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SpaceX asks permission to take Starship on a high-altitude test flight
One of the next major steps in SpaceX's plans for true spaceflight will be a 12-mile-high test flight. Sometime between March and September, the company plans to launch its Starship suborbital test vehicle from Boca Chica, Texas. The Starship will travel to an altitude of 12.4 miles, or 20 kilometers. SpaceX will then attempt to land and recover the vehicle.
SpaceX's first Starship pops its top during a 'pressure test' in Texas
SpaceX has already moved on to manufacturing its next generation of 'Mk3' Starship frames, but the original model Elon Musk stood in front of two months ago popped open during an apparent "pressure test" at the company's Boca Chica, TX site. According to site watchers like LabPadre, the top flew some 500 feet in the air as cryofluid sprayed everywhere. In slow-motion, it appears that fluid started bursting from the sides first.
SpaceX begins construction of its next-generation Starship rockets
SpaceX's next-generation rocket, the Starship, is 50 meters long and powered by three Raptor engines, creating a whopping 12,000 kN of thrust. It is designed to haul large amounts of cargo and eventually passengers into space, for missions to the moon and potentially to Mars and beyond as well. After unveiling the design for the Starship Mk 2 last month, and also revealing an ambitious timeline for getting the craft into orbit, construction of three of the rockets has begun.
Elon Musk hopes SpaceX's Starship will reach orbit in six months
Elon Musk's ambitious plans for Starship extend to the timeline for its first flights. As part of a Q&A session at SpaceX's presentation, Musk outlined plans for rapid prototyping that could get the vessel into space in a short time frame. Starship Mk1 (above) at Boca Chica, Texas should have a suborbital test flight within one to two months, the executive said. After that, a competing team in Cape Canaveral, Florida will conduct a similar test with a Mk2 ship as soon as November. Mk3 will start construction in October with aims to fly in December, while the competing Mk4 could come in January. If all goes well, either Mk3 or an eventual Mk5 would fly an orbital test within six months -- no small achievement when Starhopper only flew in August.
SpaceX's plan for in-orbit Starship refueling: a second Starship
During an update on the SpaceX Starship program, Elon Musk just showed off a brief clip that explained part of the plan for using these vehicles to reach Mars. It involved a Starship in orbit around Earth, meeting a similarly-sized vehicle to refuel before it goes on the long trip to another planet. Musk has long touted his desire to make human life "multiplanetary" and expressed this as the way to achieve his goal. He explained the Starship only requires its "Super Heavy" booster for launches from Earth, so it seems possible that the second vehicle could launch from the Moon powered only by its own Raptor engines.
Watch SpaceX's Starship presentation at 9:15PM ET (updated)
SpaceX is close to outlining the next chapter for its Starship program, and you can hear about it at the same time as anyone else. The company is streaming its presentation on the "design and development" of Starship at 9PM Eastern, with Elon Musk shedding light on the vessel at the launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas. It's not clear exactly what Musk will discuss, although there have been some clues.
SpaceX's Starship halves come together ahead of a big event
Ten days after we got a peek at the construction of SpaceX's first Starship in Texas, CEO Elon Musk tweeted out a picture of the craft's two halves coming together. It's a timely post, as Musk is planning a press conference Saturday evening with updates on the company's programs, including its Starships. Last year Musk revealed that Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will be the first lunar space tourist, so who knows what's in store now. This 10-story-high Mk1 will provide a perfect backdrop for his comments, but that's not all. It's also fitted with three of SpaceX's Raptor engines, that should be enough to power a test flight soon. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said he's looking forward to the event, but also noted that Commercial Crew efforts are behind schedule.
Get a glimpse of SpaceX's orbital Starship prototype under construction
You won't have to rely on spy shots to get a glimpse of SpaceX's orbital Starship prototype while it's under construction -- they're coming straight from the company's founder. Elon Musk has posted a pair of photos showing progress on the more ambitious spacecraft. The look won't startle anyone -- surprise, it's a much taller expansion of the Starhopper design. It does provide a good sense of scale, though, and it's a reminder that the finished Starship is meant to handle much more than putting satellites into service.
SpaceX confirms it's almost ready to test its orbital Starship
SpaceX isn't wasting much time now that Starhopper has completed its hover test. The company has filed an FCC communication permissions request that, as Elon Musk confirmed, prepares for test-flying the "orbit-class" Starship. The vehicle will fly much higher than its stubby predecessor, reaching an altitude of 12.5 miles before it comes back to the same landing pad used during earlier tests. It's not a true orbital test, then, but it's clearly much closer to SpaceX's goals.
Starship's delivery robots now serve Purdue University
Starship's delivery robots have reached their largest school campus yet. Purdue students at the university's West Lafayette campus now have the option of ordering robot-delivered food that should arrive in "minutes." As at other schools, deliveries carry a flat $2 fee and work in tandem with your student meal plan. If you're too busy studying to traipse across the university grounds and don't want to spend much more than you're already paying for food, your solution might be at hand.
