Category Archives: Spacex

If a recent SpaceX rocket photo has you seeing double, you're not alone.

A Twitter post Monday (Jan. 31) shows two Falcon 9 rockets on their pads at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and the nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, ahead of their respective launches.

One photo captures both rockets under a twilight sky of deep orange. In the foreground is a Falcon 9 atop Pad 39A at NASA's KSC, which is expected to launch no earlier than Tuesday (Feb. 1). In the background is a separate Falcon 9 rocket carrying an Italian Earth observation satellite called Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 satellite.

That rocket is set to launch tonight (Jan. 31) at 6:11 p.m. EST (2311 GMT) after four delays. It's sitting atop the Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral. You'll be able to watch the launch here, courtesy of SpaceX, beginning about 15 minutes before launch time.

Related: The evolution of SpaceX's rockets in pictures

A second SpaceX photo reverses the view, with the Falcon 9 at SLC-40 in the foreground and the Starlink-packed booster in the background at KSC. That photo, apparently taken at a different time over the weekend, shows the two rockets under a pristine blue Florida sky.

While both launches have been delayed, the Starlink flight is largely waiting for SpaceX to launch the Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 satellite. The Starlink Falcon 9 rocket is going to launch 49 more Starlinks to add on to SpaceX's constellation of nearly 2,000 operational satellites. It is scheduled to launch no earlier than Tuesday at 2:17 p.m. EST (1917 GMT) from NASA's Launch Complex 39A.

Both SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets have flown several missions before. Their first-stage boosters are also expected to return to Earth for landings on either a land-based pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station or an offshore drone ship so they can be used again.

SpaceX operates its two Florida launch pads under agreements signed with the agency and Air Force earlier in the decade, as both entities sought to turn the Cape launch facility into a "multi-user spaceport for both federal and commercial customers," according to a 2014 release.

SpaceX also launches human missions using Launch Pad 39A, including Crew Dragon missions for the International Space Station and the Inspiration4 all-civilian mission of 2021 that rocketed four people to Earth orbit. The next crewed launch from KSC is expected in April 2022, for the Crew-4 mission.

SpaceX also has a third Falcon 9 launch site in California at the Vandenberg Space Force Base. There is yet another Falcon 9 rocket there awaiting its own mission, SpaceX has said.

A Falcon 9 rocket will launch the classified NROL-87 payload from Vandenberg on Wednesday (Feb. 2). That mission is scheduled to lift off at 3:18 p.m. EST (2018 GMT).

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter@howellspace. Follow uson Twitter@Spacedotcomand onFacebook.

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SpaceX double vision: These photos show two Falcon 9 rockets on their pads for back-to-back launches - Space.com

Update for 11 am ET: SpaceX's Dragon CRS-24 cargo ship has successfully undocked itself from the International Space Station's Harmony module at 10:40 a.m. EST today and will return to Earth on Monday, Jan. 24. Read our full wrap story here.

SpaceX latest Dragon cargo ship is expected to undock from the International Space Station today (Jan. 23) after two days of delays due to bad weather at its landing site and you can watch it live online.

The Dragon CRS-24 cargo ship is scheduled to undock from the space station at 10:40 a.m. EST (1540 GMT) today. You can watch it live on this page beginning at 10:15 a.m. EST (1515 GMT), courtesy of NASA TV..

The Dragon was previously scheduled to leave the station Saturday for a Monday splashdown, but bad weather at potential splashdown locations in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast prevented the departure, according to SpaceX.

"SpaceX and NASA have waived off today's planned departure of an upgraded SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft due to high winds in the splashdown zones at the Gulf," NASA spokesperson Sandra Jones said during a NASA TV update Saturday.

Related: Live updates from the International Space Station

There will be no live coverage of SpaceX's Dragon splashdown, though it is expected to occur either late Monday or early Tuesday, weather permitting. Updates on splashdown will come through NASA's space station blog and SpaceX's Twitter page.

