SpaceX and Virgin Galactic: countdown to the era of commercial space flight – The Verge The Verge is about technology and how it makes us feel. Founded in 2011, we offer our audience everything from breaking news to reviews to award-winning features and investigations, on our site, in video, and in podcasts. 2024-12-07T13:00:00+00:00 https://www.theverge.com/rss/stream/2799935 https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/verge-rss-large_80b47e.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1 Georgina Torbet <![CDATA[The end of the ISS will usher in a more commercialized future in space]]> https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/7/24314191/iss-end-2030-commercial-space-station-mars-moon 2024-12-07T08:00:00-05:00 2024-12-07T08:00:00-05:00

Sometime in 2030, astronauts will pack up their belongings, turn out the lights, and depart the International Space Station (ISS) for the last time. The trajectory of this grand old structure will be adjusted, putting it further into the path of Earth's atmosphere over the next year, and then a specially designed deorbit vehicle attached to the station will perform one long reentry burn, pushing the station down into the atmosphere.

As the station hits the atmosphere at thousands of miles per hour, first the structure's giant solar arrays and radiators will be ripped off; then each of the modules will separate; and finally, the truss struc …

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]]> Sam Byford <![CDATA[SpaceX’s near-miss barge landing is even more dramatic in this alleged GoPro footage]]> https://www.theverge.com/2015/4/17/8439109/spacex-falcon-9-barge-landing-video 2015-04-17T00:57:56-04:00 2015-04-17T00:57:56-04:00

Tuesday saw SpaceX come agonizingly close to landing its reusable Falcon 9 rocket on a barge at sea, and the released footage (below) made the failed attempt seem somehow serene; the rocket drifts into view and floats onto its target like a sycamore seed before toppling over in slow motion.

But in this unverified new video (above), which appeared on Reddit and allegedly came from a GoPro camera mounted on the barge itself, the explosive reality of the events are thrown into sharp relief. You can see how the rocket overcompensates for its off-balance approach before meeting a fiery end as it comes down on the barge. SpaceX is making big adva …

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]]> Russell Brandom <![CDATA[SpaceX’s landing barge is now at sea — and ready to be hit by a rocket]]> https://www.theverge.com/2015/1/5/7495389/spacex-has-launched-the-landing-barge-for-tomorrows-rocket-test 2015-01-05T15:06:15-05:00 2015-01-05T15:06:15-05:00

SpaceX is gearing up for its next big launch. According to a tweet from Elon Musk, SpaceX's drone spaceport ship has left the dock and headed to its hold position in the Atlantic Ocean. Tomorrow, the company will launch its Falcon 9 rocket and attempt to land it on the 30,000 square-foot ship, with engineers attempting a landing accuracy of 10 meters on each side. SpaceX is the first company to attempt a rocket landing of this scope, although it has never successfully carried one out. In August, a Falcon 9 exploded in mid-air during a similar test flight over MacGregor, Texas.

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]]> Elizabeth Lopatto <![CDATA[Elon Musk may be getting into the satellite business]]> https://www.theverge.com/science/2014/11/7/7175407/elon-musk-may-be-getting-into-the-satellite-business 2014-11-07T16:17:04-05:00 2014-11-07T16:17:04-05:00

Elon Musk, the chief executive of automotive company Tesla - which reported a $75 million loss earlier this week and delayed, again, its Model X SUV - is considering global internet satellites as his next venture, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Musk is exploring a partnership with Greg Wyler, founder of WorldVu Satellites Ltd, to launch about 700 satellites, The Wall Street Journal says. The satellites would weigh less than 250 pounds, which is about half the size of the smallest current satellites used commercially for communication. The current largest fleet is about 10 times smaller. The effort may cost $1 billion or more, and the pro …

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]]> Adi Robertson <![CDATA[Around 20 people cancel Virgin Galactic flights after last week’s crash]]> https://www.theverge.com/2014/11/6/7167485/around-20-people-cancel-virgin-galactic-flights-after-october-crash 2014-11-06T11:21:26-05:00 2014-11-06T11:21:26-05:00

Last week's fatal Virgin Galactic spaceship crash has cost the company about 20 of its 700 potential customers. According to the South China Morning Post, the company confirmed that it had seen cancellations from roughly 3 percent of the would-be space tourists on its waitlist. After the crash, which killed co-pilot Michael Alsbury and injured pilot Peter Siebold, company founder Richard Branson said that Virgin Galactic will continue to work towards its commercial launch goals, although the company will not "push on blindly" and will figure out the exact nature of the problem to make sure it couldn't happen again. Its normal website has been …

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]]> Chris Ziegler Elizabeth Lopatto <![CDATA[Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo crashes during test flight]]> https://www.theverge.com/2014/10/31/7139527/virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo-suffers-anomaly-in-flight 2014-10-31T14:19:52-04:00 2014-10-31T14:19:52-04:00

Today one test pilot died when Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo crashed in the Mojave desert. A second pilot was evacuated to a hospital.

