Neowin News Feed for: Spaceflight

Starship performs double ocean landing in daylight, SpaceX shy to show the explosions

Martin Hodás — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 16:16:01 +0000

During Starship's successful 6th test flight, the spacecraft mastered a more challenging trajectory to beat the computer simulations; however, the tower landing of Super Heavy booster was halted. Read more...

SpaceX's "Mechazilla" caught the Super Heavy booster mid-air during incredible landing test

Martin Hodás — Sun, 13 Oct 2024 11:40:01 +0000

SpaceX has attempted an unprecedented, crucial maneuver today. It catught the Super Heavy booster at the launch pad for the very first time. Read more...

Smooth operators: SpaceX's historic all-civilian spacewalk was a success

Martin Hodás — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 08:08:01 +0000

Billionaire Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis exited the Crew Dragon for a historic all-civilian spacewalk, testing new spacesuits. Read more...

Polaris Dawn successfully launched on a historic mission featuring the first civilian EVA

Martin Hodás — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 05:28:02 +0000

SpaceX launched a record-breaking civilian mission that takes the crew higher than anyone else since the Apollo era. Read more...

SpaceX sets a new timeline for the Mars colony. First Starships to launch in 2026

Martin Hodás — Sun, 08 Sep 2024 12:16:01 +0000

Elon Musk announced a new, more realistic timeline for Starship launches toward the Red Planet. While it still sounds ambitious, the company is making progress with the world's biggest space rocket. Read more...

Boeing's Starliner has finally landed. Not flawlessly, but it got the job done

Martin Hodás — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 08:40:02 +0000

After three months on the ISS, the crew-less Starliner capsule has successfully returned to Earth. NASA stands behind the decision to keep two astronauts on the space station. Read more...

NASA explains mysterious sonar-like noises in Starliner, clears it for return to Earth

Martin Hodás — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 07:16:01 +0000

Astronauts onboard the ISS heard weird noises in Boeing's troublesome capsule. Houston figured out where the sounds originated from. Read more...

Bad day: Falcon 9 crashes upon landing after a record 23 flights, Polaris Dawn postponed

Martin Hodás — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 09:36:01 +0000

Today, SpaceX experienced a series of bad luck. Weather stopped a historic crewed mission from launching, and another Falcon 9 rocket crashed upon landing, halting the third planned flight, too. Read more...

The ultimate embarrassment: Stuck astronauts to return in Crew Dragon, not Boeing Starliner

Martin Hodás — Sat, 24 Aug 2024 23:06:02 +0000

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will stay on the ISS for 8 months instead of just 8 days. Due to problems with the Starliner module, they will come home onboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon. Read more...

NASA runs a giveaway for its nearly completed, but canceled, $450 million Moon rover

Martin Hodás — Sun, 11 Aug 2024 15:22:01 +0000

The scientific community was shocked by the cancelation of the $450 million VIPER mission. However, NASA is ready to contribute the rover to a chosen partner that takes it to its intended destination. Read more...

Starliner's departure from ISS might be delayed for weeks due to a critical software update

Martin Hodás — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 16:16:01 +0000

Boeing's Starliner might be stuck on the ISS for a few more weeks, so SpaceX's Crew-9 mission would be delayed for over a month because Starliner lacks one of its features and needs an OTA update. Read more...

Boeing might get embarrassed after all as SpaceX's emergency ride is more likely than ever

Martin Hodás — Sat, 03 Aug 2024 15:34:01 +0000

NASA is on the brink of a significant decision: whether to let two astronauts return in Boeing's Starliner capsule or use SpaceX's Crew Dragon as an emergency backup. The stakes go beyond human lives. Read more...

Falcon 9 flew just 15 days after failed launch. SpaceX simply stripped it of faulty hardware

Martin Hodás — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 18:10:02 +0000

SpaceX explained the issue that led to a failed flight of the Falcon 9 rocket, obtained early permission from the FAA, and launched another batch of Starlink satellites while it works on fixes. Read more...

SpaceX ends streak of 334 flawless flights as Falcon 9 fails. Starlink survivors to die soon

Martin Hodás — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 19:04:01 +0000

The super-reliable Falcon 9 rocket experienced a rare anomaly, breaking its near-perfect track record. Its upper stage lost the engine during the orbit insertion of SpaceX's own Starlink satellites. Read more...

Europe celebrates the maiden flight of Ariane 6 as it regains independent access to space

Martin Hodás — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 10:00:01 +0000

The new European rocket launcher Ariane 6 completed its inaugural mission despite an anomaly in the final phase. Previous delays and failures meant Europe had no operational rocket for a year. Read more...

Watch the splashdown landing of SpaceX's Super Heavy booster tracked from the Gulf of Mexico

Martin Hodás — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 08:16:01 +0000

SpaceX has released the external view of the first-ever successful splashdown landing of the Super Heavy booster. Images show the landing burn of 13 Raptor engines and a slow touchdown on the water. Read more...

SpaceX has already fixed weak spot that almost killed Starship, but on a different rocket

Martin Hodás — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 17:16:01 +0000

Even though hot plasma almost destroyed Starship's flap, the rocket nailed yesterday's vertical landing. Elon Musk says SpaceX already has a solution, and it just wasn't present on this ship. Read more...

Starship miraculously escaped death and landed in the ocean for the very first time

Martin Hodás — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 13:27:00 +0000

The Super Heavy first stage of SpaceX's Starship rocket made a remarkable splashdown during the successful landing simulation. Starship somehow survived the plasma hell and landed too. Read more...

