Skip to main content
All Stories Tagged:

SpaceX

Helmed by billionaire CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX has made a name for itself as a leading rocket launch provider. We bring you complete coverage of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket launches and landings, as well as SpaceX’s more ambitious exploration goals. That includes flying people around the Moon in the company’s Dragon capsule and starting a human colony on Mars.

Starlink Mini actually works in a backpack.

I’m working on a full review in a variety of scenarios but I’m shocked it works at all in the outer sleeve of this Peak Design backpack connected to a USB-C power bank. Once it gets satellite lock it holds on to it reasonably well for an average of 54Mbps down and 11Mbps up, despite the dish’s vertical alignment and 110-degree field of view.

I don’t know why you’d do this, but you can!


<em>The 27,600mAh (99.36Wh) 140W USB-C PD 3.1 power bank I carried could have powered this connected walk for up to three hours.</em>

1/2

The 27,600mAh (99.36Wh) 140W USB-C PD 3.1 power bank I carried could have powered this connected walk for up to three hours.
Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge
SpaceX’s “chopstick” launch tower arms have caught its Super Heavy booster.

The “catch” marks SpaceX’s first successful touchdown of Starship’s booster back at its launch site in South Texas.


Screenshot: SpaceX
SpaceX’s fifth Starship flight test has launched.

Starship launched about 25 minutes later than planned, at about 8:25AM ET, as SpaceX needed to clear its range of boats.


Starship lifting off.
Image: SpaceX
W
The Verge
The SpaceX Starship launch livestream has started.

You can catch the livestream on SpaceX’s website, its X account, or the X TV app.


W
Twitter
SpaceX is preparing Starship for launch.

The company now expects its fifth Starship flight test to lift off at 8:25AM ET from its launch site in South Texas. SpaceX has a 30-minute window that started at 8AM ET, so it’s cutting it a little close.


E
External Link
GOP-led House Committee looks into why the FCC rejected Starlink’s funding request.

The House Oversight Committee will investigate the FCC’s decision to deny the Elon Musk-owned Starlink $885.5 million in federal subsidies through the Rural Digital Opportunity fund in 2022.

Last week, Musk claimed the satellite internet company “would probably have saved lives” in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina if the FCC didn’t “illegally” revoke Starlink’s funding.


Starlink is offering 30 days of free service in areas impacted by Hurricane Helene.

The company has a guide on how to sign up on its website.


W
External Link
SpaceX is pausing Falcon 9 flights after issues following its Crew-9 launch.

The rocket’s second stage “experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn” and missed its landing target following yesterday’s flight, SpaceX posted.

The company is investigating the root cause. In the meantime, as Space notes, a California satellite launch that was scheduled for today has been postponed.


W
Youtube
NASA’s Crew-9 mission that will bring the Starliner astronauts home launches today.

At 9:10AM ET, the agency will kick off a livestream of the start of the Crew-9 mission meant to bring stranded NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunni Williams back to Earth next year.

Out of the loop? Check our storystream on the Boeing Starliner issues that left them stuck on ISS. Liftoff is scheduled for 1:17PM ET today.


T
External Link
Starlink passes 4M users.

It’s taken just four years and more than 6,000 satellites placed into low Earth orbit — at a rate of about 24 per launch — with service now in over 100 countries.

As noted by TechCrunch:

The milestone would mean that SpaceX has gained a million new customers since the end of May alone. This outpaces the company’s already impressive rate of growth: Starlink started providing beta service of its product in October 2020; it hit 1 million subscribers in December 2022, 2 million subscribers in September 2023, and 3 million in May.

I’ve been a user since 2022 and am currently testing the Starlink Mini — ask me anything.


T
Twitter
Air France is also going Starlink.

Two weeks ago it was United announcing fast free in-flight Wi-Fi for all. Who’s next? 


A
Twitter
SpaceX slams — but doesn’t sue — the FAA.

The Federal Aviation Administration can’t “keep pace with the commercial spaceflight industry” and “lacks the resources” to respond to mission changes, SpaceX said in a letter sent in response to $633,000 in federal fines for launching two missions with unapproved changes. SpaceX owner Elon Musk has promised to sue the agency, but it seems as if we’re still in the “strongly worded letter” phase of this particular feud.


What the Polaris Dawn mission could reveal about human health in space

The Polaris Dawn astronauts have returned to Earth — but the real work has just begun.

W
Twitter
Polaris Dawn has returned to Earth.

At 3:38AM ET, SpaceX confirmed the successful conclusion of its historic Polaris Dawn mission, which took four people, including Billionaire Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, farther into space than any astronaut has been in decades.

During the flight, Isaacman and Gillis became the first private astronauts to conduct a spacewalk. Gillis also recorded herself playing violin while in space, as Engadget notes.


E
Twitter
Polaris Dawn sent photos over Starlink laser light.

After a historic spacewalk, the Polaris Dawn crew sent a message to Earth using Starlink’s laser communication technology. SpaceX has already started selling its “Plug and Plaser” tech to other companies to help improve communication from space.


Why NASA is sticking with Boeing

The Starliner debacle fueled speculation that the space agency would dump Boeing. But if it did, it would be left with SpaceX — and Elon Musk.

T
Twitter
Just another human in space.

Or is it a sound stage? Interesting.


J
Twitter
Live SpaceXwalk.

When Dragon’s hatch opens for astronauts Sarah Gillis and Jared Isaacman, all four Polaris Dawn crewmembers will be exposed to the vacuum of space, according to SpaceX.

Gillis and Isaacman will then exit the spacecraft for about 12 minutes to perform the spacewalk and conduct suit mobility tests.


T
Twitter
Polaris Dawn Mission is off to a good start.

At 5:23AM ET, a SpaceX Falcon 9 successfully launched the four-person all-civilian crew into space on the multi-day mission. Among other things, they’ll be conducting the first-ever space walk by commercial astronauts wearing SpaceX-developed suits, and testing Starlink’s laser-based communications.


The invisible problem with sending people to Mars

Getting to Mars will be easy. It’s the whole ‘living there’ part that we haven’t figured out.