PATREONItems tagged with SpaceX
High-speed internet connectivity is not quite as ubiquitous as it should be, particularly in rural areas where there just are not any options (or not any good options, anyway). Elon Musk and his merry band of SpaceX engineers are hoping to change that with Starlink, a promising satellite internet service. Wondering how things are going? SpaceX's engineers have some answers. SpaceX has launched hundreds of satellites into the heavens already, with early tests showing speeds of 134Mbps down and 15Mbps up. Those are not on par with the fastest fiber speeds, obviously, but are still fast, especially for areas where the alternative is dial-up. SpaceX has also been expanding its tests, having recently...
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For people that live in rural America with limited or non-existent access to high-speed internet connectivity, the prospect of SpaceX's Starlink internet service has been an absolute blessing. As we reported over the weekend, early tests showed that users were seeing speeds of 134Mbps down and 15Mbps up. While those speeds aren't impressive to anyone that's on cable or fiber, for those that have been stuck with DSL, geostationary satellite service, or no service at all, it's absolutely mouthwatering. Today, we have even more good news, as SpaceX (and Tesla) CEO Elon Musk confirmed that Starlink will be sending "thousands" more beta participation invitations this week to lucky Americans....
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SpaceX’s StarLink Internet Beta Program began to go out to customers around October 28th, and people are starting to show off its current capabilities. Some reddit users on the Starlink subreddit have displayed pictures of their StarLink terminal and some SpeedTest information for the masses. The data being reported wholly lives up to Elon Musk’s promises and all the hype surrounding the program, and improvements are still to come. It appears that SpaceX has sent out beta invites over the entire week to test the StarLink program. Reddit user /u/FourthEchelon19 posted a picture of his Starlink terminal from out in Washington state. They reported typical speeds of around 134Mbps download...
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We've been hearing a lot of about SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet beta over the past few months, and it now looks as though the company is ready to start delivering the goods to eager customers. Earlier this week, SpaceX began sending out invites to people that had previously shown interest in joining the Starlink beta. Starlink won't come cheap, however, as according to the emails that were sent out, it will cost $99/month during the beta period. Considering that some people in metropolitan areas can get gigabit internet for that price or less, Starlink might at first seem a bit overpriced. However, Starlink isn't aimed at people that have access to traditional cable...
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Microsoft Azure is blasting off to space with SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. Microsoft and Elon Musk’s company will be partnering to connect the Microsoft Azure cloud computing network to the Starlink internet service. A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced Azure Orbital, a way for satellites to connect to the cloud. With this new partnership, Azure Orbital will likely expand and provide more options for a growing satellite internet market. Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and COO, said that “The collaboration that we’re announcing today will allow us to work together to deliver new offerings for both the public and the private sector to deliver connectivity through Starlink...
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We are inching closer to the universal availability of high-speed Internet. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently announced that there will soon be a larger Starlink broadband public beta. SpaceX is currently waiting for its sixty recently launched satellites to reach their “target positions” before the company can launch the expanded beta. The satellites were launched earlier this week after being delayed four times due to inclement weather and other issues. Astrophysicists estimate that all the satellites will fully reach their target positions by the middle of February 2021. The larger public beta will reportedly be available in the “northern US and possibly southern Canada.”...
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We can expect one small step for man and one giant leap for SpaceX and their SN8 Starship in approximately a week from now. Yesterday, Elon Musk tweeted that the SN8 Starship is being prepared for static fire tests and a flight to 60,000 feet and back. Back in August, we reported on SpaceX doing 150-meter hops with the SN5 Starship. More recently, the SN6 did a 150-meter hop test as well. These tests were powered by the SpaceX Raptor engine, which should also be used in the upcoming SN8 test. However, both previous prototypes looked more like shiny Pringles cans with a rocket motor than a proper rocket ship. With the previous tests, SpaceX’s goal was to see if the Starship's stainless-steel...
