Posts Tagged: SpaceX
SpaceX loses another Starship and Super Heavy rocket in double explosion during test
SpaceX's second test flight of its Starship spacecraft — which it hopes will one day ferry humans to the moon and Mars — ended in an explosion Saturday morning minutes after taking off from the company's spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas. Starship launched just after 8AM ET atop a Super Heavy rocket, the largest rocket in the world.
Moments after completing stage separation, when the Super Heavy booster detached itself from Starship, the rocket's first stage exploded. Starship, however, continued on for several more minutes, surpassing the flight time of its predecessor. A faint explosion could be seen in the livestream around the 8-minute mark, and hosts confirmed soon after that they'd lost contact with the craft.
The booster experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly shortly after stage separation while Starship's engines fired for several minutes on its way to space
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 18, 2023
But, as with the last test that ended in an explosion, SpaceX is still billing it as a success. Kate Tice, one of the livestream's hosts and a quality engineering manager for SpaceX, said it was “an incredibly successful day, even though we did have a RUD — or rapid unscheduled disassembly — of both the Super Heavy booster and the ship. We got so much data and that will all help to improve for our next flight.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spacex-loses-another-starship-after-rocket-explodes-during-test-flight-143503845.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
SpaceX prepares for Starship’s second test flight after securing FAA clearance
SpaceX aims to send Starship to space for its second test flight on November 17, now that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has given it the clearance to do so. The company completed its next-generation spacecraft’s first fully integrated launch in April, but it wasn’t able to meet all its objectives, including having its upper stage fly across our planet before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the ocean near Hawaii. SpaceX had to intentionally blow up the vehicle in the sky after an onboard fire had prevented its two stages from separating.
Starship preparing to launch as early as November 17, pending final regulatory approval → https://t.co/bJFjLCiTbK pic.twitter.com/qRKv9ugWsR
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 11, 2023
According to federal agencies, debris from the rocket explosion was found across 385 acres of land on SpaceX’s facility and at Boca Chica State Park. It caused wildfire to break out on 3.5 acres of state park land and had led to a “plume cloud of pulverized concrete that deposited material up to 6.5 miles northwest of the pad site.” The FAA grounded Starship until SpaceX took dozens of corrective actions, including a vehicle redesign to prevent leaks and fires. As Space notes, the agency finished its safety review in September, but it still had to work with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to finish an updated environmental review of the spacecraft.
For now, the FAA has given SpaceX the license to fly Starship for one flight. The company will open the spacecraft’s two-hour launch window at 8AM EST on November 17, and if all goes well, Starship will fly across the planet and splash down off a Hawaiian coast as planned. Starship, of course, has to keep acing test flights before it can go into service. The fully reusable spacecraft represents SpaceX’s future, since the company plans to use it for missions to geosynchronous orbit, the moon and Mars.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spacex-prepares-for-starships-second-test-flight-after-securing-faa-clearance-035159364.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
SpaceX workers face above-average injury rates as Musk prioritizes Mars over safety, report finds
A Reuters investigation into unsafe working conditions at SpaceX has uncovered more than 600 injuries going back to 2014 that have not been publicly reported until now. Current and former employees cited in the report blame CEO Elon Musk’s aggressive deadlines and hatred of bureaucracy, alleging his goal of getting humans to Mars “as fast as possible” has led the company to cut corners and eschew proper protocols.
Injury rates at some SpaceX facilities are much higher than the industry average of .8 injuries or illnesses per 100 workers, Reuters found. At its Brownsville, Texas location, the 2022 injury rate was 4.8 per 100 workers. At the Hawthorne, California manufacturing facility, it was 1.8. In McGregor, Texas, where the company conducts rocket tests, the injury rate was 2.7.
Employees have suffered broken bones, lacerations, crushed fingers, burns, electric shocks and serious head wounds — including one that blinded Brownsville worker Florentino Rios in 2021 and another that left employee Francisco Cabada in a coma since January 2022. At SpaceX’s McGregor site, one worker, Lonnie LeBlanc, was killed in 2014 when wind knocked him off the trailer of an improperly loaded truck. Yet over the years, SpaceX has only paid meager fines as a result of its safety lapses. After LeBlanc’s death, the company settled with OSHA for $ 7,000, according to Reuters.
