Tag: SpaceX

Study identifies range of interference produced by Starlink satellites

8:58 am

In analyzing about 76 million radio images produced by the new Square Kilometer Array (SKA) in Australia scientists have found within them signals produced by SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.

PhD candidate and study lead Dylan Grigg said the team detected more than 112,000 radio emissions from 1806 Starlink satellites, making it the most comprehensive catalogue of satellite radio emissions at low frequencies to date. “Starlink is the most immediate and frequent source of potential interference for radio astronomy: it launched 477 satellites during this study’s four-month data collection period alone,” Mr Grigg said. “In some datasets, we found up to 30 per cent of our images showed interference from a Starlink satellite.”

Mr Grigg said the issue wasn’t just the number of satellites, but the strength of the signals and the frequencies they were visible at. “Some satellites were detected emitting in bands where no signals are supposed to be present at all, such as the 703 satellites we identified at 150.8 MHz, which is meant to be protected for radio astronomy,” Mr Grigg said. “Because they may come from components like onboard electronics and they’re not part of an intentional signal, astronomers can’t easily predict them or filter them out.”

The researchers were careful to note that SpaceX has been following all international regulations, and that these signals are not a violation of any law or regulation. Further, they emphasized that “Discussions we have had with SpaceX on the topic have been constructive.”

Because many other such constellations are now being launched — with several from China that normally does not negotiate these issues like SpaceX — the scientists want new international regulations imposed to protect their work.

More and more it seems astronomers should simply move their operations into space or the Moon, where such issues will not exist. Getting above the atmosphere and away from our modern technological society provides so many benefits for research the move should be a no-brainer. That it is now also much cheaper to do it (thanks to SpaceX) makes the move even more practical.

For some reason however the idea seems too difficult for many astronomers to fathom.

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SpaceX launches two SES communications satellites

2:41 pm

Despite a launch abort yesterday at T-11 seconds for unstated reasons, SpaceX followed up by successfully completing the launch today, sending two SES communications satellites into orbit with its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

This was SpaceX’s fifth launch for this SES constellation, during which it has placed a total of ten satellites into orbit. The first stage completed its sixth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The fairings completed their ninth and twenty-first flights respectively.

A few hours earlier a different SpaceX rocket had another launch abort at about T-43 seconds, this time because of a local power outage. That launch has been rescheduled for later this evening.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

90 SpaceX
37 China
10 Rocket Lab
8 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 90 to 64.

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Local county abruptly stops delivering water to Boca Chica

9:04 am

Without any warning Cameron county early this month abruptly stopped its decades-long delivery of water to residents of Boca Chica and the newly formed town of Starbase.

[T]he county suddenly stopped the $15 monthly service — with no notice — earlier this month, said Keith Reynolds, a Starbase resident unaffiliated with SpaceX.

“Abruptly cutting off water service without notice poses safety and public health risks,” Kent Myers, Starbase’s city administrator, wrote in a letter to County Commissioner Sofia Benavides, whose precinct includes that stretch of Texas 4. Starbase, he pointed out, “has neither the legal authority nor operational capacity to deliver water to these residents.”

Neither the county nor Commissioner Benavides has responded to multiple requests for comment about the decision. Reynolds said the county and Benavides “decided to leave everybody high and dry without water — didn’t say a word.”

…Reynolds, who’s had his troubles with his SpaceX neighbors over the years — including power surges, traffic, drones and behavior he’s described as bullying, said the county’s recent move bothers him more than anything SpaceX has done. “That’s just a willful denying of basic services to your residents,” he said. “You can’t just stop being a provider of water for a whole community.”

The county’s action including cutting off service to residents both inside Starbase and those nearby.

SpaceX has been topping off residents tanks for the time being at no charge. It is in the process of establishing its own water system, but for these locals to access it will require them to sign agreements that require them to evacuate during launches if ordered to by SpaceX.