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Elon Musk is making progress towards making high-speed Internet connectivity available to virtually all parts of the globe, through a network of thousands of satellites. SpaceX launched 60 more into space today, bringing the total to around 650 (towards the company's goal of around 12,000). During a webcast of the launch, SpaceX provided an update on the speeds its beta testers are seeing. Before the launch, Kate Tice, senior program reliability engineer at SpaceX, offered up some interesting commentary. Tice noted that SpaceX is well into the first phase of testing of the private beta program for Starlink, and that a public beta will roll out sometime later this year (though she did not say...
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Companies such as SpaceX and Amazon are currently working to deploy large satellite constellations. These satellite constellations may help improve the availability of the Internet, but they may also provide challenges to astronomers. Astronomers recently argued that satellite constellations could “fundamentally change” how they observe and record data about the night sky. The astronomer’s report was shared at the Satellite Constellations 1 (SATCON1) workshop. The workshop was hosted virtually from June 29th to July 1st, 2020 and the report has since been shared on the American Astronomical Society’s website. It is unclear what exact impact these satellite constellations...
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Roughly a month ago, we reported that SpaceX was seeking beta testers to try out its Starlink internet service. Starlink consists of a "constellation" of over 600 micro-satellites, which are currently in orbit around the Earth. SpaceX eventually hopes to put as many as 30,000 of these micro-satellites in orbit – if it gets FCC approval -- by the time it's ready to light up its second-generation network. SpaceX now has a number of beta testers onboard with its nascent Starlink internet service, and some of those users have flocked to Ookla's Speedtest benchmark site to see how fast the service is. Roughly a dozen or so benchmark results were first discovered, but it is by no means...
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SpaceX hit another milestone this week with an early prototype of its Starship rocket taking flight for the first time. The company posted a short clip to YouTube that shows the unfinished rocket light its Raptor engine and take to the sky. Eventually, later versions of the spacecraft will use multiple Raptor engines, but a single engine was all that was necessary for this test flight. The video shows ignition with smoke, flame, and dust billowing around the rocket and obscuring it shortly before the top of the shiny metal rocket emerged from the cloud and lifted upward. The rocket attained an altitude of roughly 150 meters before firing a thruster out of its right side to move it towards a landing...
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Today is a historic day for NASA and SpaceX. Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will return to Earth aboard the Crew Dragon Endeavor capsule. Here is how you can watch the Crew Dragon Endeavor splash down off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. The Endeavor capsule undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday at 7:35 p.m. EDT. The capsule is scheduled splash down off the west coast of Florida today at 2:41 p.m. EDT. The entire event is currently being streamed on both NASA’s and SpaceX’s YouTube channels and NASA’s website. You can check out the stream below. The stream is currently live on both YouTube channels and experts are providing commentary and...
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NASA has set a date for when its two astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, will return to Earth after their extended stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS). According to the NASA, the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that they rode aboard to reach the ISS will undock around 8pm EST on August 1st. If all goes according to plan, the Crew Dragon will splash down in the Atlantic Ocean at 3pm EST on August 2nd. A successful landing will mark the completion of the Demo-2 mission, which commenced on May 30th when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket put Behnken and Hurly into orbit. It marked the first time that SpaceX had sent a manned crew into space after years of performing unmanned...
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SpaceX has been on a roll in 2020 with its Falcon 9 rocket launches, which the most high-profile one sending NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley into space to dock with the ISS via a Crew Dragon capsule. Perhaps one of the most important things for the general population that the company is doing is with the Starlink system that will use a massive constellation of low Earth orbit satellites to provide internet connectivity to users all around the world. SpaceX recently began inviting users to signup for the satellite internet service by sharing their email address and service location details. Asking for service addresses on the Starlink website is a change. Previously, the...
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For many months, the most important thing that SpaceX has been working on has been its Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Crew Dragon capsule. CEO Elon Musk is now pushing employees by stating that the Starship rocket is now the company's top priority. Musk sent out a company-wide email on Saturday urging employees to accelerate progress on the next-generation launch vehicle. In the email that was seen by CNBC, Musk urged SpaceX employees to "dramatically and immediately" accelerate progress on the massive Starship rocket. However, Musk was clear that anything that could reduce the Dragon return risk would continue to be a top priority. The last few months have been critically important for Elon Musk...