SpaceX’s Starhopper will undergo hover test next week
Next week will see the latest test of SpaceX's Starhopper spacecraft, the test vehicle for the Starship project which aims to create a resuable long-duration spacecraft for carrying passengers and cargo into space. SpaceX hopes to begin commercial launches using the Starship by 2021.
SpaceX plans to launch Starship's first commercial flight in 2021
While we haven't seen the Starship fly yet -- SpaceX just got done with its test firings and short "hops" back in April -- we might not have to wait that long for its first commercial flight. According to SpaceX VP of commercial sales Jonathan Hofeller, the company is hoping to send it to space for its first commercial mission in 2021. He revealed at an event in Indonesia that SpaceX is already in discussions with three different customers for that flight, all telecom companies likely looking to send satellites to orbit.
SpaceX sues over 'wrongly awarded' Air Force rocket contracts
To say that SpaceX was unhappy with losing out on the US Air Force's rocket development contracts would be an understatement. The company has sued the US government under claims that the Air Force "wrongly awarded" contracts to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman and United Launch Alliance. The military branch handed out offers to the competition despite their "unproven rockets" and "unstated metrics," while allegedly ignoring SpaceX's own real-world record. The company had completed numerous missions with its Falcon rockets, according to the lawsuit, but was deemed "highest risk" because of its largely untested Starship.
SpaceX is building another Starship in Florida
After a poster on NASASpaceflight.com uploaded pictures of another Starship vehicle (f.k.a. BFR) under construction in Florida -- to go along with prototypes being built in Texas -- Elon Musk explained what's going on. The CEO tweeted that "SpaceX is doing simultaneous competing builds of Starship in Boca Chica Texas & Cape Canaveral Florida." He said the plan is to find out which location is the most effective even if the answer "might be both." Still, if the plan is to get these on the moon ASAP -- with other billionaires making plans for lunar travel as we speak -- doubling up on production seems like a good idea. For now, SpaceX's next launch is scheduled for tomorrow to launch 60 of its Starlink internet satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket.
After Math: Eat your heart out, Soundgarden
From the first direct images of a black hole and a nearly-successful private moon landing to self-healing exosuits and self-retrieving rockets, read on for the top stories from what's been a stellar week for space science!
Starship's robo-couriers have completed 50,000 deliveries
The delivery robot field is still tiny, but there are signs that it's growing. Starship Technologies has announced that its autonomous courier bots have completed 50,000 commercial deliveries worldwide since its first service launched in the UK in 2018. It also boasted that the robots have traveled more than 200,000 miles.
Get an up-close look at SpaceX's latest Starhopper test
Now that SpaceX started test firings and short "hop" tests on the launch pad at its Boca Chica, Texas site, it's apparently comfortable enough to show off the results. Tonight Elon Musk -- apparently unbothered by an internal investigation or ongoing wrangling with the SEC -- tweeted this two second clip of the snub-nosed "Starhopper" test vehicle that's on a short tether with one of the company's Raptor rocket engines mounted underneath. It's still not much of a trip, but the glimpse from up close is a preview of greater things to come. Eventually we should see test flights with the Phase 2 Starhopper that go much higher, similar to the progression of SpaceX's Grasshopper tests for the Falcon 9 a few years ago. All of this is necessary before we see the real Starship fly, so these small bites will have to do for now.
SpaceX's 'Starhopper' test vehicle takes a short Raptor-powered trip
As SpaceX proceeds with development of its Starship vehicle, it's first testing out the spacecraft's Raptor engines. Today a stubby Starhopper test vehicle mounted with a single engine -- as opposed to the more advanced Phase 2 version shown above -- completed its first tethered hop of just a few inches at the Texas launch site, as spotted by nearby observers. Elon Musk tweeted "All systems green" after the test, which may not have gone far but recalls the early days of Grasshopper rocket tests before we got used to the sight of Falcon 9 rocket engines returning to Earth after successful launches. Musk previously said that suborbital test flights would require three of the engines -- the final version of Starship f.k.a BFR will have more -- and we'll be waiting to see when that happens.
SpaceX tests heat shields that will stop its Starship from burning up
After successfully getting its Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) and back, SpaceX has shifted focus to another huge project: the interplanetary Starship. In a tweet, Elon Musk showed off tests on the Starship's heat shield, the part that will keep it from burning up when it returns to Earth. The blow-torch like devices brought the temperatures up to 1,650 degrees Kelvin (2,500 degrees F) at the most extreme, white-hot regions -- enough to stand the heat of orbital re-entry, Musk said.
Starship robots will deliver pizza and coffee to George Mason students
It just became that much easier for students to grab food without interrupting a study break. Starship and Sodexo have launched a robot food delivery service at Virginia's George Mason University, giving students and staff access to food within an average of 15 minutes or less. Pay $2 through Starship's mobile app and one of the more than 25 automatons will deliver pizza, coffee and other grub to a convenient pickup point on campus. It even ties into the school's student meal plans (the first such tie-in anywhere, according to Starship) and debit program.
