SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies Corp., founded in 2002, is an American space technology company and a dominant launch provider. It designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft, including the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Dragon spacecraft, and Starship. SpaceX partners with organizations like NASA and the United States Armed Forces and is known for its advancements in reusable launch vehicles, human spaceflight, and satellite constellation technology like Starlink. Key words: launch provider, reusable rockets, space exploration, Starlink, Falcon, Dragon, Starship, NASA.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
SpaceX’s Starship vehicle reached space on its second integrated test flight on 2023-11-18 but broke apart late in its ascent.
The Starship/Super Heavy vehicle lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas at about 8:03 a.m. Eastern on 2023-11-18.
The Federal Aviation Administration will oversee a SpaceX-led mishap investigation following the 2023-11-18 launch failure.
SpaceX plans to use Starship to launch full-sized V2 Starlink satellites that are more capable than the smaller Starlink satellites currently launched on Falcon 9 rockets.
SpaceX implemented well over a thousand changes to the vehicle between the 2023-04-01 and 2023-11-18 flights.
SpaceX improved ground infrastructure at the Boca Chica launch pad after exhaust damage sent debris as far as 10 km from the pad.
The Super Heavy first stage’s 33 engines carved a crater beneath the launch mount during the first flight test, which SpaceX spent months repairing and upgrading.
SpaceX delayed the second flight test of a fully integrated Starship by 24 hours from 2023-11-17 to replace a grid fin actuator on the launch stack.
The Government Accountability Office determined that SpaceX required 16 launches overall for a Starship lunar lander mission in its rejection of protests by Blue Origin and Dynetics of the Starship HLS award in 2021.
SpaceX will perform Starship launches from both its current pad in Boca Chica, Texas and a pad under construction at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A to support a lunar lander for Artemis 3.
SpaceX scheduled the second integrated Starship flight test to launch from its Starbase site near Boca Chica, Texas.
Scout-1 is the first in Quantum Space’s family of sensing vehicles and is scheduled to launch on the SpaceX Transporter 10 mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida no earlier than March 2024.
SpaceX launched JUPITER 3 on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Northrop Grumman is providing the ASBM satellites for a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch slated 2023 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
Open Cosmos’ satellites MANTIS and PLATERO reached orbit on SpaceX’s Transporter-9 mission launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
SpaceX received final regulatory approvals on 2023-11-15 allowing the company to proceed with the second integrated Starship/Super Heavy launch as soon as the morning of 2023-11-18.
SpaceX planned a launch no earlier than 2023-11-17 pending regulatory approvals.
SpaceX scheduled liftoff for a two-hour window that originally opened at 8 a.m. Eastern before delaying the launch to 2023-11-18 to repair a fin actuator.
SpaceX is teaming up with T-Mobile in the United States to deploy direct-to-smartphone services using upgraded broadband satellites in the Starlink constellation.
AST SpaceMobile is spending $5,000,000 more on its first commercial direct-to-smartphone satellites so SpaceX can launch them early next year to a different orbital inclination.