Today (August 26th) could be the day when SpaceX successfully launches its #10 Starship test flight, postponed from August 24th for a technical problem and again on August 25th because of bad weather. But SpaceX president, Gwynne Shotwell, is predicting a rapid increase in Starship’s launch rate predicting around 400 launches over the next four […]
SpaceX gave its SES client a heart-stopping moment when it aborted the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket with just 11 seconds left before its planned lift-off. SpaceX extended the July 21st launch window by an extra 90 minutes in an attempt to fix the glitch but at the end of a long day, it […]
On February 27th 2023, SpaceX it launched its first batch of its Starlink Version-2 satellites – 21 of them were launched into their transfer orbits. However, SpaceX has steadily increased the number of these V2 craft on each rocket. A few months after that debut launch it managed to carry an extra satellites, and placing […]
Each very well established and highly reliable Falcon 9 rocket can carry 23 Starlink satellites into their transfer orbits. The much larger – but as yet unproved – Starship rocket can carry about 50 satellites. Satellite watcher Ken Kirtland, an industrial designer at Formation Design Group, has compared and contrasted the cost vs effectiveness equation […]
Analyst Tim Farrar of TMF Associates says that Elon Musk’s Starlink system will dominate satellite broadband “for at least the next five years”. Farrar adds that Musk is also dominating the launch business with his Falcon 9 rockets. His comments follow on from SpaceX’s comments to investors that it expects its overall (rocket launches plus […]
If all goes to schedule, SpaceX will launch the giant Jupiter 3/EchoStar XXIV satellite today (July 26th). The launch, from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, will see two Falcon 9 booster rockets re-land simultaneously after launch. SpaceX is using one of its Falcon 9 ‘Heavy’ version rockets which means the central booster will be […]
SpaceX lofted 22 second-generation ‘V2-Mini’ Starlink broadband satellites into orbit in the evening of July 23rd (at 23.09pm UTC). After lift-off from Space Launch Complex 40, the Falcon 9 headed south-east, targeting an orbit inclined at 43 degrees to the equator. The cargo element separated from the second stage about two and a half minutes […]
SpaceX regularly reuses its Falcon 9 booster rockets. Reuse levels of eight or 10 time are now fairly routine. Indeed, some boosters have now flow 13 to 15 times. William Gerstenmaier, VP/Build & Flight Reusability at SpaceX, now says that booster refurbishing is taking place to extend the life of a typical booster to a […]
May 14th saw an additional 56 Starlink broadband satellites launched. The launch was followed by a successful landing of the Falcon 9 booster stage on the ‘Just Read The Instructions’ floating drone ship downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. The launch marked the 11th launch and landing for this particular Falcon 9 first stage booster, SpaceX […]
SpaceX wrapped another flawless launch of a Falcon 9 rocket, but with rival OneWeb as the paying customer. The rocket carried 40 OneWeb craft (Launch 16) to their transfer orbits on January 9th. This extra 40 means that OneWeb now has 542 satellites either in orbit or en route to their designated positions, and within […]