The Dragon cargo ship will return nearly 5,000 pounds (2,267 kilograms) of science to Earth when it splashes down, including a "cytoskeleton" that uses cell signaling to understand how the human body changes in microgravity. A 12-year-old light imaging microscope that is being retired after more than a decade of use studying the structure of matter and plants in orbit is also on board.

The capsule was originally targeting Friday to undock and Saturday to splash down, but the procedure was delayed by a day due to poor weather conditions for returning. If the Dragon had undocked Saturday morning, it would have splashdown in the wee hours of Monday, according to NASA.

The Dragon spacecraft blasted off on its cargo mission, called CRS-24, Dec. 21 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and delivered both science and a set of early Christmas presents to the orbiting complex two days later.

Dragon is the only cargo ship that can fly scientific experiments back to researchers on Earth, as all other such spacecraft burn up in the atmosphere during re-entry. Dragon is often used to carry back biological samples that must be transferred to a scientific facility quickly; splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean will allow for rapid transfer of samples to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in coastal Florida, east of Orlando.

Members of the Expedition 66 crew have been packing up and organizing Dragon supplies for at least the last two weeks, according to NASA's space station blog, including swapping out science freezer components that will host the precious refrigerated science samples.

Editor's note: This story was updated to reflect the 24-hour weather delay for SpaceX's Dragon CRS-24 spacecraft undocking at the International Space Station.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter@howellspace. Follow uson Twitter@Spacedotcomand onFacebook.

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SpaceX Dragon cargo ship to depart space station today after weather delay. How to watch it live. - Space.com

Rendering of a SpaceX Starship in flight.

The US Air Force is enlisting Elon Musk's help in developing a way to deliver military supplies and humanitarian aid via SpaceX rockets.

The company has signed acontract with the US Department of Defense worth over $102 million to provide point-to-point transit for cargo via space.

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The contract, awarded Friday, falls under the Air Force Research Laboratory's rocket cargo program, which aims to take advantage of the falling price of heavy launch capabilities that SpaceX and other companies have brought to the market in recent years.

Program manager Greg Spanjers told SpaceNewsearlier this week that the military is "very interested in the ability to deliver the cargo anywhere on Earth to support humanitarian aid and disaster relief."

The contract doesn't specify which SpaceX rocket or vehicle the initiative will utilize. SpaceX has used its Falcon 9 rocket and Falcon Heavy (which is made up of three Falcon 9 boosters) for military missions in the past, but Musk has made clear that he views Starship as the vehicle of the future.

SpaceX didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Now playing: Watch this: SpaceX Starship is preparing for its first orbital flight

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NASA has contracted with SpaceX to use Starship for upcoming moon missions and Musk hopes to use the next-generation spacecraft to continue growing the Starlink broadband satellite constellation. The billionaire founder has also suggested that Starship could be used for point-to-point commercial passenger flights around the world, much like what the Air Force contract is looking for, but with humans instead of cargo.

That vision of international flights via space relies on a network of spaceports around the world to launch and land. But Spanjers told SpaceNews that the Air Force is looking to explore ways to land at more "austere sites" in potential disaster zones.

It's not clear when we might see a first demonstration flight under the program. Spanjers added that other launch providers may be awarded similar contracts down the line.

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SpaceX signs a deal to rocket military cargo around the world - CNET

Mission accomplished! On January 13, 2022, our Flock 4x, consisting of 44 SuperDove satellites, was successfully launched into orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. These 44 satellites will join our existing fleet of roughly 200 satellites in orbit. We were thrilled to launch once again with SpaceX, who has now brought to orbit a total of 127 Planet satellites across eight launches. This marks our first launch with SpaceX under our new multi-year, multi-launch rideshare agreement signed in 2021.

We were able to establish contact with all of the SuperDove satellites, many within two minutes of the final deployment, upholding our record of successfully connecting with 100% of all Planet satellites launched. Our constellations provide daily insights about the Earths resources and global events. With the latest addition of 44 SuperDove satellites, our PlanetScope product will continue to offer our customers satellite data captured from the latest and strongest technology. We use just-in-time manufacturing to ensure we can continually innovate the technology onboard our spacecraft before shipment to the launch site.

