Items tagged with SpaceX
Space enthusiasts have been waiting for SpaceX to "light up" its Falcon Heavy rocket. Once operational, the Falcon Heavy will be the world's most powerful rocket, capable of putting 120,000 pounds of cargo into low earth orbit. However, the ongoing government shutdown has put on the brakes with regards to SpaceX's race to the blast the rocket off into space. In order for SpaceX to accomplish static engines tests -- in which the Falcon Heavy fires its engines at full throttle while it is restrained on the launch pad -- the company needs support services from the US Air Force at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). However, the government shutdown means that a large number of the people responsible...
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There's a brewing controversy surrounding SpaceX's recent launch from Cape Canaveral late Sunday night. The flight seemed to go off without a hitch, although we weren’t given full access to video throughout the entirety of the flight or detailed telemetry data considering that this was a classified mission for the U.S. Military. The Falcon 9 rocket was able to make a successful powered landing back on the ground after separating from the upper stage. However, SpaceX censored critical portions of the launch, including the separation of the nose cone surrounding the top-secret Zuma satellite, and the satellite’s actual deployment into earth's orbit. However, these censored bits are...
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It's happening! Some pessimists thought that Falcon Heavy would never see the light of day, but here we are in early January 2018 and the launch vehicle is looking in tip-top shape for its planned launch later this month. SpaceX today delivered pictures and video of Falcon Heavy standing upright on its LC-39A launchpad (the same pad that was used to launch the Saturn V rockets that help put men on the moon). While the Falcon Heavy looks like its primed for its maiden flight, it is actually being physically restrained on the pad for static fire tests. During these tests, the Falcon Heavy's 27 Merlin engines will be fired to monitor their performance (hopefully there will be no Space Camp-esque...
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A few weeks ago, Elon Musk announced his plans to launch a Tesla Roadster into space on the maiden flight of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket. Musk stated in a tweet, "Payload will be my midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity. Destination is Mars orbit. Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent." It seemed like an absurd thing for Musk to announce, and many took it to be a joke. After all, why would he want to send an electric car into orbit around Mars? But, given that Musk doesn't expect that Falcon Heavy's first launch to be a resounding success, it's within reason that Musk wouldn't mind parting with what was Tesla's first ever production...
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SpaceX has had considerable success in 2017 with numerous launches of its Falcon 9 rocket. The company has managed to survive through [most of] 2017 without any mishaps, and has successfully recovered every Falcon 9 rocket [for missions where this parameter was stipulated] either by land or by sea. However, one thing that SpaceX hasn’t done so far this year, which it originally promised, was to launch its Falcon Heavy rocket. Elon Musk said earlier this year that Falcon Heavy would make its maiden flight in November. However, November has come and gone and we haven’t heard much from SpaceX with regards to how Falcon Heavy is progressing. Well, Musk decided to break the silence this...
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Space travel is not easy, folks. Nobody knows this better than Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). During his time overseeing the development and manufacturing of advanced rockets and spacecraft for missions to and beyond Earth's orbit, he has witnessed several fiery crashes. That is what testing is for. To Musk's credit, he maintains a good sense of humor about it all and has even compiled a two-minute YouTube video filled with glorious rocket fails and explosions. Michael Bay would be proud. This is essentially a blooper reel, though probably unlike any blooper reel you have seen before. Rather than a montage of athletes getting stuffed by the rim while attempting...
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SpaceX has been on a roll lately with its Falcon 9 launches. The company has stuck to a rapid pace, launching payloads into Earth's orbit every few weeks (or more often in some cases) during 2017. Today, SpaceX successfully launched one of its most important (and classified) payloads to date: the U.S. Air Force's Boeing X-37B spy plane. This marks the first time that SpaceX was granted the opportunity to use its Falcon 9 to launch the X-37B, and it shows that the Air Force has confidence in the rocket's reliability rating. The X-37B's four previous missions began with it being thrust into orbit atop an Atlas V booster. Given the top-secret nature of the X-37B's [spying] mission, there's little...
