Author: starpathwp-production
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Super Heavy-Starship climbs high but falls short on second test flight
Starship thunders away from its launch pad on its second test flight, trailing a one thousand foot exhaust plume. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now. SpaceX’s gargantuan Super Heavy-Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, blasted off on its second test flight Saturday and while the initial stages of the mission went smoothly, the first stage broke…
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What NASA wants to see from SpaceX’s second Starship test flight
NASA managers are in South Texas this weekend as SpaceX prepares to launch its second full-sized Starship rocket. If the rocket flies perfectly, it will unlock additional tests beginning as soon as next year to prove that SpaceX can transfer hundreds of tons of super-chilled methane and liquid oxygen between two spaceships in orbit. This…
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Here’s why SpaceX really needed to change out that part on Starship
SpaceX’s Starship rocket did not launch on Friday morning from South Texas as intended because the company had to replace the actuator on a grid fin. The rocket is now being prepared for a launch during a tight window on Saturday morning, from 7 to 7:20 am local time. Here’s an explanation of why grid…
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Live Coverage: SpaceX to launch Starship/Super Heavy Booster on second test flight
Our live webcast from Starbase, Texas, will get underway at 5 a.m. CST / 6 a.m. EST / 1300 UTC. Our coverage of the countdown and launch is brought to you in partnership with our colleagues at LabPadre.
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MDA Starts Work on New Constellation for Undisclosed Customer
Canadian manufacturer MDA is starting work on a new constellation for an undisclosed customer, the company announced Friday. The announcement was light on details, but MDA received an authorization to proceed for a Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) satellite constellation. The initial contract is worth $180 million, and the full constellation is valued at a minimum of…
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Philippines Orders Another Satellite from Astranis
Astranis will build a second broadband satellite for the Philippines, the company announced this week as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in San Francisco. Satellite service provider Orbits Corp ordered a second MicroGEO broadband satellite from Astranis, after its initial order, announced in July. One satellite will on Astranis’s next launch, set…
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Airbus’ Patented Detumbler Magnetic Damping Device to Tackle In-Orbit Debris
Airbus’ patented Detumbler device designed to prevent satellites from at the end of their lives from tumbling, was launched on 11 November 2023 and will be tested in space on the mission in association with Exotrail and EnduroSat early in 2024. Developed in 2021 by Airbus, and supported by the French Space Agency CNES under…
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Rogue Space Systems Announces Hosted Payload Demonstration Program with RocketStar
Rogue Space Systems Corporation, one of the leaders in the development of in-space services, has announced a new hosted payload demonstration with RocketStar that has the potential to take space propulsion to the next level. This hosting is set to launch RocketStar’s innovative water-based propulsion system into orbit aboard the next-generation Rogue Orbot. “This will…
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Daily Telescope: Traveling into the heart of the Heart Nebula
Welcome to the Daily Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light, a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We’ll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we’re going to take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a…
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After upgrades, Starship achieves numerous successes during second test flight
With the Federal Aviation Administration and US Fish and Wildlife Service approving the final signoff and license and SpaceX saying the rocket is ready, Starship set sail from Starbase on its second test flight Saturday. Liftoff at the first attempt followed only a one day slip to fix an issue with Booster 9’s grid fin…