Tag: Boca Chica
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Schedule for SpaceX’s Starship test flight hinges on FAA regulatory approval
File photo of SpaceX’s Ship 24 vehicle, slated to fly on the Starship integrated flight test. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now SpaceX continues to prepare for a launch attempt as soon as next week for the first test flight of its Super Heavy booster and Starship rocket, with final work on the ship’s self-destruct…
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SpaceX readying Starship rocket for around-the-world test flight next week
SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster and Starship rocket stand fully stacked at the company’s Starbase launch facility in South Texas. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX said Tuesday it won’t perform a final countdown dress rehearsal this week for the giant new Starship launch vehicle, and could send the rocket — standing nearly 40 stories tall on its Texas…
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SpaceX test-fires 31 engines on Starship’s gigantic Super Heavy booster
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Feb. 10 with details. The Super Heavy booster fired 31 of its engines at 3:14 p.m. CST (4:14 p.m. EST; 2114 GMT) Thursday. Credit: SpaceX In a significant milestone preparing for liftoff of the world’s most powerful rocket, SpaceX test-fired 31 of the booster’s 33 methane-fueled engines Thursday in South Texas as the…
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SpaceX ready for 33-engine test of Starship’s Super Heavy booster
The Super Heavy booster for SpaceX’s new Starship mega-rocket is powered by 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines, seen here in a file photo from last year. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX is gearing up for the first full-up test-firing Thursday of all 33 engines on the booster for the company’s Starship mega-rocket in Texas, a critical milestone on…
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SpaceX outlines plans for Starship orbital test flight
Artist’s concept of a Super Heavy booster and Starship vehicle stacked together during launch. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX has revealed the flight plan for the first orbital test launch of the company’s huge stainless steel Starship rocket, a 90-minute, around-the-world mission that will originate from South Texas and culminate with a controlled re-entry and splashdown in…
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Upgraded Starship prototype makes first soft landing after test flight
SpaceX launched and landed an upgraded prototype for the company’s next-generation Starship vehicle in South Texas on Wednesday, the company’s first Starship test flight since winning a $2.9 billion NASA contract to use the craft to land astronauts on the Moon. Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO tweeted: “Starship landing nominal!” The 164-foot-tall (50-meter)…
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NASA chooses SpaceX to land next astronauts on the Moon
Artist’s concept of a Starship on the moon. Credit: SpaceX NASA has selected SpaceX to build a spacecraft to land the first astronauts on the Moon since 1972, choosing Elon Musk’s space company over competing proposals from Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and the aerospace firm Dynetics, officials announced Friday. A derivative of SpaceX’s next-generation Starship…
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Musk says methane leak doomed latest Starship test flight
File photo of the Starship SN8 prototype, which flew last year, with three Raptor engines. Credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Monday that a “relatively small” methane leak caused the explosion of the company’s latest Starship test rocket last week on an experimental flight over South Texas. The 164-foot-tall (50-meter) Starship test vehicle,…
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SpaceX’s latest high-altitude Starship test flight ends in another explosion
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 6:15 p.m. EDT (2215 GMT) with FAA statement and debris photos. The Raptor engines at the base of SpaceX’s Starship test rocket ignite for a landing burn at the end of Tuesday’s flight. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX’s latest Starship test flight apparently ended with another explosion Tuesday in South Texas, but dense fog…
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SpaceX’s next Starship test flight delayed to Tuesday
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Friday and Monday after delays. SpaceX’s Starship SN11 test rocket at Boca Chica, Texas. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX scrubbed the launch of its next Starship test rocket Friday afternoon, and the the next opportunity for the atmospheric test flight is now expected Tuesday. SpaceX plans to launch and land the rocket at company’s South…