Space.com points out, the Crew-5 mission saw Mann, a member of the Wailaki people, become the first Native American woman to fly in space. It was also the first time a Russian cosmonaut flew aboard a private American spacecraft, a milestone made possible after NASA and Roscosmos signed a seat-sharing agreement last year amid increasing US and Russian tensions due to the war in Ukraine.
Splashdown!#Crew5 is back on Earth, completing a science mission of nearly six months on the @Space_Station. Their @SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft touched down at 9:02pm ET (0202 UTC March 12) near Tampa off the coast of Florida. pic.twitter.com/nLMC0hbKY4
— NASA (@NASA) March 12, 2023
For Wakata, the flight was his fifth return from space, a Japanese record. The mission also marked the second orbital trip for Endurance after the capsule successfully carried the Crew-3 crew back to Earth last fall. The spacecraft will now return to SpaceX’s Dragon Lair facility in Florida for safety checks and refurbishment ahead of its next flight.
Not on the flight was NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who flew to the ISS on MS-22, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that sprung a coolant leak late last year following an apparent micrometeoroid strike. The Endurance crew temporarily retrofitted their ride to carry Rubio in case of an emergency evacuation from the ISS after Roscomos determined MS-22 could only safely transport two people. They later removed those modifications after Russia sent a replacement Soyuz spacecraft to bring Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin back to Earth.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spacexs-crew-5-mission-safely-returns-to-earth-after-five-months-in-space-184759470.html?src=rss
New Image Is Our First Look at SpaceX’s ‘Mini’ Starlink in Orbit
Say cheese: a newly deployed Starlink V2 satellite unknowingly posed for an orbital snapshot captured by a satellite imaging company. The photo revealed the new look of the miniature satellites in action, which SpaceX is hoping will increase the broadband capacity of its internet constellation.
Satellites like SpaceX’s Starlink are disrupting Hubble observations
SpaceX’s acquisition of Swarm is paying off with new Starlink thrusters
Earlier this week, SpaceX released more information about the new argon Hall thrusters that will power the Starlink V2 mini satellites, an innovation that likely has much to do with the company’s acquisition of Swarm Technologies in 2021. The deal, which closed in July 2021, was an extremely rare move for SpaceX. Swarm — which […]
SpaceX’s acquisition of Swarm is paying off with new Starlink thrusters by Aria Alamalhodaei originally published on TechCrunch
SpaceX’s first attempt to fire all 33 Starship engines at once ends with mixed results
SpaceX has completed its first full static fire test for Starship, if not quite in a way that makes the first orbital test flight next month sound realistic. The company hoped to fire all 33 Raptor engines at once, but Elon Musk noted that two engines didn’t make it — the mission team shut off one before startup, while the other “stopped itself.” The 31 that did fire lasted the full duration, however, and Musk claims that’s enough to reach orbit.
While SpaceX’s last static fire testing in November was a success, the company only ignited 14 of the booster’s Raptor engines. It also to send Starship on multiple successful test flights before it can ferry astronauts to and from the Moon.
As company president Gwynne Shotwell said at the FAA’s annual Commercial Space Transportation conference, Starship has to fly “hundreds of flights before [it flies] people.” She also reminded everyone that Starship’s first flight “is really a test flight” and that “the real goal [for it] is to not blow up the launch pad.”
In mid-2022, SpaceX conducted a test that was designed to simultaneously spin up all 33 engines on the Super Heavy’s Booster 7 prototype. The company was aiming to preview the vehicle’s start-up sequence, but the booster caught fire during the process at its Boca Chica, Texas facility. SpaceX chief Elon Musk revealed on Twitter that the issue that caused the explosion was “specific to the engine spin start test,” because the Raptor engine has a complex start sequence.