Latest news with #Starship
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Video Shows Large Crane Collapsing at Safety-Plagued SpaceX Rocket Facility
Elon Musk's Texas Starbase is still reeling from its latest Starship explosion. Now, it has a crane collapse to deal with too. As eagle-eyed Starbase watchers flagged in a livestream from earlier this week, one of the cranes at the site of the explosion — which was, according to CBS News 4, powerful enough to be picked up by weather radar — collapsed in a heap in the middle of the day. "This has always been one of my biggest fears in every industry I've worked in," tweeted Zack Golden, the SpaceX fan who noticed the collapse on a livestream from LabPadre, a fancam site that records the Boca Chica, Texas facility. "I hope everything is alright." Though there's some speculation online suggesting that the crane had been lifting the carcass of the exploded Starship when it collapsed, it's not clear that's been established for certain. We've reached out to SpaceX and LabPadre to ask if there's any additional information or video to be shared about what happened there — and, more importantly, whether anyone was hurt in the process. Last week's Starship explosion didn't just release a massive fireball and impact local weather radar in South Texas, but also, as the Associated Press reports, resulted in large pieces of debris landing in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas. In its aftermath, the AP notes, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum is investigating what international laws the Musk-owned company might have broken when the wreckage breached international borders. "There is indeed contamination," Sheinbaum claimed during a daily news briefing that also saw her threatening to file "the necessary lawsuits" once her country's probe is complete. The facility that lives on a beach near the newly-incorporated company town of Starbase has long been plagued by safety issues ranging from debris showers from prior Starship failures and is the leading site of hundreds of recorded injuries at the company, per a Reuters investigation from 2023. While there have been no reported injuries in this most recent Starship explosion, we won't be sure that the cleanup effort has continued that record unless SpaceX gets back to us — and we'll be sure to update if that occurs. More on Starbase: Latest Starship Explosion Drastically Decreases SpaceX's Chances of Reaching Mars Without Having to Wait Years Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Elon Now Facing the Possibility That SpaceX Will Never Get Starship Working
SpaceX is nine full-scale test launches into developing its enormous, nearly 400-feet-tall Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built. Over the last two and a half years, we've seen over half a dozen spectacular explosions. Two launches earlier this year sent massive streaks of debris hurtling over the Turks and Caicos Islands, prompting airspace closures. Its most recent test in May ended in an uncontrolled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico after helplessly spinning on its axis and suffering fuel leaks. The stakes are incredibly high for the Elon Musk-led space firm, which has garnered a reputation for its unusually aggressive iterative design philosophy. Its billionaire founder has made Starship the key component of his endeavor to send humans to Mars, and it also happens to be the linchpin of SpaceX's future plans for its Starlink satellite network — the major driver of revenue, on which he's staking the company's future — which will require the launching of thousands of satellites each year. But Starship's repeated test launch failures are forcing experts to ask tough questions about the super-heavy launch platform's actual viability, as New York Magazine reports. Will Starship ever get off the ground, do its job, and make it back down in one piece? What about NASA's plans to tap the rocket for its upcoming Moon landing? Could the project have been doomed from the start? "The question is not, 'Can you build an upper stage that is reusable with high-performance rocket engines?'" Reflect Orbital chief engineer Charlie Garcia told NYMag. "The question is, 'Can you do it cost-effectively, and can you do it with quick reusability turnaround?'" If Musk's characteristically boisterous predictions are anything to go by, Starship could have an extremely quick turnaround time between launches thanks to a "Mechazilla" tower that catches both its booster and upper stage. But history has already shown how reality could greatly diverge from those dreams. Case in point: NASA's Space Shuttle. "I remember reading a book in the 1970s about how the space shuttle would be flying every two weeks and cost low hundreds of dollars per pound to orbit," Paragon Space Development Corporation cofounder Grant Anderson told NYMag. "It never did that, obviously." SpaceX's latest Starship launch was seen by many as a step backward, even after previous failures. The company determined that a nitrogen tank in the ship's nosecone had failed, in contrast to the times its predecessors gently lowered themselves into the ocean. Flight 7 and 8 also both experienced issues around the same time in their respective launches, prompting concerns. "If you have a failure at the same stage twice for the same reason, and they can't solve the problem, that's an indication that there's a design flaw that's more than just an 'Oops!'" Anderson told NYMag. All eyes will be on SpaceX in the coming weeks. Musk has promised that the next Starship test launch — the tenth overall — will take place sometime in early August. Giving reassurance is the rocket's booster, which has repeatedly made it back to the launch pad in one piece after being caught by SpaceX's "chopstick" arms-wielding launch tower. Yet nobody knows how SpaceX's Starship will fare from here. Have the last couple of years been leading up to nothing, if critics are to be believed, or could Starship fulfill Musk's dreams of delivering humans to the Moon, Mars, and potentially beyond? SpaceX still has a lot to prove — and the time is quickly running out with each dramatic explosion. More on Starship: Video Shows Large Crane Collapsing at Safety-Plagued SpaceX Rocket Facility Solve the daily Crossword
USA Today
2 days ago
- Science
- USA Today