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When Elon Musk isn’t forecasting the downfall of humanity due to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) or moving in the mainstream market with Tesla’s Model 3 electric vehicle (EV), he has his mind on SpaceX. SpaceX has been at the forefront of space vehicle reusability with its Falcon 9 boosters, but now it is stepping up its game with the Falcon Heavy. Falcon Heavy in essence straps together three Falcon 9 boosters (with a total of 27 engines) as a single, first-stage unit. The company revealed over the weekend that it has successfully completed a critical test in the development of Falcon Heavy, which it calls the “world’s most powerful rocket”. Falcon Heavy’s 3 first stage cores have all...
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Do you want World War III? Because artificial intelligence (AI) is how you get World War III — well, at least according to SpaceX/Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Musk has long been an incredibly outspoken tech figure against the rise of AI, and the threat that it poses to humanity. Now the tech wizard says that AI could end up sparking another global conflict that could ensnare the world’s superpowers. Musk often uses Twitter as a means to let his myriad of thoughts flow out to the general populous, and those thoughts were on clear display this morning. “China, Russia, soon all countries w strong computer science,” Musk warned. “Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of WW3 imo.”...
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Elon Musk is determined to make recreational space travel a thing. He is also involved in resupply missions, with plans of expanding those efforts. If you are wondering what an astronaut would look like when all geared up for travel above the earth's atmosphere on a SpaceX flight, Musk answered that question by posting a picture to Instagram of a fully functioning suit. Or put another way, what you see is not a mockup, it is the real thing and it really works for space travel. According to Musk, the suit is capable of withstanding twice the pressure of the vacuum of space, based on testing that has been done. He also notes in his Instagram post that getting the right balance of form and function...
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Many computer hardware vendors have tossed around the expression "a supercomputer in your home!", and every time it's used, it's really incorrect - unless we're talking about comparing current tech to the supercomputers of olde. Well, if anyone ever said, "a supercomputer in space!", they can soon congratulate themselves, thanks to a joint partnership between HP Enterprise and SpaceX. On Monday, August 14th, at 12:31 EST, a SpaceX CRS-12 mission will take off from Cape Canaveral and send a Dragon resupply capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) to drop off some usual supplies - laptops, freeze-dried ice cream, and oh, a supercomputer. In fact, it's one of HP's aptly-named Apollo 40 supercomputers....
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SpaceX has had a lot of success during the past year with its Falcon 9 rocket launches, and things are starting to seem a bit routine. The company regularly launches payloads into space, returning the Falcon 9 boosters either back on dry land or at sea on autonomous drone ships. The company has even launched previously used rockets and landed them again with success. SpaceX is looking for a new, more formidable challenge, and that will come with Falcon Heavy. Thanks to CEO Elon Musk, we now have a general timeframe for the first launch of its hulking Falcon Heavy. Musk took to Twitter to confirm that the first launch will take place sometime in November:Falcon Heavy maiden launch this...
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SpaceX swung for the fences this weekend, and it came up with a homerun -- twice. The company successfully launched and recovered two rockets within a 48-hour period span of time. The first launch occurred on Friday, when SpaceX’s second ever recycled Falcon 9 booster was used to put a satellite into orbit for Bulgarian TV service provider Bulsatcom. This particular booster was first used in January to put 10 Iridium satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO). Considering that the initial launch occurred in January and we are now in June, SpaceX is getting much better at its refurbishment process for the Falcon 9 booster (there was roughly a year between the first and second launches of the...
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SpaceX just hit another milestone. SpaceX yesterday launched its first recycled Dragon capsule with the Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station (ISS). This was also the eleventh successful Falcon 9 booster landing. The spacecraft was launched June 3rd after a two-day delay due to thunderstorms. SpaceX launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This was the 100th launch from 39A, the launch site of the Apollo moon missions as well as NASA’s last shuttle. The Falcon rocket was brand new, but will be reused. It returned to Kennedy Space Center with a stellar vertical touchdown. SpaceX launched its first recycled booster two months ago and...
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SpaceX has pulled it off again. The company had another successful rocket launch as part of its NROL-76 mission. The Falcon 9 blasted off from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with a top-secret spy satellite in its payload compartment that was commissioned by the National Reconnaissance Office. Given the classified nature of the launch, we were denied access to many specific details relating to the launch, and the feed of the second stage was cut shortly after it separated from the Falcon 9 first stage. We should also note that this was first big U.S. Department of Defense contract for SpaceX, and given the successful launch, we expect that SpaceX’s launch schedule will...
