SpaceX is preparing to launch the biggest and most powerful rocket Thursday, working nonstop after the first shot at a test flight fizzled earlier in the week. The nearly 400-foot (120-meter) Starship is poised to blast off from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. SpaceX’s Elon Musk gave 50–50 odds of the…

TOKYO—The bankruptcy filing by Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc. has dealt a blow to Japan’s hopes of building a domestic space industry, with plans for a Kyushu-based spaceport designed to attract tourism on hold for lack of funding. Oita prefecture, home to Japan’s largest number of hot springs, partnered with Virgin Orbit in 2020…

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—NASA’s Orion capsule reached the moon Monday, whipping around the far side and buzzing the lunar surface on its way to a record-breaking orbit with test dummies sitting in for astronauts. It’s the first time a capsule has visited the moon since NASA’s Apollo program 50 years ago, and represents a huge milestone…

Chinese military researchers reportedly view the SpaceX-operated Starlink satellite internet system as a national security threat while suggesting Beijing needs to have the ability to destroy it. An expert suggests that the PLA has no capability to defeat Starlink. A Beijing-affiliated military TV program, “Crazy Warfare Show,” recently published an article analyzing the progress of…

WASHINGTON—Amazon’s satellite venture, SpaceX’s Starlink network, and other satellite firms on Wednesday won a combined $278.5 million in contracts from NASA to demonstrate communications in space as the U.S. space agency moves to replace its current satellite network in orbit with privately-built systems. NASA is increasingly looking to rely on private space companies for its…

SpaceX launched 53 Starlink satellites into orbit from Florida on Saturday. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 7:19 a.m. EST (1219 GMT) and deployed the satellites about 16 minutes after launch. The rocket’s reusable first stage, which has been used for multiple launches, successfully returned and landed on…

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—SpaceX expanded its constellation of low Earth orbit satellites on Saturday with the launch of 53 Starlink satellites from Florida. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 7:19 a.m. EST and deployed the satellites about 16 minutes after launch. The rocket’s reusable first stage, which has been…

Viasat Inc., a global communications company headquartered in Carlsbad, California, has opened its first Real-Time Earth (RTE) facility in Africa, located in Accra, Ghana. What Happened Viasat has partnered with the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute, a government-based institution under Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, on the new station, which will provide Ground-Station-as-a-Service (GSaaS) capabilities…

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—Elon Musk’s private rocket company, SpaceX, was due to launch four more astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Wednesday, including a veteran spacewalker and two younger crewmates chosen to join NASA’s forthcoming lunar missions. The SpaceX-built launch vehicle, consisting of a Crew Dragon capsule perched atop a two-stage Falcon 9…

Landsat 9 is the latest in a string of satellites sent up into orbit since 1972. It’s a joint monitoring program run by the U.S. space agency NASA and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The Landsat satellites work by collecting light, the intensity of which gives information about what is on the ground. Landsat…