Tag: Starship
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What’s behind the recent string of failures and delays at SpaceX?
It has been an uncharacteristically messy start to the year for the world’s leading spaceflight company, SpaceX. Let’s start with the company’s most recent delay. The latest launch date for a NASA mission to survey the sky and better understand the early evolution of the Universe comes Monday night. The launch window for this SPHEREx…
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The Starship program hits another speed bump with second consecutive failure
SpaceX’s Starship launcher spun out of control minutes after liftoff Thursday, showering fiery debris over the Bahamas and dealing another setback to Elon Musk’s rocket program after a failure under similar circumstances less than two months ago. Starship and its Super Heavy booster, loaded with millions of pounds of methane and liquid oxygen propellants, lumbered…
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Starship upper stage lost in second mishap in a row
The Starship upper stage suffered multiple premature engine shutdowns, as indicated in telemetry shown at bottom right. Flight control was lost and the spacecraft broke apart in a spectacular shower of debris. It was the Starship program’s second upper stage failure in a row. Image: SpaceX SpaceX launched its huge Starship rocket on the program’s…
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Launch Roundup: Starship and Ariane 6 launch after scrubs
SpaceX launches Starship’s eighth flight test, Arianespace’s Ariane 6 launches from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, and China sends another Chang Zheng 3B/E to space. Ariane 6 kicks off the week by launching high-resolution reconnaissance satellites for the French Space Agency, followed by Starship’s eighth flight test. Then, Chang Zheng 3B/E takes another…
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Launch preview: SpaceX to launch Starship Flight 8 following Monday scrub
SpaceX’s Starship rocket stands at the launch tower ahead of the eighth suborbital flight test. Image: SpaceX Update March 6, 3:50 p.m. EST (2050 UTC): SpaceX is proceeding towards a launch attempt on March 6. SpaceX is preparing to launch its Starship rocket from its Starbase facilities in southern Texas following a scrubbed launch attempt…
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SpaceX readies a redo of last month’s ill-fated Starship test flight
SpaceX plans to launch the eighth full-scale test flight of its enormous Starship rocket as soon as Monday after receiving regulatory approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. The test flight will be a repeat of what SpaceX hoped to achieve on the previous Starship launch in January, when the rocket broke apart and showered debris…
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Rocket Report: Rocket Lab’s news blitz; Starship mishap blamed on vibrations
Welcome to Edition 7.33 of the Rocket Report! Phew, what a week for Rocket Lab! The company released a bevy of announcements in conjunction with its quarterly earnings report Thursday. Rocket Lab is spending a lot of money to develop the medium-lift Neutron rocket, and as we’ll discuss below, a rocket landing platform and a new…
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Launch Roundup: Starship, Ariane 6 and telescope missions delayed, lunar lander flies
Several significant missions were scheduled for this week, including the third lunar lander to launch in just over a month. The Intuitive Machines-2 (IM-2) mission will explore and analyze the Moon’s subsurface, testing new technologies and paving the way for future lunar missions. NASA is also set to launch its SPHEREx observatory, which will map…
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Mere weeks after Starship’s breakup, the vehicle may soon fly again
A little over a month after SpaceX’s large Starship launch ended in an explosion over several Caribbean islands, the company is preparing its next rocket for a test flight. According to a notice posted by the Federal Aviation Administration, the eighth test flight of the Starship vehicle could take place as early as February 26…
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Starship Flight 8 vehicles prepare to join forces at Pad A
SpaceX has completed the engine test campaigns for both Ship 34 and Booster 15, which are slated to fly on Starship Flight 8. However, the Mishap Investigation for Flight 7 is still open and needs to be closed before Flight 8 can be approved to launch. Despite this requirement, SpaceX appears confident of approval by…