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Elon Musk and SpaceX continue to defy the odds and give us all hope for the future of manned space travel. Back in early April 2016, a Falcon 9 booster rocket was used for CRS-8, a resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The Falcon 9 used in that mission was the second successful recovery of a booster rocket by SpaceX, as it landed without incident on a floating drone ship recently. Over the past year, SpaceX has been refurbishing the booster, preparing it for a return-to-flight. The booster rocket was stress tested and its engines were test-fired on a number of occasions to ensure that it could successfully launch cargo into space (again). Today, SpaceX made us all believers...
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SpaceX is taking the concept of “reduce-reuse-recycle” to another level. The aerospace manufacturer plans to reuse one of its previously-flown Falcon 9 stage one boosters for an upcoming launch. SpaceX has so far returned seven boosters to Earth, but has yet to reuse any of them in a subsequent mission. Elon Musk stated last April that, “In order for us to really open up access to space, we’ve got to achieve full and rapid reusability. And being able to do that for the primary rocket booster is going to be a huge impact on cost.” SpaceX’s latest customer is Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES. The plan is to launch its geostationary satellite, the SES-10. It has taken SpaceX eleven months...
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“Fly me to the moon / Let me play among the stars.” Those famous lyrics from Frank Sinatra’s song “Fly Me To The Moon” have only been applicable to a select few astronauts during the 1960s and 70s. But SpaceX is looking to send two paying tourists in a trajectory around the moon as early as next year. “Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration,” explained SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. According to Musk, these two [unnamed] individuals have “already paid a significant deposit” to partake on the voyage. Initial training for the mission will begin later in 2017, during...
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After a scuttled attempt on Saturday, SpaceX just successfully launched and landed the Falcon 9 at NASA’s historic Launch Complex 39A. Their current mission is to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). This was SpaceX’s first Florida launch since its rocket explosion last summer. The launch and landing were textbook perfect. The company's Dragon spacecraft was deployed from the rocket right on schedule and will arrive at the ISS on February 22nd around 9am EST. Musk excitedly posted a photo of the Falcon 9’s landing on Instagram with the caption, “Baby came back”. Footage of Falcon 9 launch on February 19th, 2017; Courtesy of NASA SpaceX halted their countdown yesterday with a mere thirteen...
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Elon Musk is boring. No, he really is. The brilliant business magnate just released a first glimpse of his boring machine that he intends to use to tunnel under the streets of Los Angeles. Late last night Musk tweeted an image of a large boring machine with the cutting head unattached with the caption “Minecraft”. Last week workers were spotted excavating a test trench 30 feet wide, 50 feet long, and 15 feet deep in front of SpaceX’s Los Angeles headquarters. The excavation's current location corresponds with Musk’s wish of developing a seven mile tunnel between the 105 freeway and the entrance of SpaceX’s headquarters. It is unclear whether Musk constructed the boring machine or is retrofitting...
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All eyes were on SpaceX yesterday as the private space firm attempted to return to flight following a high-profile explosion in September. The September incident saw a Falcon 9 rocket explode while being fueled on the launch pad, burning Facebook’s first satellite project to a crisp. However, the space gods were definitely with SpaceX yesterday, as the Falcon 9 successfully put 10 Iridium satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO). This was the first of a seven-launch contract that SpaceX has with Iridium to deploy a “constellation” of at least 70 satellites into LEO, forming the Iridium Next network. Not only did SpaceX complete its primary mission for Iridium, but its secondary goal of successfully...
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SpaceX was riding high on a string of near-perfect launches and increasingly successful powered landings with its Falcon rocket family. However, the high-fives all around came to a screeching halt in September when a Falcon rocket exploded on the launchpad while refueling. The company has since been able to determine the root cause for the failure. Now, SpaceX is ready to return to space for the first time in months with the Iridium-1 mission. SpaceX’s revised Falcon rocket will deliver 10 satellites to LEO (low-Earth orbit) for mobile voice/data communications company Iridium. This initial batch of satellites will grow to encompass a “constellation” of at least 70 satellites that will...
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