What are sounding rockets? NASA launch from New Mexico studies sun's mysterious chromosphere
States like Florida, Texas and California are no strangers to rocket launches, but spaceflights in New Mexico may often be overlooked. Here's what's happening in the desert. States like Florida, Texas and California are no strangers to routine rocket launches − but New Mexico? Spacecraft also sometimes get off the ground from the state. Space news coverage may be headlined by crewed missions to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral or SpaceX's latest test of its enormous Starship spacecraft from the Lonestar State. But in the oft-overlooked state of New Mexico, smaller rockets often get off the ground from a NASA test site in the remote desert. The latest of the spacecraft, known as sounding rockets, most recently made a successful quick trip to space to study one of the most complex regions of the sun's atmosphere following a New Mexico launch. Here's everything to know about sounding rockets and the latest NASA mission from New Mexico near the Texas border. NASA launches sun-studying mission from White Sands, New Mexico The latest sounding rocket mission in New Mexico got off the ground around 3 p.m. local time Friday, July 18, at NASA's White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, located near the border of Texas about 60 miles north of El Paso. Residents in the local area around White Sands may have been able to spot the sounding rocket and its contrail when it launched, a NASA spokesperson confirmed to USA TODAY. The mission was expected to last no more than about 15 minutes, NASA said in a press release. After launching, the sounding rocket took about 90 seconds to reach space and point toward the sun, another eight minutes to conduct the experiment on the chromosphere, and no more than five minutes to return to Earth's surface. Upon landing, the rocket was expected to drift between 70 to 80 miles from the launchpad so mission operators on the ground could ensure it would land safely in the large, empty desert, according to NASA. What are sounding rockets? NASA's sounding rocket program has for more than 40 years carried out missions to launch scientific instruments into space. Sounding rockets are much smaller than an average spacecraft that may launch on an orbital flight from major spaceports like the Kennedy Space Center in Florida or the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Southern California. NASA's fleet of sounding rockets range anywhere in height from about 16 feet tall to about 70 feet tall. The Black Brant IX, the sounding rocket selected for the most recent launch from New Mexico, stands nearly 60 feet tall. For comparison, SpaceX's famous two-stage Falcon 9 rocket – one of the world's most active for both human and cargo missions alike – stands at 230 feet tall when fully stacked. And the commercial spaceflight company's Starship megarocket, which is still in development, stands at an imposing 400-feet tall when both the crew capsule and Super Heavy rocket booster are integrated. Because of their diminutive stature, NASA says soundings rockets are ideal for quick trips at lower speeds to regions of space that are too low for satellites and other spacecraft to conduct observations. And because sounding rockets don't require expensive boosters, missions costs also tend to be substantially less than other orbiter missions, according to the space agency. Where does NASA launch sounding rockets? Missions occur in Virginia, Alaska, New Mexico Of the approximately 20 sounding rocket missions scheduled in the U.S. in 2025, most get off the ground from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. Occasionally, though, a sounding rocket will launch from a missile range at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. Prior to July 18, the most recent mission at White Sands came Nov. 23, 2024, when NASA launched a Black Brant IX sounding rocket to test a spacecraft's performance in Earth's low-density magnetosphere. The next sounding rocket mission is scheduled for Aug. 12 from Wallops Island in Virginia, according to NASA. Spacecraft studied solar chromosphere For the latest mission from White Sands, a Black Brant IX sounding rocket carried new technology to study the sun's mysterious chromosphere, located between the sun's visible surface, known as the photosphere, and its outer layer, the corona. The corona, which became widely visible from Earth in April 2024 during a total solar eclipse, is a region where powerful solar flares and coronal mass ejections can erupt to cause space weather that can disrupt Earthly technologies. NASA's SNIFS mission aimed to learn more about these events by observing how energy is converted and moves through the chromosphere to power such explosions. The mission was the first to carry technology combining a standard imager to capture photos and videos with a spectrograph, which dissects light into its various wavelengths, according to NASA. This reveals which elements are present in the imaged light source. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Elon Musk's SpaceX to launch 400+ satellites in bold push to transform Alaska's internet connectivity
Elon Musk's startup company SpaceX on Friday added 24 new Starlink satellites to its orbital network on a launch from California, expanding its global network to over 7,900 satellites. The launch, which occurred shortly after sunset, marked the addition of these satellites to the company's growing constellation. Identified as Starlink 17-3, the mission was executed using the Falcon 9 rocket , which lifted off from the Space Launch Complex 4 East at precisely 8:52 p.m. PDT. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had confirmed that his company would launch the 10th test flight of Starship in approximately three weeks, making it the fourth launch of the year for the fully reusable mega-rocket. 