SpaceX has announced the completion of a big milestone for the company, which has successfully wrapped up its first geostationary transfer mission, sending an SES-8 satellite to its intended destination. The mission went off without a hitch, with SpaceX saying the rocket — a Falcon 9 — had a “picture-perfect flight” and that all mission […]
SpaceX‘s rescheduled Nov. 25 launch on Nov. 28 was rescheduled yet again due to a slow rocket thrust buildup. The Thanksgiving Day launch was ready to go and seconds from liftoff, but the on-board computer automatically aborted the sequence. SpaceX (and Tesla) CEO Elon Musk announced the event on Twitter — and shared a few […]
The original launch
     |
SpaceX has scrubbed its planned SES-8 telecommunications satellite launch today, rescheduling the Falcon 9 rocket blast-off to Thanksgiving, Thursday November 28th. The launch, described by SpaceX as its “most challenging mission to date“, would have been the company’s first launch to a geostationary transfer orbit, 80,000 km from Earth. The original plan was to launch […]
Engineers and safety specialists from NASA and SpaceX met in late October to conduct a safety review of the Dragon spacecraft and the Falcon 9 rocket. NASA announced that the meeting took place last Friday. The safety review was designed to look at the safety policies and procedures in place in preparation for using the […]
In the past few months SpaceX’s Grasshopper has done test runs that included jaunts
| |
While most of the news about SpaceX has surrounded the Grasshopper lately, the firm has been plugging away at its Falcon rocket, too. This just-launched Falcon 9 (dubbed version 1.1) boasts 60 percent more powerful engines, longer fuel tanks and according to the Global Post, other new features that were designed to boost lift capacity and “simplify operations for commercial service.” To that end, the spacecraft was carrying a science and communications satellite for Canada’s MDA Corp. when it left Earth’s atmosphere. The take-off comes just over five years after the first Falcon’s departure, and its itinerary will take it around both poles. Just remember, for a cool $56.5 million you too can send a Falcon 9 into space.
Filed under: Transportation, Science
Via: YouTube
Source: SpaceX (YouTube), SpaceX (Twitter)
When it was unveiled a few weeks ago, Elon Musk’s Hyperloop project sounded almost too good to be true. Dr. Marco Villa, former director of mission operations at SpaceX, was among those who didn’t get the memo from the naysayers, as he’s just joined a team set on elevating Hyperloop from fantasy to reality. The crowd-sourced startup platform JumpStartFund enabled the group’s formation after the Hyperloop plans were posted there in August; since then, a handful of talented individuals, led by Villa, received permission from Musk to work on developing the project. Joining Villa on the mission to make your high-speed travel dreams a reality is Dr. Patricia Galloway, who once served as president of the American Society of Civil Engineers (and was, notably, the first woman to hold that title). While the rail line is still a long way away from fruition, Villa seems optimistic, stating, “There does not seem to be any technical issues on this project that we can’t solve, even if we do not know right away, we will figure it out.”
Filed under: Transportation
Via: The Verge
Source: JumpStartFund
Tesla is joining the race to build and sell the world’s first self-driving car, and it plans to win. In an interview with the Financial Times this week, Elon Musk said he’s working on building a car that can run on "auto-pilot" within three years. That would put Tesla way ahead of competition
| |
Not too long ago, real-life Tony Stark Elon Musk was talking on Twitter
| |
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