To date, we have built and launched the largest fleet of Earth observation satellites in history. Our fleet of both medium- and high-resolution satellites have collected an unprecedented amount of earth observation data over the last 10 years, creating a deep stack of 1,700 images on average for every spot on the Earths landmass. This allows our customers to not only get the most up-to-date image of their preferred area of interest, but also gives them an extensive set of training data to build artificial intelligence models on.

Our teams are fast at work on the next satellites and data services to come. Stay tuned!

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44 SuperDove Satellites Successfully Launch on SpaceX Falcon... - planet.com

SpaceX is providing Starlink satellite kits to areas hit hard by last Fridays tornadoes that will help people get access to the internet. It is also providing routers to provide WiFi capabilities.

The kits provide dishes that link to SpaceX Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbits, which provide internet services and WiFi directly.

These kits will be supplied to Graves County, Marshall County, Caldwell County and Bowling Green through a coordinated effort with SpaceX, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.

Twenty kits were brought into the UK Cooperative Extension office in Paducah on Wednesday, and 30 to 40 more have been requested by the state.

Austin Marshall, a native of Possum Trot who is a material flow engineer for SpaceX in Redmond, Washington, was one of the people to deliver the first of the kits to the Extension office in Paducah.

Marshall is a former 4-H member and reached out to the UK Cooperative Extension office to help with distribution.

I like coming back home, but I wish the circumstances were better, he said. Im the one who put it all together. I saw there was a need.

This is what were doing, is building a satellite internet constellation. Its in Beta right now; were testing it out in the northern latitudes of North America and other countries. This is the first time its been in Kentucky, and they just turned on this area because of the disaster.

Marshall contacted Brittany Osborne, the Agent for 4-H Youth Development at the Paducah Extension office.

The UK Cooperative Extension Service has an office in each of the affected Kentucky counties, Osborne said. This effort just makes sense and empowers us even more to do what we do best to help our neighbors and communities.

The Starlink kits will remain in the affected areas for two months. If they are needed longer than that, the teams will reassess the situation.

The dish portion of the kit is angled to best receive signals from the SpaceX Starlink satellite in low-Earth orbit.

To maximize reach, the University of Kentucky is working closely with Kentucky Emergency Management and Connected Nation, a nonprofit that provides tools and resources to help local communities, states and federal agencies create and implement solutions for their broadband and digital technology gaps.

We are so grateful that Starlink has provided this connectivity to our hard-hit communities, said Laura Stephenson, associate dean and Extension director for the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, adding 4-H creates lifelong servant leaders, and this is a great example of how 4-Hers answer the call to help, even after they leave our system.

Follow David B. Snow on Twitter, @SunWithSnow, or on Facebook at facebook.com/sunwithsnow.

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SpaceX provides kits to boost internet capabilities in hard-hit areas - Paducah Sun

After several signs of imminent activity on Sunday, SpaceX has installed Super Heavy Booster 4 (B4) on Starbases lone orbital launch mount for the third time.

Around 10am CST (UTC-6), SpaceX began retracting more than a dozen clamps that hold the 69m (~225 ft) tall Super Heavy the largest booster ever built to its transport and work stand. By 11:30am, Booster 4 was safely extracted from the stand and hovering above it as the lift team crossed their Ts and dotted their Is before proceeding. SpaceXs newest Starbase crane then spun around and crawled a short distance to the orbital launch mount, where it lifted Booster 4 above the mount.

In a process that this particular Super Heavy prototype is thoroughly familiar with, SpaceX then very carefully lowered B4 down into the center of the donut-shaped orbital launch mount, where 20 separate clamps each capable of deploying and retracting form a support ring and giant hold-down clamp.

Its unclear how exactly that process of mount installation works but it could be quite the orchestration. By all appearances, Super Heavy hold-down clamps mechanical devices designed to hold the booster to its work stand or keep it immobile on the launch mount during a variety of test work by reaching inside the lip of the boosters aft skirt, which sports a very sturdy ring of steel that 20 Raptor Boost engines mount to and push against. The 20 clamps fit precisely between each of those 20 outer Raptors and grab onto Super Heavy from the inside.

