Tag: SpaceX

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Starfish Space’s first Otter spacecraft goes into orbit

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rising into blue sky
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket rises from its California launch pad, sending 130 payloads into orbit. (Credit: SpaceX via X)

Starfish Space’s first full-scale Otter satellite servicing vehicle went into orbit today, marking a milestone for the Tukwila, Wash.-based startup.

The Otter spacecraft was among 130 payloads launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Otter is roughly the size of a kitchen oven, with solar arrays that were folded up for launch.

Other payloads on the satellite rideshare mission, known as Transporter-18, included Cowboy Space’s first power-beaming satellite, a prototype for Google’s AI data-center constellation, and a NASA-funded probe that will track the energy released by galaxies and supernovas.

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Universe Today

Starship drops off satellites during its first orbital flight

Starship rocket rises from Texas launch pad
SpaceX's Starship rocket rises from its Texas launch pad for its first orbital flight. (Credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX sent its Starship super-rocket on its first orbital flight — a shorter-than-planned test mission that put operational Starlink satellites into orbit for the first time.

The 407-foot-tall rocket rose from its launch pad at SpaceX’s Starbase complex on the Texas coast at 7:50 a.m. CT (5:50 a.m. PT) today and completed nearly two orbits. This was the 14th flight in the Starship test program, but all previous flights had been suborbital.

On its way up, one of the 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines on Starship’s Super Heavy booster shut down prematurely. Despite the single engine failure, the climb to space proceeded as planned, and the booster executed a safe splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

One of the six engines on the upper stage, also known as Ship, also experienced an early shutdown. For a few minutes, SpaceX’s team debated whether to go ahead with a follow-up orbital insertion burn or end the test flight without deploying satellites. The team decided to go ahead, and the 19-second burn proceeded smoothly.

“Starship is orbital,” Mission Control declared, drawing cheers from SpaceX employees watching the live video feed.

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Universe Today

Lucky 13! Starship sends out satellites and stays intact

Aerial view of Starship rising from launch pad
SpaceX's Starship launch system rises from its Texas launch pad for a suborbital flight test. (Credit: SpaceX via X)

SpaceX’s Starship super-rocket deployed operational next-generation Starlink satellites for the first time during its 13th flight test, which addressed snags that arose in the previous test.

The 407-foot-tall, two-stage rocket rose from its Starbase launch pad in Texas at 5:51 p.m. CT (3:51 p.m. PT) today, with all 33 Raptor engines firing on the Super Heavy booster. On the way up, the rocket set a record for maximum dynamic pressure, also known as Max-Q.

Minutes after liftoff, the Starship upper stage — known as Ship — separated to continue on the flight test’s trajectory, and then the booster relit its engines for a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. SpaceX launch commentator Dan Huot noted that not all of the engines fired up as planned — making for a splash that was a bit spicier than expected but still safe.

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GeekWire

SpaceX’s IPO could boost Northwest space ventures

SpaceX logo on Seattle Center building with Space Needle in background
SpaceX’s Seattle connection dates back to 2015, when CEO Elon Musk announced at Seattle Center that the company’s satellite operation would be based in the region. “What this represents is the official opening of SpaceX Seattle,” he said at the time. (GeekWire File Photo)

SpaceX’s initial public offering is likely to boost the company’s valuation to $1.77 trillion, promote CEO Elon Musk to trillionaire status — and benefit the Seattle area’s space community as well.

The $75 billion IPO, which will add SpaceX to the Nasdaq stock exchange, is expected to be the biggest initial public offering in history. It’ll provide more capital for expanding SpaceX’s satellite networks and putting the company’s Starship mega-rocket into operation. Shareholders, including some of the hundreds of SpaceX employees in the Seattle area, could get a golden opportunity to cash in.

There could also be a payoff for Pacific Northwest space ventures that are banking on the lower launch costs and higher payload capacity SpaceX is promising to deliver.

