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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The next SpaceX commercial crew mission, Crew-5, was delayed in July when the Falcon 9 booster that will launch the mission was damaged during transport from California to Texas for testing.
NASA extended its Commercial Crew Transportation Capabilities (CCtCap) contract with SpaceX on 2022-08-31, adding five missions for $1,440,000,000.
Axiom Space contracted SpaceX as the launch provider for transportation to and from the International Space Station for Ax-2.
A solar storm in February 2022 caused SpaceX to lose around 40 of its satellites.
SpaceX is slated to launch Galaxy 33 on or about 2022-10-08.
SpaceX received permission from the Federal Communications Commission on 2022-06-30 to provide Starlink services to boats, aircraft, and vehicles on the move.
Pixxel launched its first satellite as part of SpaceX’s April Transporter-4 payload.
Hawaiian Airlines has a deal to offer Starlink services on transpacific flights to and from Hawaii in 2023.
SpaceX Dragon delivered the experiment named 16 Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE-16) to the International Space Station on 2022-07-16.
T-Mobile is providing a slice of its 1.9 GHz spectrum in the United States under its partnership with SpaceX.
SpaceX unveiled direct-to-cell plans on 2022-08-25 in a partnership with T-Mobile that, subject to regulatory approvals, would connect phones beyond the reach of cell towers in the United States as soon as next year.
The 2 GHz and 1.9 GHz frequencies targeted for direct-to-cell services would likely transmit from the same antenna that SpaceX’s upgraded Starlink satellites would use to connect directly to cell phones in the 1.9 GHz band.
SpaceX has separate FCC approval to deploy 7,500 low Earth orbit satellites operating in V-band.
SpaceX was previously required to deploy nearly two-thirds of its Ku-band and Ka-band constellation between 1,100 and 1,300 km.
A U.S. appeals court upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s decision on 2022-08-26 to let SpaceX deploy more satellites at lower altitudes to improve the Starlink broadband constellation’s performance.
Viasat opposes SpaceX’s request for FCC approval to operate a second-generation constellation of nearly 30,000 satellites that would operate between 340 and 614 km in low Earth orbit on environmental grounds.
Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and spaceflight analyst, estimates that nearly two-thirds of the 4,408 satellites SpaceX has permission to deploy in Ku-band and Ka-band are currently in orbit.
The FCC’s decision allows SpaceX to operate all its approved Ku-band and Ka-band satellites at around 550 km above the Earth.
Brendan Carr estimated it would take in the neighborhood of $3,000,000,000 to extend high-speed fiber networks to the areas SpaceX had committed to connect via its RDOF subsidies.
SpaceX is due to announce a partnership with U.S. mobile operator T-Mobile at 8 p.m. Eastern from its Starbase test site in Texas regarding increased connectivity.