SpaceX tagged posts

SpaceX regularly launches unmanned cargo ships to the International Space Station, and is working on a crew capsule that could carry humans into orbit as early as next year

SpaceX on Monday blasted off a secretive US government satellite, known as NROL-76, marking the first military launch for Elon Musk. The payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, which makes and operates spy satellites for the US, soared into the sky atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 7:15 am (1115 GMT). 10 minutes after launch, the scorched 1st stage of the rocket came back to Earth and landed upright at Cape Canaveral, marking the 4th successful solid ground landing for SpaceX.

“And we have touchdown,” a SpaceX commentator said on a live webcast as cheers broke out at mission control...

Space X’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on March 30, 2017

SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk said he wants to go further in the reuse of his rockets after successfully launching the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket that was recycled from a previous flight. Musk tweeted on Friday that he is looking into a test to bring home the second stage of the company’s new Falcon 9 Heavy rocket for reuse when the rocket debuts late in the summer. SpaceX blasted off the recycled first stage, or booster, of a Falcon 9 rocket for the first time on Thursday, a feat that could dramatically lower the cost of space travel.

The Falcon 9 Heavy has a first stage composed of 3 Falcon 9 engine cores and “will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of 2,” according...

The Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket lifts off from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Monday, July 18, 2016. The Falcon 9 is headed to the International Space Station with 5,000 pounds of supplies. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

As an extra treat, SpaceX brought its leftover first-stage booster back to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for a vertical touchdown—only the second such land landing for an orbital mission and the ultimate in recycling. Twin sonic booms rocked the moonlit night, old shuttle landing-style. The cosmic double-header got underway as the unmanned Falcon rocket streaked upward through the middle-of-the-night darkness, carrying 5,000 lb of food, experiments and equipment for the International Space Station...