Over the weekend, SpaceX updated the maximum performance numbers for the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters, helpfully including payload to Mars capability, (and Pluto) along with standard LEO and GTO numbers supplied by most launch vehicle providers. While the Falcon Heavy showed a somewhat surprisingly small increase, from 53,000 kg to 54,400 kg to […]
Mars was not the only thing in SpaceX’s orbit on Thursday. On the same day that the company announced it is aiming for a landing on the Red Planet as early as 2018, it also landed the first award in its long sought campaign to launch national security missions under the Air Force’s EELV program. […]
In a surprising series of tweets on Wednesday, SpaceX announced that with the help of NASA, it is making good on its promise to “Occupy Mars” by launching its first, uncrewed mission to the Red Planet, possibly as soon as 2018. The mission, which has been in the public domain for several years, is the […]
He declined to talk about his company’s plans for Mars, and seemed surprisingly apprehensive regarding the challenges in launching Falcon Heavy, but Elon Musk’s remarks at a post flight news conference for the CRS-8 mission dropped a bombshell that likely sent his competitors to bed with a stiff drink, if not stronger stuff. Having previously […]
The space age just got another red letter date added to its calendar. In what may go down as a comeback for the ages, literally, SpaceX rebounded from last year’s loss of the CRS-7 mission on June 28th, 2014 with a flawless liftoff of the CRS-8 Dragon capsule, and more importantly in the long run, […]
NASA and SpaceX are eagerly counting down to the launch of the CRS-8 resupply mission to the International Space Station later today. Liftoff, which must take place in an instantaneous window, is scheduled for 4:43 pm EDT from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40. The CRS-8 mission will mark the third flight of the upgraded […]
A collection of papers just released at the journal New Space makes the argument that thanks to advances by SpaceX. Bigelow Aerospace and others, the United States is in a position mount a return to the Moon and construction of a permanent base housing 6-10 people at the lunar North Pole in approximately 10 years […]
An appearance by SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell at the Satellite 2016 conference being held in National Harbor, Maryland is shedding a wealth of new information regarding the company’s plans for the remainder of 2016, including a some interesting insight into what it might charge for a re-flight of previously flown Falcon 9 first stage. According […]
It was the homecoming SpaceX predicted, but certainly not the one the company wanted following the SES-9 launch on Friday. In the YouTube video below, the automated spaceport drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” is towed into Port Canaveral with only small tarp covering what presumably are the remains of the Falcon 9 […]
After slogging through a frustrating launch campaign, SpaceX finally lofted the SES-9 satellite to geostationary transfer orbit on Friday evening. Liftoff of the first Falcon 9 Full Thrust carrying a comsat to GTO, and the second overall, took place on time at 6:35 pm Eastern from Cape Canaveral’s SLC-40. Shortly thereafter, company founder Elon Musk confirmed […]
Recent Comments