The U.S. Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office on March 9 awarded task orders worth a total of $385 million to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) for four upcoming launches, Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) said in a statement.
SpaceX’s March 3 high-altitude test of a full-scale Starship prototype managed a soft landing—unlike two previous test vehicles—but then exploded 3 min. after touching down at the company’s facility in Boca Chica Beach, Texas.
SpaceX delivered 60 more of its Starlink broadband satellites into orbit on Feb. 16 though it lost the first stage booster during a failed landing attempt, breaking its string of 24 successful touchdowns.
NASA on Feb. 9 awarded SpaceX a $331 million contract for Falcon Heavy launch and support services to send the first two modules of its planned Gateway outpost toward lunar orbit.
The Transporter-1 mission lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10 a.m. on Jan. 24 following a one-day delay due to weather.
Following its record-setting 26 launches in 2020, SpaceX kicked off the new year with delivery of the Turksat 5A broadband satellite into orbit on Jan. 7.
An upgraded SpaceX cargo Dragon 2 capsule reached orbit on Dec. 6 with 3.2 tons of equipment and supplies for the International Space Station (ISS), including a new commercially owned and operated airlock module.
SpaceX has marked its 100th Falcon 9 launch with a record seventh reflight of a first-stage booster, a mission that increased the company’s burgeoning Starlink broadband network to more than 950 satellites.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 15, sending a Crew Dragon spacecraft with four astronauts on its way to the International Space Station, the first U.S. government-certified flight of a commercially developed crewed orbital transportation system.
The U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA) awarded L3Harris and SpaceX contracts to each build four satellites for detecting and tracking ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
SpaceX sent a batch of 60 Starlink satellites into orbit on Sept. 3 as the company looks toward public beta rollout of high-speed internet service this year.
SpaceX is sticking by its lawsuit against the U.S. military for its decision not to award it one of three design and development contracts awarded two years ago, saying the decision has inflicted “substantial harm” on the company.
The U.S. national security space agencies will remain with incumbents United Launch Alliance and SpaceX for medium and heavy-lift launch services over the next five years
A prototype Mars-class reusable spaceship developed by SpaceX took a nearly 500-ft (150 m) hop off a launch stand near Brownsville, Texas, on Aug. 4, marking the company’s first successful Starship test flight in a year.
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken praised the NASA/SpaceX team behind their test flight and expressed hope the public/private partnership continues to thrive.
The House Armed Services Committee proposes investing $150 million in space technology development in the chairman’s mark of the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill.
Four days after launching astronauts for a flight test of its commercial space taxi, SpaceX fired off another Falcon 9 rocket to resume building out its Starlink satellite network for high-speed internet service.
“Things worked exactly the way we expected them to work," Demo-2 astronaut Doug Hurley said. " It’s a pretty awe-inspiring trip so far, pretty humbling,”
“I’m very confident that we’ll continue to fund NASA and fund NASA aggressively,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said shortly after SpaceX's Demo-2 mission successfully docked with the International Space Station.
The 3:22 p.m. liftoff marked SpaceX’s first launch with people aboard and the first U.S. human orbital launch since the final STS-135 shuttle mission in July 2011.
With preparations for SpaceX’s first human spaceflight drawing to a close, the company's President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell talks with Aviation Week & Space Technology space editor Irene Klotz about lessons learned for Starship and plans for the rollout of Starlink.
