SpaceX Starship launches are on hold pending an investigation into last week's test flight. The Federal Aviation Administration announced on Wednesday that the hourlong spaceflight resulted in a mishap based on the performance of the mega rocket's first-stage booster. Minutes after Starship blasted off from Texas on Friday, the booster separated as normal but engines conked out as it made its way back to Earth. Instead of a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, the booster came in hard. There were no reports of injury or property damage, according to the FAA, which will oversee the company's investigation. The spacecraft continued around the world, releasing 20 mock satellites before ending the mission as planned with a fiery splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The 407-foot (124-metre) rocket is SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's biggest and most powerful Starship yet, designed to carry crews to Mars. NASA is looking for it to land astronauts on the moon as soon as 2028 and help build a lun
SpaceX got within a half-minute of launching its newest and biggest Starship on a test flight Thursday evening before a cascade of problems halted the countdown. The 407-foot (124-metre) rocket was poised to begin a space-skimming journey from Texas extending halfway around the world. But issues cropped up with the brand-new pad at Starbase near the Mexican border, and the company ran out of time. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk later said the hydraulic pin holding the launch tower's arm in place did not retract. If the problem can be fixed quickly, another launch attempt will be made Friday, he noted. Thursday's launch attempt came one day after Musk announced that his rocket company would be going public. Starship holds 20 mock Starlink satellites to be released before the spacecraft's controlled entry into the Indian Ocean at the end of the hourlong flight. It will be the 12th test flight for a Starship and the first since last fall. NASA is relying on this latest version of Starship to l
Starlink's FDI proposal on hold as govt flags security risks; approval may depend on clarity from Starlink and its ability to address concerns over potential misuse of satellite services
The e-commerce giant has been trying for years to break into satellite services to gain new sources of growth beyond its enormous retail and cloud-computing businesses
Elon Musk vowed this week to upend another industry just as he did with cars and rockets -- and once again he's taking on long odds. The world's richest man said he wants to put as many as a million satellites into orbit to form vast, solar-powered data centres in space -- a move to allow expanded use of artificial intelligence and chatbots without triggering blackouts and sending utility bills soaring. To finance that effort, Musk combined SpaceX with his AI business on Monday and plans a big initial public offering of the combined company. "Space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale," Musk wrote on SpaceX's website Monday, adding about his solar ambitions, "It's always sunny in space!" But scientists and industry experts say even Musk, who outsmarted Detroit to turn Tesla into the world's most valuable automaker, faces formidable technical, financial and environmental obstacles. Feeling the heat Capturing the sun's energy from space to run chatbots and other AI tools wou
The Elon Musk-owned company has been given temporary permission to use some radio spectrum to test its systems and meet security requirements
Starlink clears final regulatory hurdle as India's space body IN-SPACe gives nod; firm still needs spectrum allocation, infra setup, and trials before launching satellite internet services
Starlink awaits final authorisation from space regulator IN-SPACe; ground infra and security clearance still pending for India launch
Starlink has received a key licence from the Ministry of Telecommunications, clearing the way for its entry into India's satellite broadband market, expected to launch in the next 12 months
Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday threw his weight behind having more players in satellite internet space, saying the service was needed particularly in the rural and underserved areas of the vast market that is India. The government has already granted licences to firms backed by billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal to offer satellite internet services, and Scindia indicated more may be granted if players meet security and regulatory norms. The minister's statement is a positive one for Elon Musk's Starlink that has aspirations to operate in the world's most populous nation. Starlink, which had been vying for an India licence for sometime now, last month signed pacts with Ambani's Reliance Jio and Mittal's Bharti Airtel -- which together control more than 70 per cent of the country's telecom market -- to bring the US satellite internet giant's services to India. Citing the licences granted to Bharti Group-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite ...
Airtel share price, RIL share price: Ambiguity over regulatory clarity may keep upside in the stocks restricted, analysts cautioned
Starlink operates using satellite internet technology rather than relying on traditional cable-based methods such as fibre optics, which traditional telecom and broadband players use
Bharti Airtel rose as much as 3.37 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 1717.25 per share, while RIL share gained up to 1.13 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 1,261.55
Starlink has since 2020 launched more satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO) - an altitude of less than 2,000 km - than all its competitors combined
Medium resolution images, music & audio podcasts should work with the current generation Starlink direct-to-phone constellation.The first users received text messages from T-Mobile
iOS 18.3 supports Starlink satellite network through Apple's partnership with SpaceX and T-Mobile in the US
Current conversations with SpaceX are ongoing and the details of a potential transaction could change depending on interest from insider sellers and buyers
Musk, the world's richest person, is expected to wield significant influence in Washington to secure favorable government treatment for his companies
SpaceX is launching 20 more Starlink satellites into space. The company operates over 6,400 Starlink spacecraft in LEO and out of these, over 250 are DTC satellites
This is not the first loss for Intelsat. Earlier in 2019, the company had lost another Boeing-made satellite, IS-29e