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189 articles
VideoNASA chooses SpaceX to land next astronauts on the Moon
NASA has selected SpaceX to build a spacecraft to land the first astronauts on the moon since 1972, choosing Elon Musk's space company over competing proposals from Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin and the aerospace firm Dynetics, officials announced Friday.
Astrobotic selects SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy to launch robotic lunar lander
A commercial lunar lander built by Astrobotic will launch from the Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in late 2023 to deliver a water-hunting NASA rover to the moon's south pole, officials announced Tuesday.
ULA, SpaceX split military launch contract awards
The U.S. Space Force announced Tuesday that it awarded $384 million in contracts to United Launch Alliance and SpaceX, giving each company two missions to launch military satellites in 2023.
VideoSpaceX nails Starship landing, but rocket explodes minutes later
The latest prototype of SpaceX's Starship launch vehicle -- Starship SN10 -- took off from the company's South Texas test site and flew to an altitude of more than 30,000 feet Wednesday, then descended to a controlled vertical landing after two previous test vehicles crashed at touchdown. Minutes later, the 16-story test rocket exploded in a fireball, but the test flight appeared to be a major step forward in the early stages of the Starship program.
SpaceX planning launch of two Falcon Heavy missions in summer and fall
SpaceX plans two Falcon Heavy launches this year for the U.S. Space Force in July and October, and United Launch Alliance has four national security space missions on its 2021 schedule, according to a military spokesperson.
Biden backs Artemis moon program; watchdog says it’ll cost $86 billion
The Biden administration supports continuing NASA’s Artemis program to return astronauts back to the moon, the White House said last week, without stating whether it will back away from the program’s already-in-doubt schedule for a lunar landing by the end of 2024.
SpaceX wins contract to launch first pieces of NASA’s Gateway lunar outpost
NASA announced Tuesday it has awarded SpaceX a $331 million contract to launch the first two pieces of the Gateway lunar outpost in 2024 using a modified version of the Falcon Heavy rocket to hurl the massive core of the deep space station toward the moon.
No SpaceX doubleheader for now, but range is ready for two launches in a day
One of the two Falcon 9 rockets SpaceX planned to take off in a span of less than five hours earlier this week will remain grounded indefinitely, preventing Cape Canaveral from hosting two launches on the same day for the first time in decades. But the military-run Eastern Range was ready for the back-to-back missions, and probably won't have to wait long for the next chance for a launch doubleheader.
VideoSpaceX Starship prototype lost in test flight landing mishap
SpaceX launched a prototype Starship rocket Tuesday from its Boca Chica, Texas, flight facility, successfully sending the silver booster up to an altitude of about six miles as planned. But the unpiloted test flight ended with a spectacular explosion when the rocket failed to right itself and slow down enough for a tail-first landing.
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Second high-altitude Starship test flight ends in landing explosion
Starship completed a successful climb to approximately 10 kilometers altitude and then descended horizontally toward the landing site. It appeared to lose control as it was in the process of flipping back to a vertical position and exploded as it bellyflopped onto the landing pad. Watch a replay of the test flight.