Spacex Rockets

Watch: SpaceX Fram2 astronauts become first to orbit over Earth's poles

SpaceX's Fram2 mission makes history as the first crewed flight to orbit over Earth's poles, capturing stunning images and video of the Arctic and Antarctic

Sunita Williams, Butch Willmore's return delayed as rocket faces glitch

According to an Associated Press report, the new crew consisting of four astronauts from the US, Japan, and Russia, will have to get to the ISS first before Williams and Willmore can head home

SpaceX's Starship explodes in space, again raining debris over Caribbean

Nearly two months after an explosion sent flaming debris raining down on the Turks and Caicos, SpaceX launched another mammoth Starship rocket on Thursday, but lost contact minutes into the test flight as the spacecraft came tumbling down. The 403-foot (123-metre) rocket blasted off from Texas a little before sunset. SpaceX caught the first-stage booster back at the pad with giant mechanical arms, but engines on the spacecraft on top started shutting down as it streaked eastward for what was supposed to be a controlled entry over the Indian Ocean, half a world away. Contact was lost with the spacecraft as it went into an out-of-control spin. The space-skimming flight was supposed to last an hour and couldn't release the mock satellites into space as planned. The spacecraft reached nearly 90 miles (150 kilometres) in altitude before trouble struck. It was not immediately clear where it came down. Unfortunately this happened last time too, so we have some practice at this now, SpaceX

Elon Musk's SpaceX to launch Flight 8 test of Starship megarocket Tuesday

After investigating loss of Starship early in its seventh flight test, SpaceX implemented several hardware and operational changes to enhance the upper stage's reliability, the company said in a state

Never heard of Musk offer for early astronaut return: Ex-Nasa leader Melroy

The comments cast doubt on Musk's claims that his attempts to stage an early rescue mission were blocked by former US President Joe Biden's White House because of the billionaire's support of Trump

Musk claims Biden left Williams, Wilmore in space for 'political reasons'

Donald Trump and his advisor Musk claimed that the previous Joe Biden administration was going to leave NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore in space

Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore may return to Earth sooner under new plan

NASA's two stuck astronauts may come back to Earth a little sooner than planned. The space agency announced Tuesday that SpaceX will switch capsules for upcoming astronaut flights in order to bring Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams home in mid-March instead of late March or April. That will shave at least a couple weeks off their prolonged stay at the International Space Station, which hit the eight-month mark last week. Human spaceflight is full of unexpected challenges, NASA's commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said in a statement. The test pilots should have returned in June on Boeing's Starliner capsule after what should have been a weeklong flight demo. But the capsule had so much trouble getting to the space station that NASA decided to bring it back empty and reassigned the pair to SpaceX. Then SpaceX delayed the launch of their replacements on a brand new capsule that needed more prepping, which added more time to Wilmore and Williams' mission. With even more work s

T-Mobile, Starlink begin wide-scale testing of satellite-based connectivity

T-Mobile said 500,000 square miles of the US, which is unreachable by terrestrial cell towers, can now stay connected

SpaceX's Starship explodes in space after launch, forces flights to divert

SpaceX mission control lost contact with the newly upgraded Starship, carrying its first test payload of mock satellites, eight minutes after liftoff from its South Texas rocket facilities

Elon Musk's SpaceX nears $350 billion valuation in insider share talks

Current conversations with SpaceX are ongoing and the details of a potential transaction could change depending on interest from insider sellers and buyers

Challenging Musk's Falcon-9, Bezos' New Glenn seeks Dec launch: Details

With New Glenn's entry into the space market, a new rivalry is expected to begin between Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin

SpaceX launches giant Starship rocket but passes up catching booster

SpaceX on Tuesday launched another Starship rocket but passed up catching the booster with giant mechanical arms. Unlike last month's success, the booster was directed to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The catch was called off just four minutes into the test flight from Texas for unspecified reasons, and the booster hit the water three minutes later. Not all of the criteria for a booster catch was met and so the flight director did not command the booster to return to the launch site, said SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot. He did not specify what went wrong. At the same time, the empty spacecraft launched from Texas atop Starship soared across the Gulf of Mexico on a near loop around the world similar to October's test flight. Skimming space, the shiny retro-looking craft targeted the Indian Ocean for a controlled but destructive end to the hourlong demo. It was the latest test for the world's biggest and most powerful rocket that SpaceX and NASA hope to use to get astronauts back on

Trump, Musk solidify their bond with Texas trip for Starship rocket launch

Donald Trump headed to Brownsville, Texas, on Tuesday to watch one of Elon Musk's companies test its Starship rocket, the latest sign of a deepening bond between the president-elect and the world's richest man. Ever since Musk began camping out at Mar-a-Lago after the election, there's been speculation over when Trump would grow tired of having him hanging around and giving him advice on running the country. But Tuesday's outing was a remarkable display of intimacy between the two, one with implications for American politics, the U.S. government, foreign policy and even the possibility of humans reaching Mars. Musk spent around $200 million to help Trump beat Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential race, and he's been given unparalleled access. He's counseled Trump on nominees for the new administration, joined the president-elect's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and been tapped to co-chair an advisory panel on cutting the size of the federal ...

SpaceX uses dominance to push rivals to use wireless via Starlink: Report

Attorneys from a law firm met with the Justice Department's antitrust division in recent months to bring attention to these arrangements on behalf of some satellite and rocket companies

FAA grounds SpaceX after Falcon 9 rocket falls over in flames at landing

SpaceX launches are on hold after a booster rocket toppled over in flames while landing Wednesday. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded the company's Falcon 9 rockets and ordered an investigation following the predawn accident off the Florida coast. No injuries or public damage were reported. It's too early to know how much impact this will have on SpaceX's upcoming crew flights, one private and the other for NASA. A billionaire's chartered flight was delayed just a few hours earlier because of a poor weather forecast. The rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and got all 21 Starlink internet satellites to orbit. But the first-stage booster fell over in a fireball moments after landing on an ocean platform, the first such accident in years. It was the 23rd time this particular booster had launched, a recycling record for SpaceX. The FAA said it must approve SpaceX's accident findings and corrective action before the company can resume Falcon 9 launches.

SpaceX delays launch of world's first-ever private spacewalk mission

The launch, initially scheduled for early Tuesday morning, was scrubbed to check a ground-side helium leak

Nasa selects Musk's SpaceX to rescue astronauts marooned in space

Boeing's spacecraft will return without people on board, the US space agency said during a Saturday news conference announcing its decision

Indian firm aims to launch 'space habitat' by 2027, in talks with SpaceX

Bengaluru-based AkashaLabdhi is designing a space habitat solution to accommodate six to 16 personnel, which it plans to launch by 2027

Nasa initiates process to dismantle ISS, SpaceX to design deorbit vehicle

Beginning of the end of ISS: The US space agency, Nasa, said the deorbit of the space station by 2030 will pave the way for planned commercial space stations

SpaceX sued by eight engineers fired after accusing Elon Musk of sexism

The engineers - four women and four men - claim Musk ordered their firing in 2022 after they circulated a letter calling the billionaire a 'distraction and embarrassment'