Space X has a lot of planned launches in 2016, more so than any previous year in-fact – that's why it's now mass producing the Falcon 9 rocket. However the second launch attempt since the new-year has been rather problematic, with the commercial space venture cancelling its last two launch …
Read More »Space X shows off mass-rocket production
Space X is ramping up production of its Falcon 9 rocket and to prove it, it showcased an image on its Instagram account of as many as five of the iconic boosters currently being constructed at its facilities. This comes just a few weeks after Space X COO, Gwynne Shotwell, …
Read More »Elon Musk to announce Space X Mars plans this year
Amid all the furore over who did what first between Space X and Blue Origin and repeated attempts by the former to land a rocket booster on its drone-barge, Space X CEO Elon Musk is still thinking about Mars. He's been doing that for a while in-fact and has some …
Read More »Bezos confirms Blue Origin has touched down again
Even without the billionaire sarcasm war between Space X CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, there's no denying that Blue Origin's efforts to get people into space are still exciting. That's doubly so when launches can be repeated with the same hardware too, as it brings costs down …
Read More »Space X Falcon rocket touches down… and then falls over
Space X has once again narrowly missed out on a successful drone-ship landing of its Falcon 9 first stage booster rocket. Although the orbital launch vehicle did manage to touch back down on the automated platform, it only stood upright for a few seconds before toppling over and exploding on …
Read More »Elon Musk: Falcon 9 will try to land on barge again this weekend
Although Space X spent much of 2015 not launching rockets after a singular failure, it's starting 2016 off with a bang by launching a new payload into orbit this weekend. Better yet, after proving that its Falcon 9 first stage booster can be landed back on land, it's going to …
Read More »Elon Musk confirms Space X Falcon 9 booster landed unharmed
Although there were many great scientific breakthroughs in 2015, the most exciting for some came at the tail end of it. Space X's landing of a first stage rocket booster after separation represents a real turning point in space travel efficiency and thankfully, it looks like the rocket touched down …
Read More »Amazon’s Bezos sends snarky tweet to Musk over Space X landing
It looks like no matter whether you're in the school playground or a billionaire CEO of a space-faring company, the size of your rocket matters. Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon.com, has sparked a heated response from Space X fans, after sending a tweet to Elon Musk, in a …
Read More »Space X sticks the landing – Falcon 9 stage one lands safely
Space X made history in the early hours of this morning, when it launched its new and improved Falcon 9 rocket into Low-Earth Orbit, separating the first stage booster part-way through the ascent, and returning it safely to Earth. This is Space X's first successful landing of the first stage …
Read More »Space X’s next Falcon 9 rocket launch to take place today
“Punting 24 hours,” sounds like a very relaxed way to push back the launch of a $50 million rocket, but that's exactly what Space X CEO Elon Musk did on Sunday, via Twitter. His announcement means that the improved Falcon 9 rocket carrying 11 ORBCOMM satellites will instead head into …
Read More »Space X set to test new and improved Falcon 9 this week
It's been nearly six months since Space X has launched one of its Falcon 9 rockets, after the last one spectacularly exploded due to an overpressure event shortly after launch in June. But this week will see the commercial space venture testing a new and improved version of the rocket, …
Read More »NASA will leave Low-Earth-Orbit to private industry
The International Space Station is one of mankind's greatest feats of science and engineering, but unlike architecture of old, its shelf life is far, far shorter. In-fact NASA plans to abandon it by the end of the 2020s as it begins to move beyond Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO), but to continue tests and …
Read More »Elon Musk wants governments to charge for carbon
Space X and Tesla founder Elon Musk has called on students and citizens to lobby their government to introduce a ‘carbon price' to help hurry along commercial industries in making their businesses cleaner and to encourage the development of new renewable energy sources. Removing subsidies for traditional energy would cut …
Read More »British-made, air-breathing rocket engine could change space travel
As much as we're excited by the ventures of Space X and Amazon in making travel into space and the transport of materials into orbit that much cheaper with their re-usable systems, they're not the only ones looking to revolutionise space travel. British company Reaction Engines has designed a new …
Read More »Elon Musk tells Amazon CEO: Space X did it first
Space X CEO Elon Musk has been talking space again on Twitter, but this time he's been using it to point out his own company's achievements in the wake of Amazon's successful Blue Origin launch. Although that was quite an achievement, he pointed out that Space X had been performing similar …
Read More »Space X gets go ahead from NASA for manned ISS mission
