SpaceX

SpaceX Launch Certification to Face Review by Pentagon Watchdog

The Air Force’s certification of SpaceX in 2015 allowed the company take on military payloads, bringing competition to the field of space launches that was dominated by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between top defense contractors Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. At the time, Musk said he was getting into the launch business in part to end a monopoly on military space launches.

https://www.industryweek.com/leadership/spacex-launch-certification-face-review-pentagon-watchdog

SpaceX’s next Falcon Heavy reaches milestone as third booster arrives in FL

A new SpaceX rocket was spotted traveling into Florida yesterday on its way to one of the company’s several Cape Canaveral booster storage and processing hangars. More likely than not, this particular booster is the second Falcon Heavy center core ever built, a heavily modified variant of Falcon 9’s first stage.

With the presumed center core’s arrival, all three Falcon Heavy boosters are now at or near SpaceX Launch Complex 39A, a major step forward for the second flight of the super heavy-lift launch vehicle, currently NET March 2019. Aside from the first stage, it appears that Falcon Heavy Flight 2’s payload fairing may have also arrived at Cape Canaveral around the end of January.

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-milestone-three-boosters-arrive-in-florida/

The “Impossible” Tech Behind SpaceX’s New Engine

The full-flow staged combustion engine is often considered the “Holy Grail” of rocketry, as it promises to extract the most possible energy from its liquid propellants. In a field where every ounce is important, being able to squeeze even a few percent more thrust out of the vehicle is worth fighting for. Especially if, like SpaceX, you’re planning on putting these new full-flow engines into the world’s largest operational booster rocket and spacecraft.

But what makes full-flow staged combustion more efficient, and why has it been so difficult to build an engine that utilizes it? To understand that, we’ll need to first take a closer look at more traditional rocket engines, and the design paradigms which have defined them since the very beginning.

https://hackaday.com/2019/02/13/the-impossible-tech-behind-spacexs-new-engine/

SpaceX protests NASA launch contract award

SpaceX has filed a protest over the award of a launch contract to United Launch Alliance for a NASA planetary science mission, claiming it could carry out the mission for significantly less money.

The protest, filed with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) Feb. 11, is regarding a NASA procurement formally known as RLSP-35. That contract is for the launch of the Lucy mission to the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter, awarded by NASA to ULA Jan. 31 at a total cost to the agency of $148.3 million.

https://spacenews.com/spacex-protests-nasa-launch-contract-award/

SpaceX job posts confirm Starship’s Super Heavy booster will be built in Texas
https://www.spacex.com/careers

A duo of SpaceX job postings at the company’s South Texas facilities have confirmed that both Starship and Super Heavy “flight article” vehicles will initially be fabricated and assembled on-site in Boca Chica, also implying that the rocket’s first orbital launch attempts will occur in the same vicinity.

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-job-openings-starship-super-heavy-booster-texas-production/

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says that BFR could cost less to build than Falcon 9

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk believes that there may be a path for the company to ultimately build the massive Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster (formerly BFR) for less than Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy, a rocket 3-9 times smaller than BFR.

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-ceo-elon-musk-says-that-bfr-could-cost-less-to-build-than-falcon-9/

Can some one explain to me why Space X is using Nasa's facilities and Nasa just quite all together. For a while Russia was sending everything up because we just stopped. I know they say Colombia disaster (conversion of metric to imperial??) was it but I dont buy it. Alien leaders telling governments what to do?

SpaceX is in the phases of constructing their own launch facilities. The one in Boca Chica, Texas is halfway done, so in the mean time NASA and the Air Force has the only facilities for such a launch.

Space X also has a contract with NASA and the Air Force to launch satilites with there re-usable rocket systems for the time being as well.....

SpaceX will be launching the ILI Moon Lander Friday night from Florida on top of a re-used Falcon9 block 5 rocket.

Sweet that should be interesting, guess China got them worried already since they landed there rover there not to long ago........

Elon Musk for president.....

doublejj said:

Elon Musk for president.....

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LOL... prolly would be better than the choices so far right now.......

he would prolly be the one who actually puts ion thruster and a minature nuke reactor in space before to long for long space travel....if that idea hasn't been thought of yet....

BudmanTX said:

he would prolly be the one who actually puts ion thruster and a minature nuke reactor in space before to long for long space travel....if that idea hasn't been thought of yet

Click to expand...

The guy is wigged out! Look at the ideas he had already. Relaunching space vehicles into outer space several times. Unheard of till he said, 'Lets try this out'. I'm still thinking of driving down south to his Texas launch pad to watch his rockets take off from there.

might not be a bad drive to see that.......he'll prolly land them in the same area too.....

SpaceX Will Launch Its 1st Crew Dragon for NASA Soon! How to Watch It All Live.

Next week, SpaceX is poised to make history with the first-ever test flight of a private spaceship built to carry astronauts into orbit. That Crew Dragon Demo-1 mission won't carry astronauts, but it will be the first launch of a spacecraft built for humans from U.S. soil since 2011 and you can watch it all live.

https://www.space.com/how-to-watch-spacex-crew-dragon-demo-1-mission.html

Falcon 9 launches Nusantara Satu mission and Falcon 9 first stage landing

NASA gives SpaceX the okay to launch new passenger spacecraft on uncrewed test flight

It’s official: the first uncrewed flight of SpaceX’s new passenger capsule, the Crew Dragon, is set to launch on March 2nd out of Cape Canaveral, Florida. Both NASA and SpaceX agreed to move forward with the flight today after doing a full day of reviews, determining that the vehicle was ready to see space and travel to the International Space Station. If the capsule successfully makes it to orbit, SpaceX will be one crucial step closer to putting the first humans on board its spacecraft.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/22/18236771/nasa-spacex-dragon-commercial-crew-dm-1-test-flight