In 2020, Elon Musk’s SpaceX organisation bought two retired oil rigs and started transforming one of them into its first floating spaceport. In July 2020, Lone Star Mineral Development LLC, a subsidiary of SpaceX, bought two semi-submersible drilling rigs from Valaris plc for a reported $3.5 million each. Deimos and Phobos (named after two of […]
Germany says it is prepared to help its citizens living in rural areas to access better Internet services with subsidies. The government’s Transport Ministry says it will subsidise the purchase of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite dishes and similar providers of wireless Internet connections with grants to households worth €500, business daily Handelsblatt reported. The €500 on […]
A slew of objectors is grumbling to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system. We have reported on Viasat’s complaints, but SES, Hughes Network and others are also arguing for the FCC to either suspend or modify its April 27th permission for SpaceX/Starlink to alter their orbital plans. Some of the […]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX make a textbook Cape Canaveral launch of another 52 Starlink satellites (plus two ‘rideshare’ paying craft) into orbit on May 15th. And, as ever, more records were broken. This time, for Starlink 27, it was the third launch in as many weeks. It was the eighth use of the first stage Falcon […]
SpaceX will launch 52 Starlink satellites this weekend on May 15th. The normal batch of 60 is being amended because SpaceX has a couple of paying guest craft on board for the launch. Starlink has also confirmed that it is now taking orders from clients in France. Spain is also targeted with Starlink having registered […]
A May 9th launch from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 40 saw Elon Musk’s SpaceX break another record: the 10th flight of a single Falcon 9 booster rocket. The launch, officially dubbed Flight 26, was the 14th mission this year and another record in that it was the second Starlink launch in a single week, not […]
On April 29th, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral carrying another 60 Starlink satellites into orbit. This was Flight 24 for the Starlink mission and the 12th flight this year. SpaceX used a booster rocket which had already flown six times and Elon Musk, speaking a few […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted Elon Musk permission to lower the orbital heights of its Starlink broadband satellite system. “Specifically, we modify the license by reducing the number of satellites from 4,409 to 4,408; modifying the primary operational altitude specified for 2,814 satellites, to change it from the 1,100-1,300 km range to the […]
SpaceX is taking over a facility in Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, that was once used by rocket-launching enterprise Sea Launch to assemble its cargoes and moor its rocket platform. Sea Launch went bust in 2009. . Officials at the Port of Long Beach say they have approved a scheme for SpaceX to move […]
Elon Musk is getting closer to winning FCC approval to fly some of his Starlink low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellites at even lower heights. Acting FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel has asked her board colleagues to formally vote on the plan having herself endorsed the idea. SpaceX is already licensed to operate 1,584 of its Starlink […]