Tag: Elon Musk
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World’s largest space conference succeeds in making a Starship update boring
Anyone who keeps track of Elon Musk knows the world’s richest man has a penchant for setting aspirational schedules for his companies. SpaceX misses those ambitious timelines so often that Musk has joked the company specializes in making the impossible late. So, if you have an opportunity to interview him, why spend time asking Musk…
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SpaceX broke its record for number of launches in a year
It probably seems like SpaceX is launching almost every day, and that’s not far from the case. It also might seem like SpaceX is regularly breaking one of its records, whether it’s in the number of launches, turnaround time, or reusing Falcon 9 boosters. This is also true. SpaceX blew past one of those records…
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SpaceX making more than 1,000 changes to next Starship rocket
SpaceX will debut numerous upgrades on the second launch of its full-scale Starship mega-rocket. Those upgrades include a major change in how the rocket’s two stages separate, propulsion system improvements, and a beefed-up launch pad in South Texas that should better withstand the blast from 33 main engines. “There are really a tremendous number of…
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Elon Musk’s success criteria for Starship test flight: “Don’t blow up the launch pad”
SpaceX’s fully fueled Starship and Super Heavy booster during the first launch attempt Monday, April 17. Credit: SpaceX Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, did his best to set low expectations heading into the first test flight of the gargantuan Super Heavy booster and Starship rocket this week. “I would consider anything that does not…
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Musk outlines Starship progress towards self-sustaining Mars city
SpaceX Chief Designer Elon Musk has provided the first overview for the Starship Program since 2019, announcing a roadmap towards building a self-sustaining city on Mars. With Starship, a rapid and completely reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle, as the focal point, Musk hopes to achieve the goal of an orbital test launch this year, followed…
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Billionaire belly laughs: SNL’s space skit pokes fun at Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Elon Musk
Jeff Bezos (left) gets the “Saturday Night Live” treatment from Owen Wilson. (Blue Origin / NBC Photos) You know that the billionaire space race has entered the nation’s mainstream when it’s skewered by NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” On tonight’s season premiere, guest host Owen Wilson played the starring role in “Star Trek: Ego Quest” as…
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Elon Musk chats about Starship and space telescopes … and Jeff Bezos’ rocket envy
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk chats with journalist Kara Swisher at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Asa Mathat for Vox Media) In the latest chapter of a long-running space spat, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took aim at his billionaire rival Jeff Bezos today with a barrage of double entendres that were delivered…
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Elon Musk goads Jeff Bezos on Twitter as their prolonged space spat escalates
The rivalry between SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has surfaced on Twitter. Again. (Musk Photo: TED via YouTube; Bezos Photo: GeekWire / Kevin Lisota) SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has fired a fresh volley of tart tweets at Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the Blue Origin space venture, in the…
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Bezos’ Blue Origin sues NASA for giving Musk’s SpaceX sole contract to return astronauts to moon
Jeff Bezos shows a mockup of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lunar lander. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) After focusing for much of his career on delivering packages to doorsteps, Jeff Bezos is turning his attention to delivering humans to the moon, and on Monday his commercial space venture showed just how seriously it’s taking its…
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Senators spar over the idea of giving billions to Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin venture for lunar lander program
An artist’s conception shows the human landing system that’s being developed by Blue Origin and its industry partners in the foreground, and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon cargo lander in the far background. (Blue Origin Illustration) The tussle over NASA funding for lunar landing systems has touched down in the Senate — with one leading senator…