Tag: Elon Musk
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SpaceX test-fires Starship prototype with three engines
A view of the Starship SN8 prototype with three Raptor engines. Future Starship vehicles will have six Raptor engines, with three vacuum-rated engines with larger nozzles clustered around the three center engines optimized for sea level performance. Credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX SpaceX fired three Raptor engines on a prototype of the company’s Starship vehicle Tuesday, accomplishing…
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After second hop, SpaceX preps for next phase of Starship testing
After another Starship hop test last week, SpaceX is set to build the first prototype for the next-gen rocket’s huge first stage booster. Meanwhile, testing will commence soon on the Raptor engine model needed for orbital Starship missions. Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, said Aug. 31 the first test vehicle for the Starship’s “Super…
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Elon Musk offers update on SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket
File photo of SpaceX founder, CEO and chief engineer Elon Musk. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani SpaceX founder Elon Musk detailed progress on the company’s next-generation Starship program Monday, saying the huge rocket could “probably” attempt its first launch into Earth orbit next year, and adding that the Starship will fly hundreds of missions before SpaceX puts…
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Images: SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites, catches rocket’s payload fairing
Credit: SpaceX Photo and video imagery from the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday show the launcher vaulting into space from Cape Canaveral with another batch of nearly 60 Starlink satellites, followed by the successful recovery of the rocket’s first stage booster and payload shroud offshore. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket lifted off from…
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SpaceX clears big hurdle on next-gen Starship rocket program
Credit: Video frame from live stream by @SpacePadreIsle. A prototype rocket for a massive reusable vehicle SpaceX is designing to fly people to the moon and Mars took off from a launching stand in South Texas on Tuesday, flew to a height of roughly 500 feet, then made a controlled descent to a nearby landing…
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Dragon astronauts describe sounds and sensations of return to Earth
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are seen Sunday aboard a helicopter that carried from the SpaceX’s “Go Navigator” recovery ship in the Gulf of Mexico to Naval Air Station Pensacola, where they boarded a NASA jet for a flight back to their home base in Houston. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls Two days after becoming the…
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Relive the final descent of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft
A video from SpaceX shows the company’s Crew Dragon capsule plunging toward the Gulf of Mexico, then unfurling a series of parachutes to slow the spaceship carrying two NASA astronauts from 350 mph to a relatively gentle 15 mph for splashdown Sunday. The dramatic tracking video released by SpaceX late Monday shows the capsule deploying…
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Astronauts back on Earth after ‘extraordinary’ Dragon test flight
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft splashes down in the Gulf of Mexico Sunday with two NASA astronauts on-board. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls Returning home after a 64-day test flight, astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken blazed through Earth’s atmosphere and parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft Sunday, a final major step…
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Photos: SpaceX’s first crewed mission launches from pad 39A
This collection of images from NASA and SpaceX photographers shows the Crew Dragon spacecraft lifting off on top of a Falcon 9 rocket May 30. Taking advantage of a break in the weather, the 215-foot-tall (65-meter) Falcon 9 rocket took off from the Kennedy Space Center at 3:22:45 p.m. EDT (1922:45 GMT) on May 30.…
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SpaceX’s reusable Falcon booster returns to port after crew launch
Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now Almost exactly three days after taking off a few miles to the north at the Kennedy Space Center on SpaceX’s historic first crew launch, a 15-story-tall Falcon rocket booster returned to Florida’s Space Coast Tuesday aboard a football field-sized drone ship. Throngs of local residents, tourists and space enthusiasts…