SpaceX just stacked its Starship megarocket to prepare for the vehicle's seventh test flight, which is scheduled for Jan. 13.
SpaceX is working to make its satellites less of a nuisance to astronomers by testing out ways to stop Starlink from showing up in images of the cosmos. The company recently lowered the altitude of a batch of its internet satellites to mitigate their brightness as viewed from Earth.
T-Mobile has opened up emergency texting over SpaceX's Starlink satellite network for areas affected by Southern California's fires.
Starship is scheduled to launch from Starbase on Monday (Jan. 13) at 5:00 p.m. EST (2200 GMT). It will be the seventh test flight for the giant rocket, which SpaceX is developing to help humanity settle Mars and achieve a variety of other exploration feats.
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is set for an inaugural launch of its giant New Glenn rocket on Sunday, a long-awaited first leap to Earth orbit that sets up one of the biggest challenges yet to industry dominance enjoyed by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Rough seas caused Blue Origin to hold off a planned early Friday launch attempt with is debut of New Glenn now targeting early Sunday instead. SpaceX, though, still has plans to launch later
The launch window will open at 4 p.m. local time (5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT). A live webcast of the Starship’s seventh flight test will begin about 35 minutes before liftoff. You can watch the full coverage on SpaceX’s website or via its X account.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket pulls away from Earth on Friday after lifting off at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. (Courtesy of SpaceX) CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX sent another batch of Starlink satellites toward low-Earth orbit on Friday, lifting off at 2:11 p.m. ET.
SpaceX's Starship will fly for the seventh time ever early next week, if all goes according to plan. SpaceX announced today (Jan. 8) that it's targeting Monday (Jan. 13) for Flight 7 of Starship, the 400-foot-tall (122 meters), fully reusable megarocket designed to help humanity settle the moon and Mars.
SpaceX is also flying rudimentary catch fittings on Starship to test their thermal performance on reentry. The ship will fly a more demanding trajectory during descent to probe the structural limits of the redesigned flaps at the point of maximum entry dynamic pressure, according to SpaceX.
SpaceX has quickly become something of a taxi service for space travel, allowing private companies and governments alike to affordably send satellites into orbit for research and commercial purposes. The frequent launches have reportedly become something of a nightmare for those who live near the launch sites, however.