SpaceX Archives - Page 2 of 4

16 May

SpaceX hires key NASA human spaceflight head for Starship

San Francisco, May 16 (IANS) Elon Musk's SpaceX has roped in NASA's former head of human spaceflight Kathy Lueders to help in its Starship launch, the media reported. Lueders will be a general manager, and she will work out of the SpaceX's Starbase facility in Texas. She will report directly to SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell, CNBC reported. After a 31-year career at NASA, Lueders retired from the space agency at the end of April, as associate administration of Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD). In July 2020, she became the head of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. Before…

15 Apr

SpaceX gets US FAA launch licence, Starship test flight likely on April 17

San Francisco, April 15, The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued the long-awaited launch licence to SpaceX for the Starship orbital flight test. With the clearance in hand, the first test flight will likely take place on April 17, SpaceX said in a tweet. The FAA in a statement said: "After a comprehensive licence evaluation process, the FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy, payload, airspace integration and financial responsibility requirements." "Targeting as soon as Monday, April 17 for the first flight test of a fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy rocket from Starbase in Texas," SpaceX wrote in…

06 Apr

SpaceX Starship’s 1st test flight may takeoff on April 10: Report

San Francisco, April 5 (IANS) The much awaited first orbital flight of SpaceX's Starship could lift off as early as April 10, however, some barriers remain, according to media reports. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, in mid-March, said that the landmark flight might launch as soon as the third week of April. But recent developments suggest that the attempt could come even sooner than that. The new date comes as the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released an air traffic advisory identifying April 10 as a primary launch date, TechCrunch reported. In addition, Musk liked a tweet that simply reads…

22 Mar

Scientists call out light pollution from LEO satellites

London, March 22. Increasing light pollution, produced by low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, like Elon Musk's Starlink, is affecting astronomers who need unfettered access to dark night skies for their observations, scientists have argued. If not forced, "the skyrocketing space economy will not limit itself, to counter the new environmental and security issues raised by the new mega-constellations of satellites", the scientists wrote in a Comment published in the journal Nature Astronomy. To tackle the rising issue of the light reflected toward the night hemisphere by these satellites, the scientific community currently works by lowering their brightness, by closing the shutters…

18 Feb

US proposes $175K fine on Musk’s SpaceX for failure to give launch data

Washington, Feb 18 (IANS) The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed a $175,000 civil penalty against Elon Musk-run SpaceX for failure to submit launch collision analysis trajectory data directly to the agency. The case pertains to the August 19, 2022, launch of the Starlink Group 4-27 mission. The FAA said in a statement that launch collision analysis trajectory data is used to assess the probability of the launch vehicle colliding with one of the thousands of tracked objects orbiting the Earth. "SpaceX was required to submit the data to the agency at least seven days prior to an attempted launch,"…

06 Feb

SpaceX may attempt Starship orbital test flight in March

San Francisco, Feb 6 (IANS) Elon Musk has stated that SpaceX may attempt to complete the long-awaited orbital test flight of Starship as early as next month. In response to a question from one of his Twitter followers on Saturday, which asked, "You back in Texas? Starship almost ready?", Musk said the private space firm is targeting a March launch attempt. "If remaining tests go well, we will attempt a Starship launch next month," he tweeted. In January, SpaceX completed its first-ever, full flight-like dress rehearsal for its deep space rocket Starship which is likely capable of taking astronauts to Mars.…

04 Jun

NASA-SpaceX Dragon launches 7,300lb of cargo to space station

Washington: NASA has launched SpaceX's Dragon resupply spacecraft with more than 7,300 pounds of science experiments, new solar arrays, and other cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched on a Falcon 9 rocket at 1.29 p.m. EDT on Thursday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the US space agency has said. It is scheduled to autonomously dock at the ISS around 5 a.m. Saturday, June 5, and remain at the station for about a month.SpaceX will deliver a pair of new ISS Roll-out Solar Arrays (iROSA) to the ISS. After the Dragon docks to the ISS's…

25 Jan

SpaceX ridesharing mission launches record 143 satellites

San Francisco: Much like ridesharing via Uber on Earth, Elon Musk-run SpaceX has successfully launched its new cost-cutting rideshare mission with 143 small satellites -- a new record for a single rocket -- into space.Called the Transporter-1 mission, the two-stage Falcon 9 rocket lifted off on Sunday from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. "Falcon 9 launches 143 spacecraft to orbit -- the most ever deployed on a single mission -- completing SpaceX's first dedicated SmallSat Rideshare Programme mission," SpaceX said in a tweet. According to SpaceX, the rideshare programme offers cheap access to space for small satellite companies,…

15 Dec

Raja Chari to lead SpaceX mission to ISS

Washington: NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) have selected three astronauts, including Indian-American Raja Chari, to serve as crew members for SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), which is expected to launch in the autumn of 2021. Raja Chari will serve as commander while NASA's Tom Marshburn will be pilot and ESA's Matthias Maurer will serve as a mission specialist, NASA said on Monday. A fourth crew member will be added at a later date, following a review by NASA and its international partners. This will be the first spaceflight for Raja Chari, who became a NASA astronaut…

17 May

NASA selects 11 US firms to build human lunar landers

Washington: The US space agency NASA has selected 11 companies including Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, Elon Musk's SpaceX to develop prototypes of human landers for its Artemis lunar exploration programme.NASA aims to put the first woman on the Moon's south pole by 2024 and establish sustainable missions by 2028. "To accelerate our return to the Moon, we are challenging our traditional ways of doing business. We will streamline everything from procurement to partnerships to hardware development and even operations," said Marshall Smith, director for human lunar exploration programs at NASA Headquarters.Apart from Blue Origin and SpaceX, others selected companies are Boeing,…