Reuters spoke to over two dozen current or former employees, as well as others “with knowledge of SpaceX safety practices.” One SpaceX ex-manager told Reuters that “workers take care of their safety themselves,” and others said employees were even told not to wear bright-colored safety gear because Musk does not like it. SpaceX has also repeatedly failed to submit injury data to regulators for much of its history, according to Reuters.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spacex-workers-face-above-average-injury-rates-as-musk-prioritizes-mars-over-safety-report-finds-224235095.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Elon Musk says his SpaceX shares would’ve funded his plan to take Tesla private
Elon Musk said he could've sold his SpaceX shares to take Tesla private when he took the witness stand again to defend his 2018 "funding secured" tweets in a lawsuit filed by the automaker's shareholders. According to CNBC, Musk proclaimed: "SpaceX stock alone meant 'funding secured' by itself. It's not that I want to sell SpaceX stock but I could have, and if you look at the Twitter transaction — that is what I did. I sold Tesla stock to complete the Twitter transaction. And I would have done the same here." He didn't say how many of his shares he'd have to sell, however, to be able to fund the transaction.
The plaintiffs' lawsuit is based on Musk's infamous 2018 tweets in which he said he was "considering taking Tesla private at $ 420." He even said that he already had "[f]unding secured." Musk first took the stand for this particular case last week to defend himself against the plaintiffs' accusations that the tweets he made cost them significant financial losses. Tesla's shares temporarily stopped trading after those tweets and remained volatile in the weeks that followed. He said at the time that just because he tweets something "does not mean people believe it or will act accordingly."
This time, Musk reiterated his previous claim that he had an agreement with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund to take Tesla private. He told the court that the country was "unequivocal" in its support of the transaction, which ultimately didn't go through. According to Bloomberg, the court discussed his communication and eventual falling out with Saudi fund governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan regarding the deal. A text exchange was reportedly presented to the jury, wherein Musk accused Al-Rumayyan of backing out of their handshake agreement. The Saudi official responded that he didn't have sufficient information to be able to commit to the buyout and called Musk's public announcement of their discussions "ill advised."
The plaintiffs' lawyer also asked Musk what many of us were probably wondering: If the $ 420 share price in his tweets was made as a joke in reference to marijuana. Apparently, it wasn't a joke, and he chose it "because it reflected about a 20 percent premium on Tesla's stock price." Musk is expected to testify again on Tuesday, so we'll likely hear more details about his failed bid to convert Tesla into a private entity.
As Bloomberg notes, the judge in this case had already determined that his tweets were "objectively false and reckless." However, the plaintiffs still have to prove that Musk knew his tweets were misleading and that his tweets caused their losses to win the case. Musk and Tesla previously had to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $ 20 million each to settle a separate lawsuit over the same tweets, accusing him of making "false and misleading statements" that could be constituted as fraud. The CEO said on the stand that he told the SEC about SpaceX and that the plaintiffs' lawyer "deliberately exclud[ed] that from jurors."
T-Mobile and SpaceX may announce something out of this world tomorrow but probably not
What do a carrier and a space rocket company have in common? We have no idea as yet but the mystery announcement tomorrow by T-Mobile and Elon Musk’s SpaceX could be out of this world, or at least noteworthy anyway. The announcement will be live-streamed from SpaceX’s Starbase at Boca Chica Beach in Texas. Whilst […]
Come comment on this article: T-Mobile and SpaceX may announce something out of this world tomorrow but probably not
Elon Musk tells SpaceX and Tesla workers they must return to the office full-time
Elon Musk delivered an ultimatum to Tesla and Space X’s corporate workforces: Spend a minimum of 40 hours a week in the office, or leave the company. Musk today confirmed in a tweet that screenshots of an email sent to workers was real. According to The New York Times, workers at both companies received similar memos from Musk that made clear that all workers must report to a main office for 40 hours a week. Musk also wrote that employees would no longer be allowed to work from “remote branch” offices not related to their job duties, giving the example of an HR worker for the Fremont factory who works out-of-state.
Elon to Tesla team: no more remote work pic.twitter.com/aSmZAAOm7G
— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) June 1, 2022
“The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence,” Musk said in a memo to SpaceX employees obtained by NYT. “That is why I spent so much time in the factory — so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, SpaceX would long ago have gone bankrupt.”