In a landmark moment in the history of space travel, a company has been selected to transport humans from the bounds of Earth, into the cosmos above, in its own capsule design. Space X, the company founded by Elon Musk in the early '00s has finally come of age and …
Read More »Space X may secure U.S. Air Force contract with ULA a no show
Although much of the history of space exploration has been driven by the minds and money of national organisations like NASA and the Soviet Space Program, commercial entities have been aiding their efforts for a long time. And that looks set to continue with Space X bidding on a contract …
Read More »Elon Musk confident of first-stage rocket landing within a year
The space race was arguably the best thing to come out of the Cold War. It would be insensitive to suggest that all of the problems it wrought on the world were worth getting people to the moon, but the competition of major powers trying to outdo each other in …
Read More »Lockheed and Boeing to build re-usable rocket too
When a new piece of hardware is introduced to a market that shakes things up, it's often termed disruptive. Elon Musk is himself, a disruptor of many industries, helping push the world towards electric cars, high-speed maglev hyperloop travel and indeed, cheaper and more efficient space transits. So much so …
Read More »$150 million Hyperloop test track construction could begin next month
Not content with turning our transportation electric and making space travel more affordable, Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk also has another pet project: the Hyperloop. A near-vacuum sealed tube-train design that could carry passengers across entire countries faster than airplane travel. The concept is still a long way …
Read More »Space X’s Dragon crew capsule looks like it’s from the future
When you think of the cockpit of a Space Shuttle or rocket propelled crew capsule, what do you see? If you're like us, you see a cramped, button festooned, interior that has more dials and switches than any human could possibly understand. That's nothing like Space X's dragon capsule, which looks …
Read More »Space X launch parameters angering local residents
As much as Space X launches might be something the world at large can delight in when they – almost – land a rocket on a barge, or run test flights of their manned capsule system, not everyone is so pleased. For the 26 residents of the village nearby the launch …
Read More »Space X’s simulated manned trips to the ISS are going great
Although it may not be until 2017 that Space X is given the all clear to fly its Dragon V2 capsule filled with astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station, that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of testing to do before then. That's why over the past few …
Read More »Kerbalnaut Scott Manley explains Space X CRS7 launch failure
It's good that the New Horizons Pluto flyby went off (almost) without a hitch, as recent missions into the inky blackness of space haven't been quite so successful. The most recent failing was an explosion of Space X's CRS7 resupply mission to the ISS, which exploded during the first stage …
Read More »Russian space craft restocks ISS after Space X failure
The International Space Station is arguably mankind's greatest technological achievement, so it's important that it remains operational throughout its intended life span and that means keeping the intrepid astronauts and cosmonauts aboard well fed and with plenty to do. Fortunately then, after several failures in 2015 a Russian capsule has docked …
Read More »Space X set to launch thousands of satellites to offer internet access
Elon Musk and his space faring company, Space X, have announced many different plans and projects over the past couple of years, but one of the most intriguing was the idea to put several hundred miniature satellites into orbit, to create a global, wireless internet network. While often dismissed it …
Read More »Space X secures US military contract
Space X has increased its potential client base in a big way. While it may already have contracts with NASA to ferry cargo and eventual astronauts to the ISS, it's now secured a deal with the US military to provide launch vehicles for satellites that will have various functions, including those …
Read More »Space X releases pad abort test point of view video
Rocket launches are inherantly dangerous. While we may have come up with lots of clever ways to keep astronauts and expensive equipment safe during a launch, they are at the end of the day sat upon literal tonnes of highly explosive fuel, so sometimes things go wrong. That's why there …
Read More »Space X releases spoof Mars travel adverts
As it stands, the most exotic of locations tend to be barely inhabited islands in remote parts of the world, volcano lairs and skyscaper penthouses, but there's one problem with all of those: they're Earthbound. If we really want to start offering tourists a life changing holiday destination, we need …
Read More »Space X successes continue with Turkmenistan satellite launch
In a move that shows Space X certainly isn't putting all its eggs in a Western basket, the Elon Musk backed corporation has launched another successful Falcon 9 rocket, this time sending up a satellite for ex-Soviet state, Turkmenistan. Although it didn't attempt a soft-landing on the remote barge, the …
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