In the future, getting your own personal satellite into orbit might be as easy as chartering a flight. And after their first successful commercial launch launch this week, SpaceX is trying to make that possible.
Now that SpaceX has finally sent a rocket into orbit successfully, the Elon Musk-headed company is now focusing on its next goal—hauling cargo for NASA on the Falcon 9, sending people to the International Space Station with its Dragon capsule, and possibly a moon landing as well! Quite a list for a company that only…
This is the on-rocket video of SpaceX's successful Falcon 1 launch. The Earth gets smaller, the sky gets darker, the engines burn cleanly, all systems remain nominal, and 10 minutes later the little rocket that finally could is in orbit...as simply as that. Check out the jubilant cheers from the SpaceX team at about…
After three failed attempts, one scattering of Scotty's ashes over the Pacific Ocean, and a few mid-air explosions, the SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket has finally reached orbit. The achievement marks a major milestone for Elon Musk, whose visions of a privately-funded rocket program appeared just out of reach until today's…
After three fiery failed test launches of its Falcon 1 rocket (the last one carrying NASA's first solar sail craft and Scotty from Star Trek's ashes), Elon Musk's SpaceX is setting up shop at a new launch site-Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 40, which is just south of SLC-39A/B, from which the Space Shuttle and…
The failure of spacecraft Falcon 1 to launch this weekend wasn't just a blow to the dream of privately-funded space travel - it was also the universe's ironic commentary on the infamous abilities of Canada's most famous space-faring Scot. What links Star Trek's Scotty with the future of our corporate destiny in the…
As you know by now, SpaceX's most recent rocket launch attempt failed early in its flight, destroying the vehicle and sending its satellite payload and the ashes of James Doohan—Star Trek's original Scotty— into the ocean. It's just what happens sometimes with space technology: there's so much complexity, so much…
Bad news for private space flight aficionados-SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket lifted off live via webcast last night, and then proceded to blow up spectacularly in the sky over the Pacific Ocean. If you were following along on the official SpaceX website, you probably saw this: "20:38 PDT — We have heard from launch control…
Like watching rocket launches? Then check out the live webcast of SpaceX's Falcon 1 launch from the Marshall Islands at 7pm EST. The Falcon 1 measures 90 feet, weighs roughly 103,000 pounds and uses a two stage, liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene vehicle to blast off. SpaceX, started up by Elon Musk of PayPal…
NASA's getting set to launch the NanoSail-D next week, its first solar-sail powered spacecraft which catches photons like wind on a 10 square-meter sail made of a thin metallic polymer. The craft uses a crazy Rube Goldberg-like method to deploy the sail that involves burning fishing line at critical moments to release…
Take a look at the launch from the point of view of the vehicle itself, where it successfully roars into space and later separates from the first stage. But then the second stage begins to sway back and forth and glow a hot red toward the end, with the video ending when contact with the vehicle was lost 5:05 into the…
