SpaceX

Part of my series on common misconceptions in space journalism. SpaceX has been working on some variant of the Big Falcon Rocket for almost a decade, with a publicly announced architecture for three years. The target performance figures are on the Starship w…

(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) — The Air Force’s mystery space plane is back on Earth, following a record-breaking two-year mission. The X-37B landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Sunday. The Air Force is mum about what the plane did in orbit after…

The old space shuttle landing facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center received an unusual visitor early Sunday morning when the Air Forces secretive X-37B space plane autonomously returned from orbit after a record-breaking mission. For the last 780 days, the …

The fifth mission, known as OTV-5 (for "orbital test vehicle") launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 7, 2017. That means it was in space for 780 days, or more than two years. This mission started with a liftoff atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The Ai…

Building effective propulsion systems for satellites has traditionally been a highly bespoke affair, with expensive, one-off systems tailor-made to big, expensive spacecraft hardware. But increasingly, companies including startups are looking at ways to provi…

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s secretive X-37B spaceplane landed in Florida on Sunday after a record-long orbital flight lasting more than two years, the U.S. Air Force said, capping the latest test mission for an array of military technologies. The unpiloted X…

NASA's next Martian vehicle is finally supporting its own weight.  The space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California released the brief time-lapse video above showing the Mars 2020 rover's six wheels and legs taking on the full pull of Earth. …

NASA and its commercial astronaut program partners are laser-focused on getting crew into space, but to get to space you first have to get to the rocket, and that’s where the Airstream Astrovan II comes in. This vehicle, which is the sequel to the original As…

At this week’s International Astronautical Congress, where the space industry, international space agencies and researchers from around the world convene to discuss the state of space technology and business, I asked NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine about w…

Elon Musk-owned SpaceX plans to start offering broadband through its Starlink satellite by the next year. SpaceX president and COO, Gwynne Shotwell, said yesterday the company is confident in achieving this goal. Shotwell mentioned during a media roundtable …