SpaceX | Common News Update

Sep182018 by adminNo Comments

Elon Musk unveils first tourist for SpaceX 'Moon loop'

Elon Musk's company SpaceX has unveiled the first private passenger it plans to fly around the Moon.Japanese billionaire and online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, 42, announced: "I choose to go to the Moon."The mission is planned for 2023, and would be the first lunar journey by humans since 1972.But it is reliant on a rocket that has not been built yet, and Mr Musk cautioned: "It's not 100% certain we can bring this to flight."The man hoping to become world's first moon touristThe announcement was made at SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California, on Tuesday. The company said the flight on board the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) - a launch system that was unveiled by Mr Musk in 2016 - represented...

Sep152018 by adminNo Comments

SpaceX changes plans to send tourists around the moon

Technology

SpaceX said it has signed the first private moon traveler, with some changes to its original game plan. The big reveal on who it is — and when the flight to the moon will be — will be announced Monday at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California. It's not the same mission SpaceX founder Elon Musk outlined last year. The original plan called for two paying passengers to fly around the moon this year, using a Falcon Heavy rocket and a Dragon crew capsule. At the time, Musk said the pair approached SpaceX about sending them on a weeklong flight and paid a "significant" deposit for the trip. The new strategy is to still fly around the moon, but using an even bigger SpaceX rocket still in development that has its own dedicated passenger ship. And now, it appears there wi...

Jul222018 by adminNo Comments

SpaceX successfully launches satellite

Science

July 20 (UPI) -- SpaceX launched another communications satellite during the wee hours of Sunday morning. The company's 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket blasted off at 1:50 a.m. ET Sunday. The rocket and payload, a Telstar 19 VANTAGE satellite, lifted from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the company's 13th launch of the year. The Falcon 9's first-stage booster landed on the deck of a SpaceX ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean about 8 1/2 minutes after liftoff. It will return to Port Canaveral in a few days. Thirty-three minutes after launch, 15,500-pound Telstar 19 Vantage satellite was released. It's orbit is over the equator. Sunday morning's mission marked the second launch for the Block 5, the most advanced and final iteration of the Falcon 9. The first one...

Jul12018 by adminNo Comments

SpaceX launches AI robot, strong coffee for station crew

Technology

A SpaceX rocket that flew just two months ago with a NASA satellite roared back into action Friday, launching the first orbiting robot with artificial intelligence and other station supplies. The used Falcon rocket blasted off before dawn, hauling nearly 6,000 pounds (2,700 kilograms) of cargo including the spherical AI bot named Cimon, genetically identical mice and super-caffeinated coffee for the crew of the International Space Station. The shipment — packed into a Dragon capsule that's also recycled — should reach the station Monday. It was an especially gorgeous launch, delighting spectators as the rocket plume expanded in the clear night sky like a giant halo beneath a nearly full moon and a gleaming Mars. SpaceX's Jessica Jensen described the high-altitude plume, illum...

Jun292018 by adminNo Comments

SpaceX fires 'flying brain' into space

Technology

SpaceX has sent the first robot with artificial intelligence - nicknamed the "flying brain" - to the International Space Station. Genetically identical mice for research purposes and super-strength coffee for the crew were also blasted off, packed into a Dragon capsule.AI robot Cimon, pronounced Simon, has been trained to help German astronaut Alexander Gerst with experiments and will remain indefinitely on the orbiting lab. Image: The artificial intelligence robot named CIMON will assist ISS crew with experiments The Dragon will also deliver 20 brown female mice, half of them genetically identical from one strain of family, and the other half from another, so they can later be compared with their twins on the ground.R...