The lack of explanation or warning strongly suggests the county’s actions were a political retaliation against the recent creation of the town of Starbase. County Commissioner Benavides had previously opposed the recently passed state law that gave Starbase the power to close Boca Chica’s beaches.

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Is SpaceX doing ocean salvage operations near Boca Chica?

11:25 pm

Superheavy aft section being salvaged
Click for original source.

SpaceX appears to be recovering the Superheavy booster that soft landed off shore from Boca Chica during the sixth test flight in November.

On Saturday, footage, albeit from a vantage point of someone who should not have been that close to the recovery operations, showed the aft end of a Booster with most of its Raptor engines still attached, being lifted out of the water.

During that November flight mission controllers decided against attempting a chopstick recovery, and sent the booster to do a soft vertical spashdown just off the coast. The booster than fell over and was seen drifting south. It appears SpaceX has now mounted operations to recovery it, possibly in response to the complaints by Mexican officials about its rocket pieces showing up on the beaches. Company engineers likely also wish to take a look at the equipment for their own reasons.

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SpaceX launches 24 more Starlink satellites

11:40 pm

SpaceX today successfully launched another 24 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The first stage completed its fourteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

89 SpaceX
37 China
10 Rocket Lab
8 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 89 to 64.

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Musk: 10th Starship/Superheavy launch in “about three weeks”

12:31 pm

According to a very short tweet Elon Musk posted on July 15, 2025, SpaceX will attempt the 10th orbital test flight of Starship/Superheavy in “about three weeks.”

Musk however provided little information. This is the full text of his tweet:

Launching again in ~3 weeks

The lack of information raises more questions than it answers. For example, how is SpaceX replacing the destroyed Starship that blew up during a static fire test in June on its Massey test stand at Boca Chica? I assume it is using another prototype already in the assembly line, but will it be a version 2 prototype that the company has flown on the past three flights that failed each time after stage separation from Superheavy? Or has SpaceX dumped the prototypes of version 2 and shifted directly to version 3 because of those failures?

How is it going to do its Starship prelaunch static fire tests? Has it gotten its Massey test stand repaired that quickly, or has it found other options? Earlier reports suggested fixing the stand would take much longer. Furthermore, there was the question of fixing it for version 2 or version 3, which require different configurations. Fixing it for version 2 suggested this would delay bringing version 3 on line.

This tweet raises more questions than it answers. However, if Musk is even close to correct than many of these questions will be answered in only a week or two, since that is when prelaunch static fire test must begin.

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Axiom’s ticket price for India’s astronaut on Ax-4 mission: $59 million

10:38 am

According to reports today in the India press, the price Axiom charged India’s space agency ISRO for training and then flying its astronaut on the just completed Ax-4 two-week mission to ISS was $59 million.

The expenditure by ISRO includes cost of [Shubhanshu] Shukla’s training for the mission as well as that of a seat on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft for the 20-day trip that launched Shukla, and three others — Peggy Whitson from the US, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary — to space.

Earlier reports had suggested Axiom was charging $70 million per ticket. If the $59 million is accurate and applies to the charges Poland and Hungary paid, then Axiom’s revenue for the flight was $177 million. From that it would have to pay SpaceX (for the launch and the use of its Grace capsule) and NASA (for the use of ISS). Based on past history, SpaceX likely charged around $70 million for the launch. The cost for using Grace is unknown. NASA’s fees for a two-week visit to ISS were probably around $10 million plus.

My guess, based on this very limited information, is that Axiom made some profit from the flight, ranging from $20 to $50 million.

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SpaceX planning to use Starship for manufacturing in space

10:00 am

It appears the enthusiastic investment response last week to the potential of using Varda’s re-turnable capsule for manufacturing in space (especially of pharmceuticals) has caught SpaceX’s interest. According to a news report yesterday, SpaceX has now begun developing a program to use Starship for the same purpose, delivering the raw materials in orbit for short or long periods while these products are produced automatically and then returning them for sale on Earth.

Under the plan, internally called Starfall, SpaceX’s Starship rocket would bring products such as pharmaceutical components to space in small, uncrewed capsules, said one of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is confidential.

