There’s little doubt that an exploding Starship created headlines and vivid images for newspapers and broadcasters on April 20th. But keen-eyed observers have raised more than a few questions for the SpaceX engineers, technicians and specialists who are now working to discover the reasons behind the “rapid unscheduled disassembly”. Concerns have been raised about the […]
A South African opposition political party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), is accusing the country’s government of “blocking” Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband service to launch. The DA’s shadow communications minister, Dianne Kohler Barnard, said that the government’s communications regulator’s equity ownership restrictions on telecommunications licences is holding back SpaceX from launching Starlink to South African consumers. […]
With around ten minutes to go (at 14:15 BST) SpaceX announced its Starship test launch was delayed because of a faulty (possibly frozen) pressure valve. The count continued to T-10 secs to for a ‘wet’ dress rehearsal – so known because the propellant tanks were fully loaded. Elon Musk, speaking during a telecast, had previosuly […]
Elon Musk says his giant Starship could make its debut flight during the third week of April. Observers suggest April 20th is a dependable target date, subject to the usual weather and technical considerations. Work at the launch site has been happening for months and intensified over the past 10 days, with Musk saying that […]
A venture capital fund has raised $1.23 billion with an aim to be the “next Elon Musk” in the space business. Eclipse Ventures, based in Palo Alto in the heart of Silicon Valley, California, is establishing two new funds both of which are designed to help seek out new ventures including space-related businesses.. The two […]
Elon Musk’s giant Starship combination of rocket plus Super Heavy booster looks likely to be launched in the next few days. The importance for the satellite community is its potential capacity to launch far more Starlink satellites simultaneously – or larger/heavier commercial and NASA satellites – into orbit with a single launch. There are other […]
Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband service is now fully available over Greece. Costs are quoted as €60 a month with no need for long-term contracts. Potential users can ‘rent’ the Starlink equipment for a one-time activation fee of €50 plus €15 per month rental, or buy the dish, modem and cables for €300 which is a […]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its 20th flight of the year on March 24th, carrying 56 Starlink broadband satellites. The Falcon 9’s booster stage came back to Earth as planned 8.5 minutes after liftoff, making a pinpoint touchdown off the Florida coast on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. It was the 10th launch and […]
Recently, SpaceX launched some second-generation Starlink satellites for its broadband-by-satellite system. However, Elon Musk has confirmed it has problems with at least some of the satellites. On March 22nd Musk tweeted that there were “some issues” with the set of Starlink satellites launched February 27th, confirming industry speculation that some satellites had their orbits changed. […]
SpaceX has further delayed a planned launch of a batch of Starlink broadband satellites to January 14th. It is the third delay for the launch. But another important event is planned for SpaceX at its giant Starship base in South Texas. This latest Starlink flight will take 51 satellites into orbit and take place from […]