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Know the big changes from August 1 by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Lara Green Is Retiring - Her Final Jewelry Pieces Are 80% Off Artisan Weekly Read More According to the company's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 8:52 p.m. local (11:52 p.m. EDT or 0352 GMT on July 19) from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base. At about nine minutes into the flight, the booster's upper stage delivered the two dozen satellites to space. The flight was on track to deploy the Starlink spacecraft into low Earth orbit an hour later, the report said. Live Events SpaceX rocket launch The Falcon 9 first stage booster being used on this mission, tail number B1082, launched for a 14th time. Its previous missions include NROL-145, USSF-62 and OneWeb #20. A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1082 landed on the droneship, 'Of Course I Still Love You.' This marked the 141st booster landing on this vessel and the 477th booster landing to date. SpaceX is also launching satellites into polar orbits to improve connectivity in Alaska and high-latitude regions. By the end of 2025, SpaceX plans to launch more than 400 more such satellites, doubling the opportunities for northerners. — Starlink (@Starlink) In an update posted to its Starlink website on Monday, July 14, SpaceX said part of its plan to further scale up its Starlink network, it planned to deploy hundreds of satellites into a polar orbit to improve connectivity in polar regions, like Alaska. ALSO READ: Tyler, the Creator drops surprise album 'Don't Tap the Glass': You won't believe his jaw-dropping fortune 'We plan to launch more than 400 additional satellites to the polar inclination by the end of 2025 alone, which will more than double the capacity for Alaskan customers alone, as well as other high latitude locations,' SpaceX wrote. 'The first of these additional satellites have begun to serve Alaskan users already, nearly doubling median peak-hour download speeds over the past month.' With the latest launch on Friday (designated 17-3), SpaceX has now deployed over 7,965 active Starlink satellites out of the more than 9,200 launched since 2019. The Starlink network provides broadband internet in areas with limited or no connectivity, and also supports direct-to-cell service for select phones and carriers. The reference to the first satellite in this series ties back to the Starlink 17-1 mission on May 27, which also utilized booster B1082 and deployed 24 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into a 97-degree-inclined polar orbit. SpaceX's plans to place over 400 satellites into this polar orbit by year's end indicate a major emphasis on West Coast launches. Achieving this target will require at least 16 launches, each carrying 24 or more satellites. Following Friday night's launch, SpaceX is shifting its focus to a NASA rideshare mission, which will carry the agency's TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) payload into orbit.
Economic Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Elon Musk's SpaceX to launch 400+ satellites in bold push to transform Alaska's internet connectivity
AP SpaceX's plans to place over 400 satellites into this polar orbit by year's end indicate a major emphasis on West Coast launches Elon Musk's startup company SpaceX on Friday added 24 new Starlink satellites to its orbital network on a launch from California, expanding its global network to over 7,900 satellites. The launch, which occurred shortly after sunset, marked the addition of these satellites to the company's growing constellation. Identified as Starlink 17-3, the mission was executed using the Falcon 9 rocket, which lifted off from the Space Launch Complex 4 East at precisely 8:52 p.m. PDT. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had confirmed that his company would launch the 10th test flight of Starship in approximately three weeks, making it the fourth launch of the year for the fully reusable mega-rocket. ALSO READ: 460,000 student loan borrowers to be kicked off from repayment plan? Know the big changes from August 1According to the company's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 8:52 p.m. local (11:52 p.m. EDT or 0352 GMT on July 19) from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base. At about nine minutes into the flight, the booster's upper stage delivered the two dozen satellites to space. The flight was on track to deploy the Starlink spacecraft into low Earth orbit an hour later, the report said. The Falcon 9 first stage booster being used on this mission, tail number B1082, launched for a 14th time. Its previous missions include NROL-145, USSF-62 and OneWeb #20. A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1082 landed on the droneship, 'Of Course I Still Love You.' This marked the 141st booster landing on this vessel and the 477th booster landing to is also launching satellites into polar orbits to improve connectivity in Alaska and high-latitude regions. By the end of 2025, SpaceX plans to launch more than 400 more such satellites, doubling the opportunities for northerners. In an update posted to its Starlink website on Monday, July 14, SpaceX said part of its plan to further scale up its Starlink network, it planned to deploy hundreds of satellites into a polar orbit to improve connectivity in polar regions, like Alaska. ALSO READ: Tyler, the Creator drops surprise album 'Don't Tap the Glass': You won't believe his jaw-dropping fortune 'We plan to launch more than 400 additional satellites to the polar inclination by the end of 2025 alone, which will more than double the capacity for Alaskan customers alone, as well as other high latitude locations,' SpaceX wrote. 'The first of these additional satellites have begun to serve Alaskan users already, nearly doubling median peak-hour download speeds over the past month.'With the latest launch on Friday (designated 17-3), SpaceX has now deployed over 7,965 active Starlink satellites out of the more than 9,200 launched since 2019. The Starlink network provides broadband internet in areas with limited or no connectivity, and also supports direct-to-cell service for select phones and carriers. The reference to the first satellite in this series ties back to the Starlink 17-1 mission on May 27, which also utilized booster B1082 and deployed 24 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into a 97-degree-inclined polar plans to place over 400 satellites into this polar orbit by year's end indicate a major emphasis on West Coast launches. Achieving this target will require at least 16 launches, each carrying 24 or more Friday night's launch, SpaceX is shifting its focus to a NASA rideshare mission, which will carry the agency's TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) payload into orbit.
