SpaceX

The Starship launch that destroyed its launch pad and scattered detritus for miles in Boca Chica, Texas in May reportedly left biologists for the Fish and Wildlife Service in private disbelief, reported Bloomberg yesterday.

We linked to the big Ronan Farrow profile of Elon Musk in the New Yorker earlier, but this part really caught my eye: Trump-appointed former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine decrying the government’s total reliance on SpaceX.

The New York Times reports that the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, FBI, and Air Force have issued a “broad warning” to firms like SpaceX and Blue Origin saying to look out for foreign actors, like Chinese and Russian intelligence agencies, who they believe are trying to infiltrate their networks and steal data.

SpaceX just tested the first stage Super Heavy booster and its new flame deflector system for protecting the launch pad from the destruction experienced during the May Starship orbital test flight.

The New York Times has a deep dive into Starlink, the internet satellites deployed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX — and how they’ve become crucial to communication in war zones like Ukraine.

The US Space Force’s SLD 45 unit says a 10:20PM Falcon 9 launch and a 11:04PM Falcon Heavy one could be the quickest back-to-back Earth to orbit launches in the Eastern Range (via CNBC). The launches would beat NASA’s Gemini 11 mission in 1966 which launched two rockets one hour and 37 minutes apart.

The top telecom provider will be using Elon Musk’s network of over 3,500 low-Earth SpaceX satellites to augment coverage by the end of 2023. The “world’s first offering” bundles voice and fixed broadband service, installation, and tech support.

That’s SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk’s assessment of the potential success of its next Starship flight, according to Ars Technica. The last flight ended explosively.

The Washington Post reports regulators have hit Elon Musk’s Boring Company with multiple complaints over careless, unpermitted work in Bastrop County, Texas.

A little over a month after Starship obliterated its launchpad and went kablooey before it reached stage separation, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that it will be ready again in about two months, pending launchpad upgrades and rocket testing.

Vice used FOIA requests to uncover some key emails between SpaceX and the FAA.

Axiom Space launched Ax-2 today, the second of four planned private missions to the space station. Of the four people on this trip (a seat reportedly costs about $55 million), mission commander Peggy Whitson is the most experienced, with three previous trips to the ISS under her belt and 665 days in space, more than any other American astronaut.

Rejoice lovers of space internet, SpaceX’s Starlink service has abandoned plans to implement hard data caps and overage fees that had already been delayed multiple times. Users are still subject to an acceptable use policy, so play nice with your “unlimited data.”

This picture, apparently posted to a forum for Beechcraft airplane owners, claims to show the damage underneath the tower where Starship launched on Thursday.

SpaceX’s official word on the flight test and explosion:

A van holding cameras for the NASASpaceFlight crew took the impact of debris kicked up by SpaceX’s Starship launch yesterday, as seen in this grab from LabPadre’s broadcast.

We don’t know why the first Starship test flight ended in flames, but this shot posted on Twitter by Michael Baylor provides the clearest look at the spacecraft as it started to go off the planned flight path.

After years of waiting, the first orbital test flight for SpaceX’s Starship ended explosively after a few minutes. Now Elon Musk says in a tweet that the team “Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.”

Another look at the Starship launch.

We know how it ended, but this is how the flight test began.

That’s one way to describe the end of Starship’s first test flight. On the NASA Spaceflight stream, those who were present described it as a primarily auditory experience, so even the videos and GIFs may not capture whatever just happened.

The flight test didn’t make it all the way to Hawaii as projected, but it did clear the tower. From the streams, we could see some of the booster’s engines shutting down before it went into a spin, and eventually, the flight was terminated, as the craft blew up just a couple of minutes into the test flight.

The first SpaceX Starship orbital test flight is on its way.

No word on why or for how long, but the Starship launch isn’t happening just yet. The flight director announced a hold, which SpaceX’s broadcast previously noted could occur for up to 15 minutes or so; we’ll update once we have more details.

The countdown continues to tick away, and we haven’t heard of any issues that will stop today’s Starship flight test.

No word on any wayward boats or aircraft, and SpaceX seems to think they’ve got the valve issue that scrubbed Monday’s attempt figured out, so we may see the Starship test launch attempt today.

If you’re watching the NASA Spaceflight stream, you’ll see even more exhaust coming from the spacecraft, as its Raptor engines are chilled in preparation for launch.

Elon Musk and SpaceX’s rocket launch plans for the “Starbase” at Boca Chica, TX, have had opposition for quite a while. Still, in light of today’s Starship flight test attempt and the recent FAA license issued, some folks have revisited the possible environmental impact.

No notes about weather this time.

As noted by the NASA Spaceflight folks, SpaceX continues to check off items on the pre-launch list, now fueling the Starship prototype itself.

With an hour-plus to go until the Starship launch window opens at 9:28AM ET, you still have time to check out our story and video about the SpaceX superfans who literally moved just to follow the company’s developments in Texas and who have been waiting for (what might happen) today as eagerly as anyone.

Another alternative to the main video feed for the Starship test launch is SpaceX’s own Mission Control Audio stream. For official communications, first, this is the one you want, however, it comes without visuals and, as the caption mentions, “There may be very long periods of silence.”

More fuel going in.