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The United States rejoined the space race this week as SpaceX successfully launched its Crew Dragon spacecraft with a pair of NASA astronauts aboard heading to the International Space Station (ISS). The successful launch marked the first time since the space shuttle fleet was retired that the US hasn't had to hitch a ride with another country to get astronauts into orbit. The Crew Dragon capsule is highly automated compared to the space capsules used during the Apollo era. And fortunately, fans of SpaceX that wonder what the control systems inside the Crew Dragon spacecraft are like can try their hand at the helm using a very cool SpaceX ISS Docking Simulator. The simulator requires no downloads...
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After the first “window” for launch was scrubbed due to weather on Wednesday, SpaceX and NASA were today able to successfully launch the Demo-2 crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Onboard the Crew Dragon capsule that lifted off from the historic Launch Complex 39 at Cape Canaveral via a Falcon 9 rocket are NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley. Today’s launch was once again threatened by clouds and bad weather, but SpaceX was able to “thread the needle”, so to speak, and pull off a picture-perfect launch. This is strictly a demonstration mission for the astronauts to test out the rigors of launch, vehicle life support, and various...
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It has been several decades since the first rocket was launched into space, but most would agree that each rocket launch is still fascinating, awe-inspiring, and just plain fun to watch. Today’s launch is a particularly major milestone for the American space program. Here is how you can watch NASA and SpaceX’s historic astronaut launch. Both NASA and SpaceX will stream the launch on their respective YouTube channels. You can also find the livestreams on both of their websites. The stream began today at 12:15pm EST, but the launch will hopefully occur at 4:33pm. The stream right now features information about the astronauts as well as a stream of what is going on at the Kennedy Space...
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It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly a decade since the Space Shuttle was officially retired, effectively putting an end to a 50-year-long streak in which the United States ferried its own astronauts into orbit around the Earth and Moon. Starting with the Mercury program, and then advancing through Gemini, Apollo, and finally the Space Shuttle, NASA was at the forefront of manned spaceflight. However, budgetary considerations and a redirection of resources for the future of NASA’s manned spaceflight program meant that U.S. astronauts had to hitch a ride to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard Russian rockets for the past 9 years. That all ends next month, however....
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Are you stuck in the house and absolutely going insane from dealing with family members, pets that are sick of you being at home instead of at work, and kids that at this point would rather be at school than at home? Well, the folks at NASA have quite a few "virtual" tours that you can partake in for a change of scenery during this COVID-19 pandemic. And as you might expect from NASA, these tours are out of this world. We have a roundup below of some great 3D and virtual experiences that you can experience courtesy of NASA to help break up the monotony of life that many are experiencing right now: Commercial Crew Program 360-Degree VR Tour Ever since the Space Shuttle was retired early in...
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A company called Space Adventures today announced that it has signed an agreement with SpaceX that will allow it to send private citizens into space aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The agreement will allow up to four individuals the opportunity to break the world altitude record for private citizen space flight and to see the Earth in a way that only an elite few have experienced. Space Adventures says that if it's able to find interested parties, the mission will be the first orbital space tourism experience provided entirely using American technology. The mission will see private citizens fly aboard the fully autonomous Crew Dragon spacecraft that will be put in orbit by the Falcon 9 rocket....
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Image via SpaceX livestream SpaceX lost a rocket today and they could not be happier. The company just successfully tested out its emergency escape system and its ability to keep astronauts safe. The test is an important step to take before NASA will allow SpaceX to carry astronauts into space. It is important to note that the test was unmanned. SpaceX launched the Crew Dragon capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket from the historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch window opened at 8am EST, but the launch itself was postponed due to weather conditions. The rocket was successfully launched at 10:30am EST. The Dragon Crew capsule...
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