Tag: Starbase
-
SpaceX catches returning rocket in mid-air, turning a fanciful idea into reality
BOCA CHICA BEACH, Texas—SpaceX accomplished a groundbreaking engineering feat Sunday when it launched the fifth test flight of its gigantic Starship rocket and then caught the booster back at the launch pad in Texas with mechanical arms seven minutes later. This achievement is the first of its kind, and it’s crucial for SpaceX’s vision of…
-
Starship is about to launch on its fifth flight, and this time there’s a catch
Early Sunday morning, SpaceX will try something no one has ever done before. If all goes according to plan, around seven minutes after lifting off from South Texas, the huge stainless steel booster from SpaceX’s Starship rocket will come back to the launch pad and slow to a hover, allowing powerful mechanical arms to capture…
-
SpaceX navigates Q3 anomalies, starting ambitious Q4 goals
SpaceX’s record-breaking streak of successful launches and landings ended during the third quarter of 2024, having suffered a failure during launch with Falcon 9’s second stage and a Falcon 9 first stage landing failure. More recently, a third issue arose during the disposal of a Falcon 9 second stage after it had successfully completed its…
-
SpaceX Catches a Super Heavy Booster During a Milestone Flight 5
Flight 5 Ship 30 and Booster 12 lifted off at 7:25 am Central Time on Oct 13. The liftoff and ascent was flawless with all 33 engine running on Booster 12 all the way to hot-staging. Ship 30 then ignited its six engines and went on its way to the Indian Ocean. Booster 12 then…
-
SpaceX’s next Starship launch—and first catch—could happen this weekend
We may not have to wait as long as we thought for the next test flight of SpaceX’s Starship rocket. The world’s most powerful launcher could fly again as soon as Sunday, SpaceX says, assuming the Federal Aviation Administration grants approval. The last public statement released from the FAA suggested the agency didn’t expect to…
-
Starship readying for Flight 5 amid future preparations
SpaceX is setting the stage for acquiring final approval to launch the fifth flight of Starship, a mission that includes another major milestone toward its rapid reusability aspirations. With a preliminary Oct. 13 launch date, SpaceX is taking all the required steps to prepare for the final approval from the FAA. Meanwhile, Starbase continues to…
-
Starship Flight Five conducts Full-Stack Testing ahead of Launch
SpaceX has completed initial pre-launch testing of the Flight 5 Starship. However, the launch date currently remains over two months away due to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) noting they do not expect to issue the launch license until late November to early December comes around for launch. Since the beginning of this year, Ship…
-
SpaceX says regulators will keep Starship grounded until at least November
The Federal Aviation Administration has signaled to SpaceX that it won’t approve a launch license for the next test flight of the Starship rocket until at least late November, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. This is more than two months later than the mid-September timeframe the FAA previously targeted for determining whether…
-
Sparks are flying day and night as SpaceX preps Starship pad to catch a rocket
Pretty much every day for the last couple of weeks, workers wielding welding guns and torches have climbed onto SpaceX’s Starship launch pad in South Texas to make last-minute upgrades ahead of the next test flight of the world’s largest rocket. Livestreams of the launch site provided by LabPadre and NASASpaceflight.com have shown sparks raining…
-
Successful Static Fire Leads to Final Preparation Before Full Stack
Activities at Starbase are on full throttle as Starship flight five pulls ever closer. Major work has been completed on Launch Pad B, altering the skyline, glimpses of the future have been witnessed with the first-ever Block 2 starship, and Ship 30 completed a second static fire with full-stack testing on the horizon. On July…