SpaceX

June 13, 2024 3:20 PM

Reliance’s Jio Platforms clears hurdle in bid to launch satellite internet in India

A joint venture between Reliance Industries' Jio Platforms and Luxembourg-based SES to provide gigabit fibre internet has won approval from the Indian space regulator to operate satellites there, a government executive said. The three approvals issued to Orbit Connect India - which aims to provide satellite-based high-speed internet access - come as companies from Amazon to Elon Musk's Starlink have been vying for the go-ahead to launch satellite communication services in the world's most popul...

June 7, 2024 10:47 AM

Boeing Starliner’s first astronaut crew welcomed aboard space station

Boeing's new Starliner capsule and an inaugural two-member NASA crew safely docked with the International Space Station on Thursday, meeting a key test in proving the vessel's flight-worthiness and sharpening Boeing's competition with Elon Musk's SpaceX. The rendezvous was achieved despite an earlier loss of several guidance-control jet thrusters, some of them due to a helium propulsion leak, which NASA and Boeing said should not compromise the mission. The CST-100 Starliner, with veteran astr...

June 6, 2024 12:50 PM

Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams makes history on Boeing’s Starliner maiden crewed mission

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, carrying astronauts Sunita "Suni" Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore, took off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Wednesday for a test mission to the International Space Station. Williams, 58, an Indian American astronaut, made history as the first woman to pilot a spacecraft on its maiden mission. This flight also marks her third journey into space. Moments before liftoff, Williams radioed mission control with the message, "Let's go, Calyp...

Del Mar, CA. December 22, 2017. Viewed from Del Mar, CA, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 10 SpaceX communications satellites illuminates the Southern California sky above the Pacific Ocean. Launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base at approximately 5:30 pm, the satellites will join Iridium's NEXT system, which will ultimately include 81 satellites. The launch is the fourth of ten planned by SpaceX and was visible from throughout Southern California. Photo: Mark Johnson/Ironstring

May 23, 2024 3:39 PM

SpaceX launches first satellites for new US spy constellation

SpaceX on Wednesday launched an inaugural batch of operational spy satellites it built as part of a new U.S. intelligence network designed to significantly upgrade the country's space-based surveillance powers, the first deployment of several more planned this year. The spy network was revealed in a pair of Reuters reports earlier this year showing SpaceX is building hundreds of satellites for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, an intelligence agency, for a vast system in or...

May 12, 2024 2:39 PM

Musk sees fourth flight of SpaceX’s Starship in 3-5 weeks

SpaceX's Starship rocket, a futuristic vehicle designed to eventually carry astronauts to the moon and beyond, will probably have its fourth flight in 3-5 weeks, the company's Chief Executive Elon Musk said in a post on social media platform X on Saturday. "Objective is for the ship to get past max heating or at least further than last time," Musk said in response to a question about Starship. Earlier this year, SpaceX's Starship rocket completed nearly an entire test flight through space on i...

May 11, 2024 5:35 PM

Musk’s Starlink satellites disrupted by major solar storm

Starlink, the satellite arm of Elon Musk's SpaceX, warned on Saturday of a "degraded service" as the Earth is battered by the biggest geomagnetic storm due to solar activity in two decades. Starlink owns around 60% of the roughly 7,500 satellites orbiting Earth and is a dominant player in satellite internet. Musk said earlier in a post on X that Starlink satellites were under a lot of pressure due to the geomagnetic storm, but were holding up so far. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric ...