Independent analyses have shown that reusable launch vehicle elements have to be capable of reuse ten times, with minimal refurbishment, to make the economics of launch reusability work. While SpaceX had shown the technical feasibility of recovery and reuse...
Rockets-to-electric-cars entrepreneur Elon Musk may be a multi-billionaire but that does not mean that everything is going to plan. For while his SpaceX rocket firm is going from strength to strength, Musk’s Tesla electric car business has yet to make a profit, even...
The 362kg Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) satellite was launched for NASA by a SpaceX Falcon 9v1.2 FT Block 4 rocket. The Cape Canaveral launch which occurred at 2251 GMT on 18 April 2018, took the satellite into a long elliptical transfer orbit on its...
The Dragon CRS-14 cargo craft was launched by a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 4 on its way on a NASA funded delivery mission to the International Space Station. The launch took place at 2030 GMT on 2 April 2018 from the rocket’s Cape Canaveral launch site in Florida....
At 1413 GMT on 30 March, a Falcon 9 v1.2 Block 4 rocket lifted off from the Vandenberg launch site in California carrying 10 Iridium NEXT satellites for the Iridium Communications firm which are in the process of replacing the original Iridium constellation...
DigitalGlobe, the satellite imaging firm owned by Maxar Technologies (previously known as MDA – MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd) has awarded SpaceX a contract to launch the WorldView Legion satellite imaging constellation. The initial block of the...