Just before liftoff, all 20 hold-down clamps will rapidly retract back into the orbital launch mount. So will another 20 small quick-disconnect umbilical panels designed to supply every single Raptor Boost engine with the gases they need to ignite. The primary booster quick-disconnect which connects Super Heavy to power, communications, and propellant supplies will also retract into a hooded enclosure at some point during the process. Finally, a giant, swinging arm located about halfway up Starbases launch tower will retract a similar quick-disconnect panel for Starship fueling, retract two claw-like support arms, and swing back for liftoff.

Altogether, while there are likely even more than just those described above, a single Starship launch will require at least 44 separate devices to successful actuate in rapid and precise succession 41 for Super Heavy and at least 3 for Starship. That incredible complexity probably making Starships the most mechanically complex launch mount in the history of rocketry may partially explain why Super Heavy Booster 4 has yet to even attempt a single proof test more than four months after it first left the high bay it was built in.

Without a functioning orbital launch mount, it hasnt been possible to fully test a Super Heavy booster. With any luck, on their third rendezvous, both Booster 4 and the orbital launch mount are finally close enough to completion to perform some serious testing. At the absolute minimum, everything appears to be in order for SpaceX to properly connect Super Heavy to the launch mount and pad for the first time the process of which is already underway. Aside from connecting B4 to the mounts hold-down clamps, which has been done twice before, SpaceX can now attach all 20 Raptor quick-disconnects and the main booster quick-disconnect to a Super Heavy for the first time. Further up the tower, SpaceX can also partially test out the Starship quick-disconnect arm, which is half-designed to grab onto and stabilize Super Heavy.

SpaceX currently has road closures (signifying plans for ship, booster, or pad testing) scheduled on Tuesday through Friday this week, hinting at the possibility that Super Heavy B4 could finally start proof testing in mid-December.

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SpaceX installs Starship booster on orbital launch mount for the third time - Teslarati

MCGREGOR, Texas In a letter on Monday, McGregor Mayor Jim Hering updated citizens on the added noise and shaking originating from SpaceX, explaining the noise will likely be "at its worst" over the next two to three weeks.

The letter breaks down the reasoning for the added noise and states that the city council is working alongside SpaceX to resolve the issue.

SpaceX has transitioned from testing Merlin engines to Raptor engines, which has required changes to its testing protocol. A new, vertical test stand is currently being built to replace a horizontal test stand responsible for the extra noise.

"SpaceX has informed the Council that they are pushing to complete the second vertical test bay as soon as possible to further reduce the noise. This will take some time though and a significant sum of SpaceX money," Hering said.

Last week, Hering told 25 News the city would begin working with SpaceX immediately to resolve the issue. He plans to speak with SpaceX sometime this week.

Hering also credited the weather to some of the added noise as of late.

"Some of the experts will tell you that the atmospheric changes that come along with wintertime amplify some of these low-frequency waves that everyone's hearing, seeing, feeling," he said.

Many Central Texans are optimistic that SpaceX will follow through with its plans to fix the noise and shaking.

"Sometimes when there's a problem, it doesn't get solved immediately. Sometimes it does take some time to get things figured out in order to correct it," said Jackie Toby, owner of Vibe Market on Main in McGregor.

25 News has continued to reach out to SpaceX for comment since last Wednesday but has not heard back.

Those with concerns are asked to contact SpaceX directly at communityrelations@spacex.com.

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McGregor Mayor: SpaceX noise will likely be 'at its worst' for 2 to 3 more weeks - KXXV News Channel 25

Homegrown edtech startupByjus is now the 13th most valuable start-up in the world, as per CB Insights latest unicorn tracker.

The Byju Raveendran-owned decacorn is currently valued at $21 billion, which also makes it the worlds most valuable edtech start-up. Byju's is succeeded by Chinese edtech major Yuanfudao, which has a valuation of $15.5 billion.

