NASA has revealed its plans for the next cargo launch to the International Space Station, detailing the planned launch date and time, as well as how the public can participate in the event even if they’re safely at home. As with previous launches, the space agency plans to have a live broadcast about the cargo mission that anyone can watch.
NASA has confirmed the launch date for its next commercial cargo mission to the ISS. NASA says that SpaceX will send a Cargo Dragon spacecraft into orbit on Saturday, August 28 at 3:37 AM EDT. The launch will be the 23rd commercial resupply services mission to ISS that SpaceX has conducted.
SpaceX's next mission to the International Space Station will take place on August 28, NASA has confirmed today, with the scheduling coming shortly after rival Boeing failed to launch its Starliner. It's the 23rd commercial resupply services mission, with SpaceX having the process down to a fine art at this point as it loads up the Dragon spacecraft with supplies and scientific experiments.
Recently, SpaceX has been working hard to join its massive Starship spacecraft and the gigantic Super Heavy Booster and placed them on the launchpad. However, not long after the two were joined together for the first time, Starship was removed from the launchpad and taken back to a facility known as high bay. Speculation swirled about the reasoning for removing the spacecraft from the launchpad so quickly after it was assembled there.
Elon Musk's SpaceX has acquired satellite startup Swarm Technologies, adding the company's micro-satellites - and its coveted FCC licenses - to its portfolio. SpaceX is currently partway through rolling out its ambitious Starlink network, a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites with which it hopes to blanket the globe with affordable wireless internet connectivity.
SpaceX has been heavily testing its Starship rocket that will eventually be used to carry cargo and crew to the moon and beyond. Starship has been testing alone so far, but it will be attached to a Falcon Super Heavy booster when it's ready to head into orbit. The massive booster is one of the largest rockets ever built.
One of the biggest challenges of living in some rural communities or on off-grid land is the lack of broadband. Broadband is considered an essential service, and competition in some areas is nonexistent or lacking. Many rural Americans rely on slow and expensive older satellite services, but SpaceX is trying to change that. A new report indicates that SpaceX is currently working on a ruggedized version of its Starlink satellite dish.
SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service has around 90,000 users currently, according to a new disclosure, though the total is a fraction of the waitlist. Launched in mid-2019, Starlink uses a growing constellation of low Earth orbit satellites and a self-orienting dish on the ground to beam down internet connectivity, though it's only been relatively recently that Starlink has accelerated adding users.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has published its response to Blue Origin's and Dynetics' protests over the lunar lander contract granted by NASA to competitor SpaceX. The protests were filed in late April, resulting in NASA temporarily pausing the lunar lander contract given to SpaceX while the GAO resolved the two formal protests.
NASA has announced the recipient of its Europa Clipper Mission contract and you can already guess who won it: SpaceX. The private space company has been tapped by NASA many times over recent years for a variety of missions, including cargo launches to the International Space Station. This time around, SpaceX will launch the Europa Clipper spacecraft as part of NASA's effort to study Jupiter's moon.
This week, the Federal Aviation Administration opened a new office in Houston that is designed to help the agency monitor nearby private space companies, including SpaceX and Blue Origin. The facility will help the agency monitor activities conducted by private space companies in and near Texas, the FAA explained, joining the new tracking system it announced last month.
SpaceX has been launching and landing rockets successfully for half a decade now, but its famed Falcon 9 is just a stepping stone in its grand plans. Elon Musk's company wants to make deep space travel to the Moon and beyond more economical, and that will require rockets far larger and more powerful than the company's own Falcon Heavy. That role will be filled by the SpaceX Starship, and the company took just a small step closer to that end goal with the successful test of what will eventually be the Super Heavy booster.