SpaceX

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Apparently, the women advising folks to "look up" didn't get the memo. That is the one that advised people not to look up.


/sarcasm

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SpaceX Starship Roadmap Lower Launch Costs by 100 Times
January 20, 2025 by Brian Wang

Falcon Heavy by SpaceX has a cost per kilogram to LEO of approximately $1,400 per kg. This figure reflects the cost-effectiveness achieved through partial reusability and high payload capacity.


A single use Super Heavy Starship and booster will be able to bring full payloads to orbit for about $250-600 per kilogram. This is with costs of about $90 million and reusable payloads of 200 tons and non-reusable payloads of 300-400 tons.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2025/01/s ... aunch.html

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SpaceX Hits 400 Landings Milestone for Recoverable First-Stage Rockets
The vast majority of successful launches and landings of SpaceX rockets have been of the Falcon 9, though that has taken several forms as SpaceX iterated upon the original design.
By Jon Martindale January 23, 2025
https://www.extremetech.com/aerospace/s ... ge-rockets

SpaceX has celebrated the 400th landing of its Falcon 9 boosters after just over nine years of attempts. This latest success saw a Falcon 9 rocket return to earth and touchdown on a SpaceX drone ship, while its payload of 27 Starlink satellites was sent on into orbit. The journey to the upper atmosphere and back again took the Falcon 9 first-stage booster just eight minutes in total, completing what has become a routine maneuver with its successful descent.

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SpaceX Version 3 Starship and Version 3 Starlink Both Arrive in 2025
February 2, 2025 by Brian Wang

SpaceX Starship V3 will be 20-30 meters taller with a proposed height of 140 to 150 meters. This increase in height is aimed at accommodating more propellant, thus increasing payload capacity. SpaceX could upgrade to Starship version 3 by November, 2025.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2025/02/s ... -2025.html

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Booster 15 Static Fire Test to Prepare for Starship Flight 8
February 9, 2025 by Brian Wang
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2025/02/b ... ght-8.html

SpaceX performed a static fire of Booster 15 for the eighth flight of Starship.

SpaceX has applied for a communications license from the FCC for Starship Flight 8 with a start date of February 24, 2025. Starship Flight 8 is expected to launch no earlier than February 24, 2025. However, the exact launch date could be influenced by various factors including regulatory approvals, vehicle readiness, and weather conditions.

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Record 1 Minute SpaceX Starship Static Fire
February 12, 2025 by Brian Wang
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2025/02/r ... -fire.html

SpaceX Starship had by far the longest static fire ever of about 1 minute. SpaceX upgraded the flame trench and other systems. This enables longer static fires. They can now test more conditions and stress systems in different ways.

The extended firing tested new hardware and cycled the six Raptor engines through multiple thrust levels to recreate different conditions seen within the propulsion system during flight. Data from the test will inform upgrades to the ship’s hardware and flight profile ahead of the next launch.

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Overnight SpaceX launch to use booster for record 26th flight
https://phys.org/news/2025-02-overnight ... light.html
by Richard Tribou

An overnight SpaceX launch planned for early Saturday will use a booster that's already flown to space 25 times.

A Falcon 9 is targeting 1:14 a.m. carrying 21 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveal Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 with backup options through 2:15 a.m. as well as a Sunday launch window opening at 12:41 a.m.

Space Launch Delta 45's weather squadron forecasts an 80% chance for good conditions at the launch site, which increases to 95% if delayed until Sunday.

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SpaceX aims for Wednesday Starship test flight after last-minute scrub
https://phys.org/news/2025-03-spacex-ai ... light.html
by Issam AHMED

Elon Musk's SpaceX is now aiming for Wednesday to conduct the next test flight of its massive Starship rocket, following a last-minute cancellation on Monday.

The world's biggest and most powerful launch vehicle is set to lift off from SpaceX's Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, during a launch window that opens at 5:30 pm local time (2330 GMT).

It will be Starship's eighth orbital mission—all so far uncrewed—and the first since its dramatic mid-air explosion over the Caribbean during its last test.

Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall—about 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty—Starship is designed to eventually be fully reusable and is key to Musk and SpaceX's vision of colonizing Mars.

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Eighth Test Launch of SpaceX's Starship Ends in Explosive Failure
by Jake Johnson
March 7, 2025

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) The eighth test launch of SpaceX's Starship, which billionaire CEO Elon Musk claims will be the spacecraft that eventually transports humans to Mars, ended Thursday in much the same way the seventh did: an explosive failure that sent toxic and polluting debris raining down from the sky.

"We are all in the debris field of a SpaceX mishap," remarked journalist Aaron Rupar after the spacecraft exploded just minutes following its lift-off from a launch site in Texas.

Reuters reported that "several videos on social media showed fiery debris streaking through the dusk skies near south Florida and the Bahamas after Starship broke up in space shortly after it began to spin uncontrollably with its engines cut off."

"The back-to-back mishaps occurred in early mission phases that SpaceX has easily surpassed previously, a setback for a program Musk had sought to speed up this year," the news agency added.

Musk, who is leading SpaceX while simultaneously spearheading a lawless effort to eviscerate the federal government and its workforce, wrote on his social media platform following the Starship explosion that "rockets are hard."

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/musk ... xplodes

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SpaceX set for 1st Space Coast launch since booster fire
https://phys.org/news/2025-03-spacex-1s ... oster.html
by Richard Tribou

SpaceX is set to send up late Monday its first Falcon 9 from Florida's Space Coast since a fire destroyed a booster after it landed.

This Falcon 9 booster is flying for the 22nd time, set to launch 21 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40, targeting an 11:21 p.m. Eastern time liftoff with backup options through 12:15 a.m. Tuesday and more opportunities starting at 10:48 p.m. Tuesday.

The booster will aim for a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

It would be the 21st launch on the Space Coast so far in 2025.

The 20th didn't have a perfect ending when the booster for another Starlink launch on March 2 from Cape Canaveral landed on the company's other East Coast-based droneship "Just Read the Instructions."