Tag: Starship
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Starship preparations point to possible tower catch attempt on Flight 5
The Starship program is testing with a possible tower catch in mind for the next flight of the system, a goal that seems more within reach after Flight 4’s successful ocean soft landing. In addition to a booster test section – Booster 14.1 – moving to the orbital launch pad, construction is underway on a…
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Some European launch officials still have their heads stuck in the sand
There was a panel discussion at a space conference in Singapore 11 years ago that has since become legendary in certain corners of the space industry for what it reveals about European attitudes toward upstart SpaceX. The panel included representatives from a handful of launch enterprises, including Europe-based Arianespace, and the US launch company SpaceX.…
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Second Starbase Tower rises as SpaceX gears up to Flight Five
Following the successes of Flight Four in early June, SpaceX is preparing Ship 30 and Booster 12 ready for Flight Five ahead of a launch later this summer. All this is taking place while an incredible amount of infrastructure is being created and worked on at Starbase, including the new office building and the beginning…
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Starship Flight 4 milestones effect changes to Flight 5’s Ship
Following the highly successful milestones achieved by Booster 11 and Ship 29 on Flight 4 of SpaceX’s Starship, engineers are already implementing lessons learned from the mission ahead of the next flight, including widescale changes to the Thermal Protection System (TPS). Although Elon Musk thinks the next flight is a month away, the Flight 5…
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FAA, NASA seek public input on SpaceX Starship launches at the Kennedy Space Center
The Ship 29 upper stage of the fully integrated Starship rocket as seen before its fourth flight test on June 6, 2024. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now The Federal Aviation Administration is preparing to gather public input on SpaceX Starship launch operations at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The request for comments comes about a month after…
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SpaceX accomplishes first soft splashdown of Starship, Super Heavy Booster on Flight 4 mission
For a fourth time in program history, SpaceX launches its Starship rocket from its Starbase facility in southern Texas. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now Update 2:32 p.m. EDT: Added mission details. For a fourth time in a little more than a year, SpaceX launched a test mission of its massive Starship rocket from its development facility…
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Starship finds success on fourth flight test
Just over a year after the first integrated flight test, SpaceX successfully launched the fourth flight of Starship on Thursday. For the first time, Super Heavy completed a successful landing burn while Starship made it through reentry – despite extensive burn damage to a forward flap – and softly landed in the Indian Ocean. This…
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SpaceX is about to launch Starship again—the FAA will be more forgiving this time
The Federal Aviation Administration approved the commercial launch license for the fourth test flight of SpaceX’s Starship rocket Tuesday, with liftoff from South Texas targeted for just after sunrise Thursday. “The FAA has approved a license authorization for SpaceX Starship Flight 4,” the agency said in a statement. “SpaceX met all safety and other licensing…
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SpaceX launches 20 Starlink satellites on 14th anniversary of the first Falcon 9 launch
A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on the Starlink 8-5 mission on June 4, 2024. The mission coincided with the 14th anniversary of the first Falcon 9 launch in 2010. Image: Spaceflight Now SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday night, 14 years to the…
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Launch Roundup – Starship launches for fourth time, Starliner launches on third attempt, Virgin Galactic to fly VSS Unity for last time
There were two high-profile missions scheduled this week after a challenging weekend that saw the scrub of another attempt to launch the first crewed Starliner and the announcement that the dearMoon project is canceled. In more positive news, it also confirmed that Chang’e 6 landed on the moon’s far side. Starship was one of two…