It's not clear why the crash occurred. SpaceShipTwo had been undergoing testing ahead of commercial flights. The spacecraft launches from the belly of the larger WhiteKnightTwo, once that cargo aircraft has reached cruising altitude similar to a normal airplane. Once SpaceShipTwo separates, it functions as a glider with a rocket motor. WhiteKnightTwo's takeoff occurred at 9:20 a.m. local time; SpaceShipTwo was released at 10:10. At 10:12, the ground crew became aware of an "inflight anomaly."

"From my eyes a …

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]]> Adi Robertson <![CDATA[Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin partners with Boeing and Lockheed Martin to reduce dependence on Russian rockets]]> https://www.theverge.com/2014/9/17/6328961/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-partners-with-united-launch-alliance-for-new-rocket 2014-09-17T13:25:03-04:00 2014-09-17T13:25:03-04:00

Blue Origin, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' commercial space company, has partnered with the United Launch Alliance to develop a new rocket engine called the BE-4, set to make its first flight in 2019. United Launch Alliance, or ULA, is a joint venture by defense contractor Lockheed Martin and aerospace company Boeing, which recently won one of two contracts to develop a spacecraft capable of shuttling astronauts to the ISS. ULA's Atlas and Delta lines of rockets are used by both NASA and the US military, but it's been criticized for using Russian-built rocket engines, especially after sanctions were declared earlier this year. ULA said this summer t …

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]]> Adi Robertson <![CDATA[Boeing and SpaceX get NASA contracts to take astronauts to the ISS]]> https://www.theverge.com/2014/9/16/6219069/boeing-and-spacex-get-nasa-contracts-to-take-astronauts-to-the-iss 2014-09-16T16:10:35-04:00 2014-09-16T16:10:35-04:00

Boeing and SpaceX have received contracts to develop a new fleet of American spacecraft for NASA. The companies will spend the coming three years and $6.8 billion ($4.2 billion for Boeing and $2.6 billion for SpaceX) in funding from the agency working towards certifying their ships to carry astronauts to the International Space Station, a goal they're expected to hit in 2017. Boeing will work with its CST-100 capsule, while SpaceX - a younger company founded by Tesla entrepreneur Elon Musk - will continue to test its own Dragon capsule. NASA will oversee a series of performance tests for both companies, including a test flight with a single …

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]]> Josh Lowensohn <![CDATA[SpaceX Falcon 9 test vehicle explodes during ‘particularly complex’ Texas test flight]]> https://www.theverge.com/2014/8/22/6058469/spacex-falcon-9-rocket-explodes-during-texas-test-flight 2014-08-22T20:39:48-04:00 2014-08-22T20:39:48-04:00

SpaceX's rocket program suffered a setback today, with one of its three-engine Falcon rockets exploding in mid-air during a test flight in McGregor, Texas. The company says it triggered the action after onboard systems detected that something was wrong. Nobody was injured, local Central Texas news station KXXV reports.

According to SpaceX, the Falcon 9-R Dev 1 test rocket's systems detected "an anomaly" that led to an automatic termination of the test. A company spokesperson added that it's analyzing the data for more information on what the anomaly was, and how it occurred. "With research and development projects, detecting vehicle anomali …

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]]> Ben Popper <![CDATA[Elon Musk’s SpaceX reportedly raising $200 million in funding at $10 billion valuation]]> https://www.theverge.com/2014/8/19/6044555/elon-musks-spacex-raising-funding-10-billion-valuation 2014-08-19T10:54:26-04:00 2014-08-19T10:54:26-04:00

The company that Elon Musk hopes will some day carry him to Mars has been making big strides in recent months, winning contracts to provide the rockets that ferry public and private satellites and other equipment into space. As NASA looks to limit it new launches and collaboration with Russia breaks down, SpaceX is filling the void. Today TechCrunch reports that the company is in talks to raise $200 million in new funding, an investment that would value it at more than $10 billion dollars.

That may sound like a huge amount of money, but it's pretty much par for the course in the red hot Silicon Valley market we're experiencing these days. U …

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