SpaceX announces the DOGE-1 mission to the Moon for the Geometric Energy Corporation:
Launching on a Falcon 9 rocket in first quarter 2022, GEC is sending a 40 kilogram cubesat – paid for entirely by cryptocurrency DOGE.
Breaking – Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin loses lawsuit against NASA over the HLS lunar lander contract, with Judge Hertling siding with the agency and SpaceX in ruling:
For the first time, SpaceX launched and landed a rocket booster 5 times.
An uninterrupted live feed of the landing tonight on the company’s droneship in the Atlantic Ocean:
3 U.S. rocket CEOs responding to a Twitter account with 10 followers, who asked about the exhaust flow of a rocket engine.
Your daily reminder that this website is still free:
SpaceX rolled out "Starlink for RVs" for $135 per month, which "provides the ability to pause and un-pause service at any time and is billed in one-month increments."
Notably: "Starlink for RVs is not designed for use while in motion."
The U.S. Coast Guard tells CNBC that, earlier today, SpaceX recovery boat "GoSearcher" rescued a person who had drifted away from their boat outside Port Canaveral in Florida.
NASA Commercial Crew program manager Steve Stich says the SpaceX Crew-2 launch is scheduled for 4/20 but the agency will "probably adjust that a little bit."
SpaceX wants to connect more than just homes to its Starlink satellite internet:
The company submitted an FCC request to begin installing and operating terminals on "moving vehicles" – from cars and trucks to ships and jets.
NASA's Inspector General says delays in spacesuit development are another factor making a 2024 astronaut Moon landing impossible.
With $420M spent and another $625M expected, suits won't be "ready for flight until April 2025 at the earliest."
Report:
News — SpaceX, the day after Elon Musk's doge-filled appearance on SNL, announces it is accepting $DOGE to pay for a payload on a lunar Falcon 9 mission next year.
SpaceX VP Tom Ochinero: "We're excited to launch DOGE-1 to the Moon!"
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet captured spectacular photos of SpaceX's Cargo Dragon capsule firing its Draco thrusters while docking autonomously with the ISS on Monday:
Credit:
NASA's X-59 quiet supersonic jet is taking shape at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in California, with this photo last month showing the nose being positioned in place.
Photo: Garry Tice
India PM Modi:
"All the people of the world, the people of every country and region: India’s successful moon mission is not just India’s alone ... this success belongs to all of humanity."
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck was once skeptical of reusing rockets but is now an evangelist for the approach:
"Anybody who's not developing a reusable launch vehicle at this point in time is developing a dead-end product because it's just so obvious."
Watch this:
A tracking camera gave an incredible view of
@SpaceX
's Falcon 9 rocket booster hurtling back down through the sky. You can even see the booster bounce just a little on the landing!
Elon Musk, on SpaceX's $2.9 billion contract win for NASA's Human Landing System program last week:
"It's a great honor to be chosen by NASA to return people to the Moon."
Elon Musk, speaking at the Crew-2 post-launch briefing:
"Thrilled to be part of advancing human spaceflight and looking forward to going beyond Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars, and helping make humanity a spacefaring civilization."
Elon Musk, at the WSJ CEO Council, says "Starship is a hard, hard, hard, hard project."
"This is a profound revolution in access to orbit. There has never been a fully reusable launch vehicle. This is the holy grail of space technology."
Blue Origin updated its HLS infographic about SpaceX's Starship, saying this is "what immense complexity & heightened risk' looks like for going back to the moon:"
Universal Pictures committed to funding Tom Cruise's space movie, Deadline reports, with SpaceX partnering on the project that will send Cruise and director Doug Liman to the space station
#CruiseDragon
An emotional William Shatner, moments after returning from space, tells Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos about his experience:
"Everybody in the world needs to see this."
#NS18
News – SpaceX says it has received more than 500,000 orders for Starlink satellite internet to date, but the $99 deposits are fully refundable and do not guarantee service.
SpaceX's Crew Dragon "Endeavour" prepares to launch its second astronaut mission, Crew-2, and is mated to a reused Falcon 9 rocket booster, after finishing processing on April 12.
Launching in 8 days:
What a shot!
The lower stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 separates and begins to return to Earth, while the upper stage fires up and continues on toward orbit.
SpaceX's launch director, just before today's Starlink mission took off, with a mischevious reference to the Russian space agency chief Rogozin's recent comments:
"Time to let the American broomstick fly and hear the sounds of freedom. LD is go for launch."
SpaceX told NASA that — before it flies astronauts to the Moon in 2024 — Starship will have done:
- Orbital flight with Super Heavy
- Reflight
- Long duration orbital flight
- Beyond LEO flight
- Lunar landing demo mission in 2022
.