“The reality is that SpaceX is the elephant in the room — and for a real reason, which is that they’ve got the lowest cost of launch and will continue to do so when Starship is up and running,” said Brendan Wales, general partner at Fuse, a Seattle-based venture capital firm. “So, whether SpaceX is successful or not, it is very impactful on Seattle startups.”

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Universe Today

Next-gen Starship passes its first flight test despite snags

Aerial view of Starship launch from Texas pad
SpaceX's Starship V3 rocket rises from its Texas launch pad. (SpaceX via X)

SpaceX’s next-generation Starship V3 rocket got off to a glorious start for its first test flight, and although not all of its engines fired fully according to plan, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the mission “scored a goal for humanity.”

This was the 12th Starship launch, but the first one since SpaceX completed a thorough redesign of the rocket’s Super Heavy first-stage booster, the second stage (known as Ship), the Raptor rocket engines and the launch facilities at SpaceX’s Starbase in south Texas.

Super Heavy lit all 33 of its Raptor V3 engines at liftoff, and successfully sent Ship on its way over the Gulf of Mexico. But after stage separation, Super Heavy shut down its engines prematurely. As a result, the booster tumbled through the atmosphere to an uncontrolled but safe splashdown in the gulf.

SpaceX had planned for a controlled splashdown but hadn’t planned to recover the booster, so it was no great loss.

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Universe Today

Crypto investor plans to ride Starship around Mars

Chun Wang
Chun Wang works on his laptop with Earth looming outside the window of SpaceX's Dragon capsule. (Chun Wang / SpaceX via X / 2025)

Chinese-born cryptocurrency investor Chun Wang has become the latest deep-pocketed space enthusiast to set his sights on a trip around Mars. But first, he wants to take a ride around the moon on SpaceX’s Starship. And SpaceX is willing to work with him.

Wang shared his ambition today during a SpaceX webcast focusing on the first attempt to launch a next-generation Starship V3 rocket from SpaceX’s Starbase in Texas for a test flight. The launch attempt had to be called off due to technical difficulties with ground equipment, but SpaceX could try again as soon as May 22.

During a lull in the countdown, the webcast team cut to an interview with Wang, who was speaking from Bouvet Island, a rugged nature reserve in the South Atlantic Ocean that’s been called the world’s most remote island. It was an apt setting for a conversation about Wang’s out-of-this-world idea.

Wang already qualifies as a space traveler: Last year, he headed up a privately funded mission that sent him and three other crew members into polar orbit in a SpaceX Dragon capsule for three and a half days. Today, SpaceX launch commentator Dan Huot said Wang is already back in line to take on “the first interplanetary mission on a Starship,” even though the rocket is still in testing mode and hasn’t yet made a single orbit around Earth.

“It’s going to be a flyby mission of Mars,” Wang said. “A lot of people are talking about how Mars will be like: ‘We’re going to fly to Mars, we’re going to land on Mars, we’re going to build a city on Mars.’ But let’s get this started with a flyby. … It will light the fire. It will ignite the imagination, and it will build the momentum.”

No timetable was given for the mission, but SpaceX said the round trip would take two years. Wang wasn’t worried about getting bored during the cruise to and from the Red Planet. “This is actually my style of fireworks,” he said. “I can stare at the map view on airplanes all the way from takeoff to landing. So I think I will enjoy the trip.”

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Portal Space Systems gets its first payload into orbit

SpaceX night launch
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sends more than 100 payloads into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. (SpaceX Photo)

Bothell, Wash.-based Portal Space Systems has made its first foray into Earth orbit, in the form of a piggyback payload that will test technologies for highly maneuverable space vehicles.

The instrument package, which is about the size of a tissue box, was one of 119 payloads sent into orbit at 4:02 a.m. PT today from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for SpaceX’s Transporter-16 satellite rideshare mission. Portal’s “Mini-Nova” payload was attached to Momentus’ Vigoride-7 orbital service vehicle for the ride on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Minutes after launch, the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster landed autonomously on a drone ship that was stationed in the Pacific. Meanwhile, the second stage proceeded to orbit and deployed Vigoride-7 and other spacecraft.