Starship would then deploy the capsules, which would spend time in orbit before reentering the atmosphere, where they could be recovered back on Earth, the person added.

This description by this anonymous source seems inaccurate however. Why even consider using these small separate capsules when the entire operation can be put inside Starship, which can then bring everything home when ready? Moreover, Starship’s ability to put a lot of mass in a large space up into orbit gives it an great advantage over the smaller capsules being developed by companies like Varda.

Either way, the advantages of weightlessness for producing products for profit are finally being realized, after decades of blockage by government intransigence. Since the Challenger accident in 1986 and Reagan’s order that the shuttle would no longer not be used for commercial purposes, NASA has forbidden production on its spacecraft and ISS of any products for sale afterward.

Now that the cost of launch has dropped significantly (Thank you Elon Musk!), many investors and companies are seeing great potential for manufacturing in space. And those profits will help feed a private space industry, making the government agency of NASA even more irrelevant.

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SpaceX completes its first launch for Amazon

11:39 pm

SpaceX tonight successfully launched 24 Kuiper satellites for Amazon’s internet constellation, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its first launch, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. This was the third new stage launched in 2025, and follows the company’s recent pattern of launching between one to three new stages per year. The two fairings completed their 27th and 28th flights respectively. As of posting the satellites had not yet been deployed.

This was SpaceX’s first launch for Amazon, out of an initial contract of three launches. The launch was also Amazon’s third Kuiper satellite launch, the previous two by ULA on its Atlas-5 rocket, launching 27 satellites each. While ULA seems poised to begin regular launches for Amazon, having a contract for 46 launches (with completed two), the contracts for Blue Origin’s New Glenn (27 launches, and ArianeGroup’s Ariane-6 (18 launches) are more uncertain. Neither company has achieved any launches on their contracts, and it is not clear when either company, especially Blue Origin, will ever begin regular launches.

This slow launch pace from these companies is a serious problem for Amazon, which is required by its FCC licence to get 1,600 satellites in orbit by July 2026. For this reason, there are rumors that Amazon might switching more launches to SpaceX, as it has the capability of to launch frequently.

We will have to wait and see.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

88 SpaceX
37 China
10 Rocket Lab
8 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 88 to 64.

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SpaceX launches 26 Starlink satellites

7:18 pm

SpaceX this evening successfully placed another 26 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.

The first stage completed its fourth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

87 SpaceX
37 China
10 Rocket Lab
8 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 87 to 64.

SpaceX also has another launch scheduled in just a few hours from Cape Canaveral, launching 24 Kuiper satellites for Amazon. This is SpaceX’s first launch for Amazon, out of contract of three launches. It will also be the third Kuiper satellite launch, the previous two by ULA on its Atlas-5 rocket, launching 27 satellites each.

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Axiom’s commercial manned mission to ISS splashes down safely

8:56 am

Axiom’s fourth commercial manned mission to ISS successfully splashed down off the coast of California early this morning, returning its astronaut commander, employed by Axiom, and three government passengers from India, Poland, and Hungary after spending two weeks at the space station and eighteen days total in space.

For all three nations this was their second manned flight, and the first in more than four decades. All three had previously flown astronauts on Soviet era Soyuz missions, with Poland and Hungary’s astronauts visiting the Salyut 6 station in 1978 and 1980 respectively, and India’s astronaut visiting the Salyut 7 station in 1984.

The mission also marked the inaugural flight of SpaceX’s new Grace reusable manned Dragon capsule, the fifth such spacecraft in its fleet. SpaceX’s fleet is now larger that NASA’s space shuttle fleet ever was.

If you watch the live stream at the link, it is once again important to note that everyone you see on the screen, except for these three government astronauts, are employees of SpaceX or Axiom. There is no government involvement at all in the splash down procedure. It is entirely commercial and private affair.

In other words, who needs NASA for spaceflight? It clearly is not required.