The awaited tourist voyage around the Moon that funded Musk's Starship was just canceled

Martin Hodás — Sat, 01 Jun 2024 10:42:02 +0000

The dearMoon mission of Yusaku Maezawa and a crew full of artists won't happen. When announced, Starship was just an idea on a drawing board. Today, it still aims for the Moon, but without Maezawa. Read more...

Time to land: SpaceX details what went wrong with Starship, fourth flight imminent

Martin Hodás — Sat, 25 May 2024 12:58:01 +0000

The fourth integrated test flight of Starship is planned for around June 5. SpaceX details the fixes addressing the issues that caused the rocket to surrender to the heat of plasma hell in March. Read more...

A parachute failed during a crewed landing of Blue Origin's return-to-flight mission

Martin Hodás — Mon, 20 May 2024 09:44:01 +0000

Blue Origin's New Shepard returned to crewed suborbital flights, successfully sending six astronauts to space. However, after a long hiatus, there is another huge concern due to a parachute failure. Read more...

After breaking up with Russia, NASA comes to save Europe's never-ending mission to Mars

Martin Hodás — Sat, 18 May 2024 19:58:01 +0000

European space mission ExoMars began in 2001. However, it came close to being canceled due to repeated delays and war in Ukraine. A new partnership with NASA aims to finally send the rover into space. Read more...

Some 6,000 satellites later, Musk's Starlink turns profitable in 2024, report estimates

Martin Hodás — Sat, 11 May 2024 20:40:01 +0000

SpaceX's Starlink service is estimated to generate billions in revenues and achieve profitability for the first time in 2024, just five years after launching the first batch of satellites. Read more...

After five months of debugging, NASA finally knows why Voyager 1 sends gibberish data

Martin Hodás — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 04:36:01 +0000

For several months, the most distant human-made object, the Voyager 1, sends unusable engineering and science data. NASA engineers now pinpointed the cause and are working on a solution. Read more...

Starship to fly again in May, SpaceX aims to survive the plasma hell

Martin Hodás — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 07:24:02 +0000

SpaceX hopes to fly the Starship rocket for a fourth time next month, cutting the turnaround time by half. The main milestones are testing the heatshield and ensuring the rocket survives the reentry. Read more...

Crashing to success: What we know and don't know about Starship's third test flight

Martin Hodás — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 17:40:02 +0000

SpaceX commented on Starship milestones in its post-flight debrief. The third test flight of Starship seemed like an overall success, though once again, there are important questions left unanswered. Read more...

Starship cuts through hot plasma while Booster loses it during a highly impressive flight

Martin Hodás — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:01 +0000

Starship flew for a third time this morning. Launching from Texas, the initial phase of the test flight looked nominal. However, both the Ship and the Booster didn't reach their final destination. Read more...

SpaceX to discard bad batch of 100 Starlinks, citing common issue and risk of losing control

Martin Hodás — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 10:12:02 +0000

Elon Musk's space company decided to kill roughly 100 Starlink satellites to prevent the unnecessary creation of space junk. SpaceX claims it is part of its commitment to space sustainability. Read more...

Tech & science of Mars colonization are jokingly trivial to solve, ex-NASA scientist argues

Martin Hodás — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 21:14:01 +0000

Technical and environmental challenges of deep space exploration are difficult, but not unsolvable. The real barrier between mankind and Mars is the level of commitment from relevant stakeholders. Read more...

U.S. lunar mission burned in Earth's atmosphere, sacrificed its ambition for greater good

Martin Hodás — Sat, 20 Jan 2024 06:16:01 +0000

The first US moon landing mission in more than 50 years met a fiery end on the wrong celestial body. However, its story is nevertheless inspiring, and data acquired along the way is invaluable. Read more...

Elon Musk has finally revealed the reason behind Starship mid-flight explosion

Martin Hodás — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 11:20:02 +0000

The November test flight of SpaceX's Starship rocket, although successful, ended in flames. Much was speculated on social media about the cause, but only now we finally know what actually happened. Read more...

Blue Origin reached orbit for the first time, but not on its own rocket. And Amazon is happy

Martin Hodás — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 13:52:01 +0000

Jeff Bezos is one happy man after his competitor, ULA, reached orbit with its brand new Vulcan rocket, powered by Blue Origin's engines. It gives him hope to compete with Elon Musk's Starlink. Read more...

NASA canceled a whole research program due to SpaceX's Veni, Vidi, Vici approach

Martin Hodás — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 16:16:01 +0000

Although NASA is often blamed for being too slow and cautious, it has been developing cutting-edge space tech for decades. However, its approach sometimes turns out to be simply outdated. Read more...

SpaceX lost its most iconic Falcon 9 booster on Christmas Day

Martin Hodás — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 21:08:02 +0000

In a rather unfortunate turn of events, SpaceX has lost the F9 booster B1058 during the ride back home from its record-breaking 19th mission. Only remnants of the workhorse arrived in Florida. Read more...

TWIRL 81: Plenty of satellite launches this week amid Artemis I uncertainty

Paul Hill — Sun, 04 Sep 2022 21:52:01 +0000

We have quite a lot of launches this week. Aside from more attempts by NASA to launch the SLS, several companies and countries are planning to launch various satellites into orbit. Read more...

NASA and SpaceX are a go for Crew Dragon's historic launch on Wednesday

Ather Fawaz — Tue, 26 May 2020 04:12:02 +0000

Following the Launch Readiness Review, NASA and SpaceX have given the Crew Dragon launch atop the Falcon 9 rocket a go-ahead. However, the weather will still prove to be an important consideration. Read more...