“I’ve said for a long time that a company only really becomes a space company once it gets to space, and with last night’s launch out of Vandenberg, that’s now true for Portal,” the company’s co-founder and CEO, Jeff Thornburg, said in a LinkedIn post.

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Cosmic Space

Elon Musk lays out a new vision as SpaceX acquires xAI

Illustration: Starship deploying satellite with Earth in background
An artist's conception shows a Starship upper stage deploying a satellite in orbit. (SpaceX Illustration)

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he’s making space-based artificial intelligence the “immediate focus” of a newly expanded company that not only builds rockets and satellites, but also controls xAI’s generative-AI software and the X social-media platform.

That’s the upshot of today’s announcement that SpaceX has acquired xAI. The Information quoted unnamed sources as saying that xAI was valued at $250 billion, while SpaceX’s value was set at a trillion dollars. That would make SpaceX the most valuable private company in the world — but because Musk held a controlling interest in both companies, those valuations may be somewhat subjective.

Ross Gerber, an investment adviser who tracks Musk’s business dealings, quipped on X that the world’s richest person decided to go ahead with the acquisition after “a short negotiation with himself.”

Musk said the combination of SpaceX and xAI would facilitate the creation of a new constellation of orbital data centers. SpaceX is already seeking approval from the Federal Communications Commission to put up to a million satellites in low Earth orbit for such a constellation.

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SpaceX wants to launch a million data center satellites

Starlink streaks
This time-lapse image of Venus and the Pleiades shows the tracks of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. (Torsten Hansen / IAU OAE / CC Attribution)

SpaceX founder Elon Musk wasn’t kidding about his plans to go big with orbital data centers: The company is asking the Federal Communications Commission to approve a plan to put up to a million satellites in orbit to process data for artificial intelligence applications.

“Launching a constellation of a million satellites that operate as orbital data centers is a first step towards becoming a Kardashev II-level civilization — one that can harness the sun’s full power — while supporting AI-driven applications for billions of people today and ensuring humanity’s multiplanetary future amongst the stars,” SpaceX said in an application filed with the FCC on Friday.

If realized, the plan could pose a challenge to AI titans including Microsoft, Amazon, Google and OpenAI — and to Seattle-area space companies such as Starcloud, Sophia Space and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture, all of which are aiming to serve the emerging market for AI data centers.

On the other hand, it could be a boon for SpaceX’s manufacturing facility in Redmond, Wash., which produces the satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband constellation; and for Musk’s xAI company, which has been the focus of merger talks as SpaceX considers an initial public offering. The Wall Street Journal quoted unidentified sources as saying that Musk decided to take SpaceX public in part to raise more capital to build orbital data centers and to help xAI.

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Universe Today

SpaceX flies Starship to get ready for the next generation

Starship rising from launch pad, as seen from drone
SpaceX's Starship rises up from its launch pad in South Texas. (SpaceX via YouTube)

SpaceX closed out a dramatic chapter in the development of its super-heavy-lift Starship launch system today with a successful flight test that mostly followed the script for the previous flight test.

The 11th test flight began with the ascent of Starship’s Super Heavy booster from SpaceX’s Starbase launch pad in South Texas at 6:23 p.m. CT (4:23 p.m. PT). It was that particular pad’s last liftoff. An upgraded Pad 2 is being prepared to accommodate a more powerful Starship Version 3, with the first launch expected next year.

Starship V3 will feature an upgraded version of SpaceX’s methane-fueled Raptor engines and larger propellant tanks that are capable of in-orbit refueling.

The Super Heavy booster and its second stage, known as Ship, are being designed for missions in Earth orbit and beyond — and V3 is the version that’s meant to get SpaceX to that level.

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