The Bengaluru-based start-ups rise has been particularly impressive in the last 20 months, where education went digital-first due to the compulsions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, Byju's not only ramped up its user base and saw rapid growth in revenues, it also made a slew of acquisitions world over (8 this year) and raised billions of dollars in venture capital.

According to CB Insights, Byju's has raised funding of over $5.18 billion since its inception in 2015. Of this, $1.3 billion has come in 2021 alone.

The e-learning firm is backed by leading investors such as Tiger Global, General Atlantic, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Tencent Holdings, Sequoia Capital India, Sofina, Qatar Investment Authority, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Lightspeed Venture Partners, Owl Ventures, among others.

Interestingly, no other Indian start-up features in the list of top 50. A distant second at the 54th position is OYO (valued at $9.4 billion). CB Insights does not consider publicly listed companies as unicorns. Hence, the likes of Paytm, Nykaa, and Zomato (each valued at over $10 billion) dont feature.

Unicorn Map of the World

As of December 2021, there are 936 unicorns (private companies valued at over $1 billion) globally, with a cumulative valuation of $3,049 billion.

The US accounts for 51% of all unicorns in the world, CB Insights stated. China holds second place with an 18.1% share, while India claims the third spot with a 5.4% share after adding a staggering 40 unicorns in 2021. The UK, meanwhile, is home to 4% of the worlds unicorns.

Fintech is the most highly represented category on our list, accounting for slightly over a fifth of all unicorns (20.4%). It is followed by internet software & services (17.8%), e-commerce and direct-to-consumer (10.9%), and Artificial Intelligence (7.8%), CB Insights stated in its report.

TikTok parent ByteDance continues to be the worlds most valuable unicorn at $140 billion, while Elon Musks SpaceX became a hectocorn (companies valued over $100 billion) in 2021. The spacetech giant is now valued at $100.3 billion.

US fintech major Stripe ($95 billion), Swedish e-payments firm Klarna (45.6 billion), and Australia-based design SaaS sensation Canva ($40 billion) make up the remainder of the worlds top 5 most valuable start-ups, as per CB Insights.

Others in the top 10 are Instacart ($39 billion), Databricks ($38 billion), Revolut ($33 billion), Nubank ($30 billion), and Epic Games ($28.7 billion).

Forty-two private companies (4.5% of total unicorns) are considered decacorns, worth $10B+. Meanwhile, 24.6% of companies included in the global unicorn club are valued at exactly $1B, CB Insights stated.

It added, Since September 2021, the unicorn club has grown in size by 11% from 842 to 936 unicorns. At this rate, it is likely to break 1,000 by early 2022.

Also read: India has second largest number of unicorns; Sequoia top investor, says PwC India report

Also read: Sachin Tendulkar invests in Spinny; also appointed brand ambassador

Also read: Good Glamm Group acquires MissMalini Entertainment in its first personality-driven brand acquisition

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Byjus worlds 13th most valuable start-up; ByteDance and SpaceX the only hectocorns - Business Today

December 9, 2021

Tim Farrar of TMF Associates says the recent breathless valuations for SpaceX (ranging from between $80 billion to $100 billion) are inconsistent. He says the quoted company valuations have near-tripled over the past year, and with SpaceXs share price albeit privately held rising from about $200 per share to $560 over the same period, hence the $100 billion overall valuation.

Farrar says: There is a distinct inconsistency between what SpaceX has been telling the FCC about Elon Musks stake in the company and the amount of dilution implied by sales of new shares at these prices. Specifically, SpaceX told the FCC in November 2016 that Musk owned 54 per cent of the company, which declined to 50.5 per cent in November 2018, 47.4 per cent in April 2020 and finally 43.61 per cent in August 2021.

Over this period, SpaceX reported selling a total of $5.31 billion in equity, based on its Form D submissions to the SEC. Using the public reports on the share price for the transactions through April 2021 (before the

equity raise of $345 million), I calculate that this represents approximately 22.4 million shares, which increased the share count from a little over 154 million shares to just under 177 million shares, he adds.