@QuiltyAnalytics
found that U.S. space companies are poised to benefit from Russia cutting itself off from much of the global space industry, with SpaceX "the clear winner" in the launch market -- exemplified this morning by OneWeb's new deal:
Elon Musk, on Jeff Bezos:
“In some ways, I’m trying to goad him into spending more time at Blue Origin so they make more progress. As a friend of mine says, he should spend more time at Blue Origin and less time in the hot tub.”
SpaceX urged the FCC to investigate whether Dish and Michael Dell-affiliate RS Access filed "intentionally misleading reports" in the battle over 12GHz broadband, a fight SpaceX representatives describe as an unlikely but existential threat to Starlink:
@joroulette
NASA: "All of this once-in-a-generation momentum, can easily be undone by one party—in this case, Blue Origin—who seeks to prioritize its own fortunes over that of NASA, the United States, and every person alive today"
Elon Musk, accepting the
@axelspringer
award in Berlin, says he is "highly confident" that SpaceX will land humans on Mars "about 6 years from now."
"If we get lucky, maybe 4 years ... we want to send an uncrewed vehicle there in 2 years."
In less than two decades,
@SpaceX
went from
@elonmusk
’s dream of reaching Mars to conducting the majority of U.S. rocket launches.
I went back through the archives with
@CNBC
to tell the SpaceX origin story. Watch:
I surveyed over 50 users of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet over the past few months, to get their impressions of the service so far.
Here's what they said about pricing, installation, speed, reliability and more:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tells
@SquawkStreet
that he "frequently" talks to Elon Musk, who "had to get out of California because, in part, of the social policies in California."
"Elon consistently tells me that he likes the social policies in the state of Texas."
News – The FCC approves SpaceX's third modification to its Starlink license, despite objections from companies including Amazon and Viasat, in a win for Elon Musk's growing satellite internet network:
Total mass launched to orbit in the second quarter of 2020, by rocket builder (Source: Bryce Space and Technology):
1) SpaceX 🇺🇸
2) CASC 🇨🇳
3) Mitsubishi Heavy Industries 🇯🇵
4) Roscosmos 🇷🇺
5) United Launch Alliance 🇺🇸
SpaceX responds to Amazon's request that the FCC dismiss the Starlink Gen2 amendment, calling it "a continuation of efforts by the Amazon family of companies to hinder competitors" and referencing Blue Origin's lawsuit against NASA:
Highlights mine: $AMZN
SpaceX President & COO Gwynne Shotwell named to
@TIME
Magazine's "100 Most Influential People of 2020," with her bio written by NASA astronaut Kathryn Sullivan:
Elon Musk, on the criticism of the billionaire space race:
“I think we should spend the vast majority of our resources solving problems on Earth – like 99%+ of our economy should be dedicated to solving problems on Earth.”
Morgan Stanley surveyed institutional investors and industry experts on two SpaceX vs. Tesla questions:
1 - Which is a more attractive investment?
2 - Which has the potential to be more valuable over the long term?
63% answered SpaceX for both.
SpaceX lands its Falcon 9 booster, this one for a 10th time, back near where it launched from at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida:
Sound on to hear the sonic booms and landing burn!
Horrible news: Glen de Vries, CEO of Medidata and Blue Origin astronaut who flew with William Shatner to space last month, was one of two people killed in a small plane crash in New Jersey yesterday, state police confirm.
Just hours after the
#Inspiration4
crew returned safely from orbit, Elon Musk helped the mission achieve its
@StJude
fundraising goal:
The SpaceX CEO personally pledged $50 million, pushing donations past the goal of $200 million to over $210 million.
SpaceX takes a massive leap forward in Starship's development, on a historic anniversary in US spaceflight.
Watch the highlights of today's SN15 flight test in South Texas:
#SpaceX
#Starship
#SN15
NASA administrator
@SenBillNelson
backs fixed-cost contracts, like those given to SpaceX for Dragon & Starship development, saying that cost-plus contracts, like the ones given for SLS & Orion, have “been a plague” on the agency.
“You get it done cheaper.”
SpaceX this morning launched its first Starlink mission from Florida in about five months:
The company’s Falcon 9 rocket launched and landed for a 9th time, with 53 Starlink satellites deployed in orbit.
Austrian filmmaker Christian Stangl combined some of the more than 400,000 images taken by
@ESA
's Rosetta mission into a stunning short film: "the Comet."
Together the images show details of Comet 67P, which Rosetta followed and researched for 2 years:
NASA confirms: SpaceX will launch the first crew from U.S. soil since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule is now undergoing final testing and prelaunch processing in a facility at Cape Canaveral.
In just over 24 hours, the Tesla Roadster launched by SpaceX's inaugural Falcon Heavy mission will have its first "close approach" of Mars – coming within 0.05 astronomical units (or less than 5 million miles) of the Red Planet
Elon Musk says SpaceX will have Starship "ready to fly" in July, after reviewing the company's progress in person yesterday.
"We will have a second Starship stack ready to fly in August and then monthly thereafter."