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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Swarm Technologies was co-founded by Sara Spangelo, who is now a SpaceX senior director of satellite engineering and is helping lead SpaceX’s direct-to-smartphone expansion.
SpaceX acquired small satellite operator Swarm Technologies in 2022 and intends to build on that acquisition for mobile services and IoT connectivity.
SpaceX launched 40 OneWeb broadband satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket on 2022-12-08.
NASA prohibited SpaceX from competing for the SLD competition because SpaceX had won a $2,900,000,000 Human Landing System contract in April 2021 to develop a lander based on Starship.
NASA finalized an Option B award for SpaceX on 2022-11-15 valued at $1,150,000,000 to modify its Starship design for later sustainable missions and conduct a second demonstration mission.
Starshield will build satellite buses to support the most demanding customer hosted-payload missions.
Starshield will launch satellites with sensing payloads and deliver processed Earth observation data directly to the user.
SpaceX participated in the U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency missile-tracking and missile-detection constellation and partnered with Leidos to develop four classified infrared sensor satellites scheduled to launch before the end of the year.
SpaceX has launched approximately 3,500 first-generation Starlink satellites and recently received licensing approval to deploy Gen2 spacecraft.
Some advanced Starshield capabilities are contingent on SpaceX deploying second-generation Starlink satellites that will be larger and designed with performance features and higher levels of encryption than the first-generation service.
SpaceX revealed a new business segment called Starshield on 2022-12-02 aimed at U.S. national security government agencies.
The FCC authorized SpaceX to launch 7,500 satellites of its proposed Gen2 Starlink constellation.
OneWeb completed encapsulation of all 40 satellites on SpaceX's rocket on 2022-12-02.
The FCC determined that its partial authorization for 7,500 Gen2 satellites does not increase the total number of satellites SpaceX is authorized to deploy compared to prior authorizations and slightly reduces that total.
SpaceX no longer plans to deploy a 2022-09-07,518-satellite V-band system that had previously been authorized by the FCC.
SpaceX planned to fill the lower orbital shells before completing the Gen2 system with the 604- and 614-kilometer shells.
SpaceX is slated to launch 40 OneWeb satellites as early as 2022-12-06 to complete almost 80% of OneWeb's low Earth orbit broadband constellation.
SpaceX sought permission for 19,440 Gen2 satellites in orbits between 340 and 360 km.
SpaceX's second-generation Starlink constellation received partial approval on 2022-12-01.
The three shells at 525 km/53°, 530 km/43°, and 535 km/33° were the first shells SpaceX planned to populate in Gen2 deployment.