However, if the valuations and share prices quoted to financial reporters are accurate, Musks stated ownership percentage over the same period would have equated to 83.4 million shares in November 2016, 80.3 million shares in November 2018, 78.9 million shares in April 2020 and 77.2 million shares in August 2021. Did Musk really dispose of his SpaceX shares on a regular basis over this period? That seems unlikely, especially given that he had minimal taxable income in 2017 and 2018, suggests Farrar.

Farrar analyses the share issues to take into account potential share options to staffers and suggests there is a missing 14 million shares over and above the numbers reported to the authorities. This, says Farrar, could mean that recent buyers of SpaceX stock might actually be over-paying for diluted values and suggest the unaccounted for number would be equal to some 7 per cent.

In addition, says Farrar, the most recent (October 2021) reported valuation of $100.3 billion at a $560 share price appears to reflect an increase of around 2.1 million shares since spring 2021. How much of that amount (worth $1.2 billion at this valuation) represents the shares used to acquire Swarm in August 2021? Although part of this increase might represent conversion of some of the options noted above (since SpaceX was selling 1.35 million existing shares), it seems very plausible that a significant proportion of these shares went to Swarms owners, which would represent a very high valuation (many hundreds of millions of dollars) for a company that had barely begun to offer commercial services.

Swarm Technologies is the company behind a fleet of sandwich-sized Internet of Things (IoT) satellites that has been graded as one of the 10 Hottest Satellite Companies in 2021. SpaceX acquired Swarm according to an FCC filing in August 2021. Swarm is now a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of SpaceX.

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Analyst: The mystery of SpaceX's value | - Advanced Television

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Elon Musk is CEO of four companies, but says he splits most of his time between Tesla and SpaceX.

Musk said at The Wall Street Journal conference that his time is typically spent solving the "crisis of the moment."

In the past, Musk has said he's worked as many as 120 hours a week between his various projects.

Elon Musk said he's constantly juggling his work at Tesla and SpaceX.

As the richest man in the world and the CEO of multiple companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, Musk said he tries to split his time evenly between the two companies, but it depends on "the kind of crisis of the moment."

"I triage the tasks and try to do the things that are most useful or where I'm most needed it varies from one week to the next," he said on Monday at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council Summit.

Musk said that he works seven days a week and some "pretty crazy hours." Historically, the CEO has said he has worked up to 20 hours a day. In 2018, Musk said on the podcast Recode Decode that his work at Tesla and SpaceX sometimes drove him to sleep on his factory's floor and work over 120 hours a week. Though, the CEO said later that year that he scaled back to 80 to 90-hour work weeks.

"Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week," Musk said at the time.

Most recently, Musk has had to focus his attention on a "crisis" at SpaceX. During The Wall Street Journal conference, Musk said that SpaceX's Starship spaceship has consumed a large portion of his time.

In November, Musk said that SpaceX planned to launch Starship into orbit by January or February. On Monday, Musk expressed doubt as to whether Starship would be able to launch in 2022 at all.

"This absorbs more of my mental energy than probably any other single thing," he said. "It is so preposterously difficult, that there are times where I wonder whether we can actually do this."

Musk expressed concern over SpaceX's progress with the engines for the Starship rocket last month. Over Thanksgiving weekend, Musk sent a company-wide email saying SpaceX faces a "risk of bankruptcy" if it cannot achieve a flight rate for its Starship rocket of at least once every two weeks in 2022. As a result, Musk and SpaceX employees worked over the holiday weekend to fix the engine-production issue.

Story continues

Tesla and SpaceX are not the only companies in which Musk is heavily involved. The billionaire is also the CEO of Neuralink, a company that is developing implantable brain chips, and The Boring Company, a tunnel-construction company.

Much like Tesla and SpaceX, Musk's other two companies also have lofty goals. Musk has said that he plans for Neuralink to begin implanting chips in human brains within the next year. Similarly, The Boring Company is working on multiple hyperloop projects in Las Vegas and California.

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Elon Musk says he splits his time between Tesla and SpaceX depending on the 'crisis of the moment' - Yahoo News