Musk taking a hardline stance on remote work is in stark contrast to a number of other major tech companies that have allowed all or most workers to request to work-from-home permanently, including Facebook, Twitter, Salesforce and Slack. Apple recently suspended a requirement that workers return to the office at least three days a week.
As Bloombergreported today, Twitter employees — who are likely to be reporting to Musk once his acquisition of the company is complete — have internally expressed some concern the SpaceX and Tesla remote work policies (or lack thereof) herald unwelcome changes for their own workplace.
Tesla’s career website still lists a number of salaried and hourly remote positions. It’s unclear whether the new policy will apply to those positions. Engadget has reached out to Tesla for comment, though we are unlikely to hear back: the company dissolved its corporate communications department in 2020.
FAA extends environmental review of SpaceX Boca Chica launch site (again)
SpaceX has to wait even longer to find out if it can launch Starship flights out of its Boca Chica facility in Texas. The US Federal Aviation Administration has delayed its decision on the environmental review of the launch site yet again, pushing back its target date of completion to April 29th. SpaceX must secure the FAA's approval, along with a vehicle operator license, to be able to launch Starship missions out of Boca Chica as planned.
To be exact, the agency is looking into whether launching the massive reusable vehicle out of the facility will have a significant environmental impact on the area and will be a threat to the safety of the public. Its original target date for completion was December 21st, 2021, but it pushed the date back to February 28th, 2022 and then again to March 28th. On the official page for the environmental assessment, the FAA said it's updating its target date to April 29th "to account for further comment review and ongoing interagency consultations." The FAA received 19,000 comments for the draft version of the review published last year.
SpaceX chief Elon Musk recently revealed that the company is hoping to send Starship into orbit for the first time in May. If the FAA finishes its review on time, and with a favorable result for the company, then there's a chance the launch could happen in a couple of months. It's worth noting, though, that Musk's timelines could be a bit too optimistic.
In case the Boca Chica site fails the FAA's environmental review or if the agency issues an environmental impact statement (EIS) to dig deeper into the company's plans over the next few years, then SpaceX could shift to its backup plan. During a Starship presentation earlier this year, Musk said SpaceX already has approval to launch the Starship from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The move would delay the vehicle's first flight by six to eight months, since the company has to build a launch tower on the launch site, but at least the wait wouldn't last for years.
SpaceX shows what a Starship launch would look like
Elon Musk has given SpaceX's first huge Starship update in years, and during his presentation, the company showed off what a launch with the massive launch system would look like. The Starship system is composed of the Starship spacecraft itself on top of a Super Heavy booster. SpaceX is working towards making it rapidly and fully reusable so as to make launches to the Moon and to Mars feasible. After making its way outside our planet, the booster will break off and return to its launch tower, where it will ideally be caught by the tower arms. As for the spacecraft, it will proceed to its destination before making its way back to Earth.
Musk said the booster will spend six minutes in the air over all, two upon ascent and four for its return trip. In the future, the system could be reused every six to eight hours for three launches a day. SpaceX says achieving a fully and rapidly reusable system is "key to a future in which humanity is out exploring the stars." Musk also talked about how in-orbit refilling — not "refueling," since the vehicle's Raptor engines use more liquid oxygen than fuel — is essential for long-duration flights.
The Super Heavy booster, Musk said, has more than twice the thrust of a Saturn V, the largest rocket to ever head to space so far. In its current iteration, it has 29 Raptor engines, but it could eventually have 33. Speaking of those engines, Raptor version 2 is a complete redesign of the first, costs half as much and needs fewer parts. The company is capable of manufacturing five to six a week at the moment, but it could apparently be capable of producing as many as seven by next month.
Aside from being able to carry hundreds of tons, the Starship could revolutionize space travel if SpaceX can truly make launches as affordable as Musk said it could. He revealed during the event that a Starship launch could cost les than $ 10 million per flight, all in, within two to three years. That's significantly less than a Falcon 9 launch that costs around $ 60 million.
SpaceX wants to launch the Starship from its Boca Chica, Texas facility called Starbase, where it's been building the rocket's prototype. It has yet to secure approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to do so, and Musk said the company doesn't know where things stand with the agency exactly. However, there's apparently a rough indication that the FAA will be come with its environmental assessment in March. SpaceX also expects the rocket to be ready by then, which means Starship's first orbital test flight could be on the horizon.