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Dragon capsule undocks from ISS carrying four Axiom’s passengers

8:47 am

After spending 18 days in space, 14 on ISS, the Dragon capsule early this morning undocked from ISS with a splashdown scheduled for early tomorrow.

The mission was financed by the space station company Axiom, and was commanded by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, now employed by Axiom as a professional astronaut. The three paying passengers were all government astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary.

The capsule, dubbed Grace, is the newest addition to SpaceX’s fleet of five manned reusable capsules, flying on its first mission.

Splashdown is scheduled for the wee hours of July 15th tomorrow off the coast of California. The live stream can be found here.

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SpaceX launches geosynchronous satellite for unnamed customer

11:42 pm

SpaceX tonight successfully launched a geosynchronous satellite for unnamed customer, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its thirteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The fairings completed their fourteenth and eighteenth flights respectively. No information about the satellite was released, including ending the live stream right after the first stage landed while providing no information about the satellite’s orbit after stage separation.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

86 SpaceX
36 China
10 Rocket Lab
8 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 86 to 63.

6 comments

Judge narrows SpaceX lawsuit against California Coastal Commission

9:16 am

Though U.S. district judge Stanley Blumenfeld ruled in May that SpaceX’s lawsuit against California Coastal Commission for targeting the company because the commissioners did not like Elon Musk’s political views can proceed, in early July he also narrowed the lawsuit significantly.

Blumenfeld granted a motion to dismiss violations of the First Amendment and due process against the commission and individual members based on lack of standing, sovereign immunity and failure to state a claim, but allowed allegations of “biased attempts to regulate SpaceX’s activity” and unlawfully demanding a CDP to proceed.

“In sum, SpaceX has plausibly alleged a ripe, nonspeculative case or controversy over whether it must obtain a CDP to continue its Falcon 9 launches,” Blumenfeld said in his order. “The credible threat that defendants will bring an enforcement action and subject SpaceX to daily fines for not having a CDP — which defendants pointedly do not disavow — is sufficient to establish an actual injury under Article III [of the U.S. Constitution].”

It appears the judge acted to protect the commissioners themselves from direct liability, using the made-up concept from the 20th century that government employees are somehow wholly immune from any responsibility for their actions.

Nonetheless, SpaceX has a great case, and is very likely to win in court, a victory that could very well cause the coastal commission and the state of California serious monetary pain.

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SpaceX gets approval to build oxygen plant at Boca Chica

1:03 pm

SpaceX today received the okay from Cameron County to build a plant at Boca Chica to produce oxygen from the atmosphere for use in its Superheavy/Starship rocket.

The commissioners voted, 3-1, to give Elon Musk’s rocket company a beachfront construction certificate and dune protection permit, allowing the company to build a modern-day factory akin to an oil refinery to produce gases needed for space flight launches.

The plant will consist of 20 structures on 1.66 acres. The enclosed site will include a tower that will reach 159 feet, or about 15 stories high, much shorter than the nearby launch tower, which stretches 480 feet high. It is set to be built about 280 feet inland from the line of vegetation, which is where the dunes begin. The factory will separate air into nitrogen and oxygen. SpaceX utilizes liquid oxygen as a propellant and liquid nitrogen for testing and operations.

By having the facility on site, SpaceX hopes to make the delivery of those gases more efficient by eliminating the need to have dozens of trucks deliver them from Brownsville. The company says they need more than 200 trucks of liquid nitrogen and oxygen delivered for each launch, a SpaceX engineer told the county during a meeting last week.

As usual, the same cranks who always complain about this stuff are given space by this news outlet to whine, but the truth is that the commission’s vote well reflects the attitude of the local community. It supports what SpaceX is doing, because of the prosperity the company is bringing to this formerly depressed region.

Moreover, this facility will not only save SpaceX money and make it easier to launch more frequently, it is likely environmentally beneficial. I suspect the facility will be relatively clean compared to the truck convoys it will replace.

Hat tip Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.

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Sightseeing near Starship’s candidate Martian landing sites

2:21 pm

An interesting mesa near Starship's Martian landing zone
Click for original image.

