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. […]
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, […]
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 a series of delays due to ground equipment, range and weather issues, it looks like at least the weather will be cooperating in this evening’s launch attempt of the SpaceX SES-9 mission. According to the 45th Space Wing weather forecast, conditions are 90% go, with a marginal concern for cumulus clouds. At sea, a […]
After considering a Tuesday evening launch, SpaceX has now reset SES-9 to Friday due to wind shear at high altitudes. Pushing launch to Friday due to extreme high altitude wind shear. Hits like a sledgehammer when going up supersonic pic.twitter.com/Gr8T5upaLd — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 1, 2016 Original story: Sometimes, it just isn’t your […]
Although there has been little official word regarding the exact cause of last Thursday’s launch scrub, SpaceX and SES are now targeting this evening at 6:46 pm ET for launch of the SES-9 mission. While the launch window runs to 8:20 pm, the expectations are that if the Falcon 9 Full Thrust does not lift […]
SpaceX has picked up NASA orders for five more commercial resupply missions to the International Space Station, according to an article in Space News. The agreement, which was signed in December, bring the total number of Dragon missions to ISS under the original CRS-1 contract to 20. The original order called for 12 flights, […]
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