SpaceX Archives

August 26, 2024August 26, 2024 by Nancy Atkinson

NASA Decides to Play it Safe. Wilmore and Williams are Coming Home on a Crew Dragon in February

NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts (from top) Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams pose on June 13, 2024 for a portrait inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station’s Harmony module and Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Credit: NASA

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will remain on board the International Space Station until February, returning to Earth on a SpaceX Crew Dragon. NASA announced its decision over the weekend, citing concerns about the safety of the Boeing Starliner capsule due to helium leaks and thruster issues. The troublesome Starliner is slated to undock from the ISS without a crew in early September and attempt to return on autopilot, landing in the New Mexico desert.

NASA said this allows them and Boeing to continue gathering test data on Starliner during its uncrewed flight home, while also not accepting more risk than necessary for the crew.

August 5, 2024August 5, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Starlink Direct-to-Cell Satellites are Coming. What Will Be Their Impact on Astronomy?

Mention the name Starlink among the astronomy community and you will often be greeted with a shudder. There are now thousands of Starlink satellites orbiting Earth providing internet connectivity to every corner of the Earth. Many believe they are making astronomy difficult but now, SpaceX is launching another service; ‘direct-to-cell’ technology that will allow mobile phones to use satellites to send text messages as early as this year. Voice and data services are likely to follow on quickly next year. With smaller antennae at a lower altitude what is their impact on astronomy?

July 27, 2024July 27, 2024 by Alan Boyle

SpaceX Resumes Falcon 9 Rocket Launches After FAA Go-Ahead

SpaceX Falcon 9 liftoff — SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Credit: SpaceX via X)

SpaceX is flying again after the Federal Aviation Administration ruled that the company can resume Falcon 9 rocket launches while the investigation into a failed July 11 mission continues.

The FAA’s go-ahead came on July 25 after SpaceX reported that the failure was caused by a crack in a sense line for a pressure sensor attached to the upper stage’s liquid-oxygen system. That resulted in an oxygen leak that degraded the performance of the upper-stage engine. As a near-term fix, SpaceX is removing the sense line and the sensors for upcoming Falcon 9 launches.

It didn’t take long for SpaceX to get back to its flight schedule. The company launched a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:45 a.m. ET (05:45 GMT) today. Like the July 11 mission, this one sent a batch of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit.

The launch appeared to proceed without incident. After stage separation, the first-stage booster descended to a landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, while the second stage proceeded to orbit and deployed 23 satellites for the Starlink high-speed internet network.

July 20, 2024July 20, 2024 by Matt Williams

SpaceX Reveals the Beefed-Up Dragon That Will De-Orbit the ISS

Artist's impression of the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle currently being developed by SpaceX. Credit: NASA

The International Space Station (ISS) has been continuously orbiting Earth for more than 25 years and has been visited by over 270 astronauts, cosmonauts, and commercial astronauts. In January 2031, a special spacecraft designed by SpaceX – aka. The U.S. Deorbit Vehicle – will lower the station’s orbit until it enters our atmosphere and lands in the South Pacific. On July 17th, NASA held a live press conference where it released details about the process, including a first glance at the modified SpaceX Dragon responsible for deorbiting the ISS.

July 12, 2024July 28, 2024 by Alan Boyle

SpaceX’s Rocket Failure Could Cause Delays for Lots of Launches

SpaceX rocket-cam showing orbital flight — A view from the Falcon 9 upper stage's rocket-cam shows ice forming around the engine hardware. (Credit: SpaceX via YouTube)

After going eight years and more than 300 launches without a failure, SpaceX had a Falcon 9 rocket launch go awry, resulting in the expected loss of 20 Starlink satellites.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it would oversee an investigation into the anomaly, raising the prospect that dozens of launches could be delayed until the problem is identified and rectified. Update for July 27: SpaceX was able to resume Falcon 9 launches after the FAA ruled that no public safety issues were involved in the anomaly.

As many as 40 Falcon 9 launches are on tap between now and the end of the year — potentially including missions that would carry astronauts to the International Space Station and send the privately funded Polaris Dawn crew into orbit for the world’s first commercial spacewalk.

June 6, 2024June 6, 2024 by Matt Williams

Astronauts are Practicing Lunar Operations in New Space Suits

Astronauts were fully suited while conducting mission-like maneuvers in the full-scale build of the Starship human landing system’s airlock which will be located inside Starship under the crew cabin. Credit: SpaceX

Through the Artemis Program, NASA will send astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. While the challenges remain the same, the equipment has evolved, including the rocket, spacecraft, human landing system (HLS), and space suits. In preparation for Artemis III (planned for September 2026), NASA recently conducted a test where astronauts donned the new space suits developed by Axiom Space and practiced interacting with the hardware that will take them to the Moon.

June 6, 2024June 6, 2024 by Alan Boyle

Success! SpaceX’s Starship Makes a Splash in Fourth Flight Test

Starship blasts off from Texas launch pad — Starship rises from its Texas launch pad for SpaceX's fourth flight test. (SpaceX Photo)

SpaceX’s Starship earned high marks today in its fourth uncrewed flight test, making significant progress in the development of a launch system that’s tasked with putting NASA astronauts on the moon by as early as 2026.

June 4, 2024June 4, 2024 by Allen Versfeld

NASA Wants Heavy Cargo Landers for the Moon

Early conceptual renderings of cargo variants of human lunar landing systems from Blue Origin.

The Artemis Program represents NASA’s effort to return to the Moon. One of the goals of the project is to set up long-term exploration of the Earth’s only natural satellite. This will need much bulkier equipment than what the Apollo astronauts carried though, and this equipment needs to be transported to the Moon’s surface. Blue Origin and SpaceX, contracted by NASA to provide human landing systems, have begun developing vehicles that can safely deliver this equipment from space to the Moon’s surface.

June 1, 2024June 2, 2024 by Alan Boyle

Japanese Billionaire Calls Off His Starship Trip Around the Moon

Illustration: Starship flying over the moon — An artist's conception shows SpaceX's Starship flying over the moon. (Illustration via DearMoon)

Six years after he announced a grand plan to fly around the moon with a crew of artists in SpaceX’s Starship rocket, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa said he was canceling the project due to delays in Starship’s development.

In a series of postings to the X social-media platform, Maezawa said he signed his contract with SpaceX “based on the assumption that dearMoon would launch by the end of 2023.”

“It’s a developmental project, so it is what it is, but it is still uncertain as to when Starship can launch,” he wrote. “I can’t plan my future in this situation, and I feel terrible making the crew members wait longer, hence the difficult decision to cancel at this point in time. I apologize to those who were excited for this project to happen.”

May 27, 2024May 27, 2024 by Laurence Tognetti

Starlinks Can Produce Surprisingly Bright Flares to Pilots

This diagram and artist illustration demonstrates how sunlight reflects off a Starlink version 1.5 satellite. (Credit: SpaceX)

How can sunlight reflecting off SpaceX’s Starlink satellites interfere with ground-based operations? This is what a recently submitted study hopes to address as a pair of researchers investigate how Starlink satellites appear brighter—which the researchers also refer to as flaring—to observers on Earth when the Sun is at certain angles, along with discussing past incidents of how this brightness has influenced aerial operations on Earth, as well. This study holds the potential to help spacecraft manufacturers design and develop specific methods to prevent increased brightness levels, which would help alleviate confusion for observers on Earth regarding the source of the brightness and the objects in question.