Tag: top story
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SpaceX retires brand new Starship to focus on orbital launch buildup
SpaceX has moved its newest finished Starship straight from its Boca Chica, Texas factory to a nearby ‘rocket garden,’ all but guaranteeing an early retirement. Built as the first of several planned backups to Starship SN15, which debuted a number of significant upgrades in April and May, it appears that Starship serial number 16 (SN16)…
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SpaceX inaugurates two new Starship engine test stands with a static fire
Barely four months after breaking ground, SpaceX has completed a dual-bay Starship engine test stand and inaugurated the new facility with a Raptor static fire. That means that SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas test and development center now has more capacity to test individual Starship engines than the Merlin 1D and Merlin Vacuum engines that power the…
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SpaceX outfits drone ship for Panama Canal transit after 45th booster recovery
Just a few hours after returning to Port Canaveral, SpaceX lifted Falcon 9 B1067 off of drone ship Of Course I Still Love You’s (OCISLY) deck, completing the vessel’s 45th successful East Coast booster recovery. Minutes later, SpaceX began loading unusual hardware onto the drone ship and it soon became clear that preparations were underway…
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SpaceX on track to launch 20 Falcon 9 rockets in the first half of 2021
The second half of SpaceX’s June 2021 flight schedule has begun to firm up, raising the odds of another four-launch month as the end of the first half of 2021 fast approaches. In an increasing rarity among a slew of pandemic and shortage-stricken satellites, rockets, and launch flows, SpaceX’s fourth upgraded GPS III satellite launch…
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SpaceX aces fourth Dragon launch in six months
SpaceX has successfully completed its fourth Dragon spacecraft launch in six months, continuing an unprecedented cadence of missions carrying crew and cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Sporting a new booster (B1067) and Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft (likely C209), SpaceX’s two-stage, 70-meter (~230 ft) Falcon 9 rocket lifted off without issue on…
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SpaceX Starship engine completes orbital-duration static fire test in Texas
A local resident and unofficial SpaceX observer has reported hearing a test of one of Starship’s Raptor engines that lasted more than five minutes at the company’s McGregor, Texas development facilities. If accurate, it could be the longest static fire of a Starship engine that SpaceX has ever completed in the two years since full-scale…
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SpaceX fires up Falcon 9 rocket for fifth Starlink launch in four weeks
SpaceX appears to have successfully static-fired a flight-proven Falcon 9 booster for what should be the rocket’s fifth Starlink launch in four weeks. Set to be the company’s 28th operational launch of Starlink v1.0 satellites and 30th Starlink launch overall, the mission – known as Starlink L28 or Starlink-28 – is scheduled to launch no…
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SpaceX’s sootiest Falcon 9 booster yet returns to port after record reuse
Three days after acing record-breaking tenth launch and landing, SpaceX’s sootiest Falcon 9 rocket booster yet has returned to Port Canaveral to begin the processing of preparing for its eleventh flight. Almost exactly three years ago, speaking in a conference call focused on the debut of SpaceX’s ultimate “Block 5” Falcon booster upgrade, CEO Elon…
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SpaceX schedules Falcon 9’s fourth Starlink launch and landing in two weeks
On the insides of a two-week April hiatus since SpaceX switched its attention to a vital astronaut launch, the company has started churning via an unending backlog of Starlink missions. Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 became the first crewed space capsule and liquid rocket booster to start astronauts double on April 23rd, acing NASA’s Crew-2…
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Musk says upgraded SpaceX Starship to launch “later this week” after static fire test
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says that the next Starship launch could happen “later this week” after the company’s first ‘upgraded’ prototype aced a three-engine static fire test on the first try. While substantially delayed from optimistic initial targets just a week or two after the rocket rolled from factory to launch pad, upgraded Starship prototype…