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.
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SpaceX operates the Starlink broadband constellation in low Earth orbit and is seeking to provide connectivity directly to mass market phones.
The 2023-04-02 and 2023-09-02 Tranche 0 launches were performed under a 2020-12-01 $150,000,000 contract that the Space Development Agency awarded to SpaceX.
The 13 Tranche 0 spacecraft launched 2023-09-02 included two missile-tracking sensor satellites made by SpaceX.
SpaceX is seeking regulatory permission in the United States for additional spectrum that could be used for a mobile Starlink satellite service, including frequencies in the 1.6 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands used by Globalstar.
Globalstar contracted SpaceX to launch Apple-backed satellites in 2025 to replenish its low Earth orbit connectivity constellation.
SpaceX has additional launch opportunities at 11:12 p.m. ET (03:12 UTC on 2023-09-01) and 11:29 p.m. ET (03:29 UTC on 2023-09-01).
SpaceX is targeting Friday, 2023-09-01 at 7:26 a.m. PT (14:26 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s second Tranche 0 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
SpaceX was targeting Thursday, 2023-08-31 at 7:26 a.m. PT (14:26 UTC) for the Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s second Tranche 0 mission from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base.
SpaceX is targeting Thursday, 2023-08-31 at 10:21 p.m. ET (02:21 UTC on 2023-09-01) for a Falcon 9 launch of 22 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The 77-page complaint devotes a section to the history of the rivalry between Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and between Blue Origin and SpaceX, including Blue Origin’s protest of a NASA lunar lander contract won by SpaceX in 2021.
The installed antennas in Greenland are aligned with a new satellite recently launched by SpaceX and operated by Hispasat.
NASA’s original commercial crew contract with SpaceX, awarded in 2014, initially included six operational missions, has been extended twice, and now covers 14 missions.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance docked with the zenith port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module at 9:16 a.m. Eastern on 2023-08-27.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon spacecraft Endurance on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 2023-08-26 at 3:27 a.m. EDT.
As of late July, SpaceX’s rideshare website listed no openings for launching a single smallsat before mid-2025.
SpaceX’s first integrated Starship/Super Heavy launch on 2023-04-20 failed about four minutes after liftoff when several Raptor engines in the Super Heavy booster shut down and the vehicle later lost control and tumbled.
Starlink V2 Mini satellites began deployment in February 2023 while SpaceX awaits Starship capability to launch full-scale Starlink V2s.
Transporter-8, SpaceX’s eighth dedicated rideshare mission, included 72 payloads for deployment into a sun-synchronous orbit on 2023-06-12.
SpaceX conducted a static-fire test of the Raptor engines in Super Heavy booster Booster 9 at its Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas at approximately 1:35 p.m. Eastern on 2023-08-25.
SpaceX delivered a report on the 2023-04-20 failure to the Federal Aviation Administration earlier in the month.