Watch SpaceX launch its first updated cargo Dragon capsule at 11:17AM ET
SpaceX’s crewed flights have garnered the most attention lately, but the uncrewed variety is about to retake the spotlight. The company is launching its updated cargo Dragon capsule for the first time at 11:17AM Eastern from the Kennedy Space Center…
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SpaceX prepares Starship SN8 prototype for high-altitude test flight
In September 2019 Elon Musk said he hoped SpaceX would be able to perform an orbital test of its Starship vehicle within six months, and while that didn’t happen the company is apparently ready to perform a high-altitude flight test. In a tweet, the…
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SpaceX makes first polar orbit launch from Florida in ‘decades’
While SpaceX didn’t pull off a doubleheader Sunday launch like it planned, the company still managed a rare feat. Instead of launching eastward like every other Cape Canaveral rocket, the Falcon 9 headed south toward Cuba, close to populated areas on…
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SpaceX Crew Dragon completes historic mission with an ocean landing
SpaceX’s history-making Crew Dragon mission has come to a close two months after it began. Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley successfully landed in the Atlantic Ocean at 2:48PM Eastern after starting their return to Earth nearly 20 hours earlier…
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SpaceX pulls off its first double fairing catch after a Falcon 9 launch
Part of the SpaceX mission has been to create reusable rockets that make spaceflight cheaper, and it has become routine to see the company’s booster rockets return safely to Earth. With today’s launch SpaceX set a new milestone by catching both halve…
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SpaceX will fly space tourists to the ISS as soon as next year
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NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission will use a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
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SpaceX delivers the Crew Dragon capsule to its launch site
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SpaceX test firing sets path for Crew Dragon flight in February
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SpaceX completes its first US national security mission
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Elon Musk pulls Tesla and SpaceX pages after #DeleteFacebook challenge
Elon Musk isn't known for kidding around, and he just made that clear in his response to Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal… more or less, at least. The entrepreneur has hidden the official Facebook accounts for Tesla and SpaceX in response to…
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SpaceX rocket survives an intentional water landing
Right now, SpaceX is only reusing rockets to a limited degree — it's disposing of vehicles after a short while when they're unlikely to survive their next flight. With its latest launch, though, it got lucky. Elon Musk has confirmed that the Falco…
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SpaceX finishes testing Falcon Heavy’s first stage cores
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket has been in the works for so long that it almost feels like the stuff of legend at this point (Elon Musk first unveiled it in 2011), but there are signs that it might make that promised November launch. The private spacef…
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Watch a SpaceX Falcon 9 take off from NASA’s historic launch pad
At 10:01 AM EST on February 18th, a SpaceX flight will take off from Launch Complex 39A for the first time since the company signed a 20-year lease for its use. The company will also attempt another first stage landing around 9 minutes after take off…
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SpaceX wants to cover the globe with gigabit Wi-Fi using a fleet of satellites
An application filed with the Federal Communications Commission reveals that SpaceX wants to launch a fleet of satellites for global gigabit Wi-Fi. The service would first launch in the U.S., and go global once all satellites are in orbit.
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SpaceX will attempt yet another high-velocity rocket landing tonight. Here’s where to watch
SpaceX hopes to safely bring another Falcon 9 rocket home tonight after launching a Thai telecommunications satellite over 20,000 miles above Earth, into a high-elliptical orbit known as geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).
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SpaceX Dragon spacecraft returns to Earth with ‘critical’ cargo
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft returns to Earth from ISS, bringing with it scientific cargo that NASA says will be critical to its planned Journey to Mars.
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SpaceX plans ocean landing attempt following February 24 launch
SpaceX will make its next launch attempt and possible ocean landing on February 24 when it is slated to deploy an SES-9 satellite into orbit. The firm’s goal is to send rockets into orbit every few weeks for the rest of 2016.
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SpaceX announces tentative launch timeline for its massive Falcon Heavy rocket
Elon Musk’s aerospace manufacturer SpaceX recently announced it plans to launch its massive Falcon Heavy rocket in either late April or early May of 2016.
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