Today’s cool image takes us sightseeing in the region on Mars that SpaceX has chosen for its prime landing zone for its Starship spaceship. The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on May 29, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and shows a 465-foot-high unusually shaped mesa in this region.

The full resolution inset at the bottom of the picture focuses at the strange tilted layers on the southern slope of this mesa. Apparently the layers at this spot were pushed sideways so they lie significantly angled to the horizontal. Though it isn’t clear from this picture, it is possible that the mesa itself is made up of similar tilted layers, hidden below the surface. We can see the tilt only on the mesa’s southern flank because erosion has apparently exposed it.

Note also the black stain that surrounds the mesa. Though this might be caused by wind distributing dust, such stains have also been seen at a location where scientists suspect an inactive hot spring might exist, as well as another location where there may have been relatively recent volcanic activity.

Is this stain caused by any of these processes? In situ exploration would probably be necessary to find out. And we may soon actually have spaceships landing here in the relatively near future with the capability to do this.
» Read more

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SpaceX gets launch contract from Globalstar

8:58 am

As it appears right now to be the only American rocket company capable of taking on new launch contracts, SpaceX today was awarded a new launch contract from Globalstar to launch its third generation set of satellites.

The press release is not clear about the number of satellites or launches involved, but either way the deal signals SpaceX’s continuing dominance. For larger satellites it has no real competitors. Not only are its launch prices the cheapest, none of its competitors are capable of adding new customers to their launch manifests. In fact, those competitors, ULA, Arianespace, and Blue Origin, are having trouble simply getting their rockets off the ground on a regular basis.

This situation however is likely to change by two years, assuming the new rockets being developed by Rocket Lab, Stoke Space, and Relativity finally begin flying.

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SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites

8:40 am

After an unusual pause of launches of several days (likely due to the July 4th weekend), SpaceX last night successfully launched by placing another 28 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its 22nd flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

85 SpaceX
36 China
10 Rocket Lab
8 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 85 to 63.

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Two more former SpaceX employees sue the company for harassment and discrimination

10:19 am

SpaceX employees cheering the first chopstick capture of Superheavy
SpaceX employees cheering the first chopstick capture of
Superheavy, October 13, 2025. Click for video.

Two new articles today outline two different new lawsuits against SpaceX by former employees, with both claiming harassment and discrimination as reasons for their firing.

In the first case, the former employee, L’Tavious Rice, claims that he “was fired for being late to work while caring for his young daughter as she recuperated from a heart transplant, while his white colleagues were given a pass for their own “consistent tardiness and absences.” The lawsuit also claims the SpaceX human resources department was retaliating against him because he testified about another employee’s misbehavior in another unrelated case.

In the second case, the former employee, Jenna Shumway, claims she was passed over for promotion, and the man who got the job “waged a campaign of harassment against her, which included stripping her of her responsibilities over a period of months and ultimately leading to her termination in October 2024.” She also claims this “harassment extended to other female employees, too.”

I have no idea whether these claims are true or not. I tend to be skeptical, because of the overall make-up of SpaceX’s entire work-force. The image to the right, a screen capture from the company’s broadcast during the fifth flight of Starship/Superheavy on October 13, 2024 and taken mere seconds after the first successful capture of Superheavy. illustrates this. The SpaceX work-force is young, and typical of engineering, more male than female. At the same time it has many long time female employees, including the company’s president and chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell.

We must not also dismiss the possibility of political motives in these lawsuits. In the past three years the left has made it clear it is out to get Elon Musk, and that campaign has included vandalism, regulatory sabotage, and numerous other environment lawsuits by leftist activist groups whose funding is political.

At the same time, it is very possible that these two former employees have legitimate beefs. We shall have to see how both cases play out in the courts.

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SpaceX yesterday completed two launches

9:10 am

SpaceX yesterday successfully completed two launches from Florida. First, it placed a European Union weather and climate research satellite, Sentinel-4, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center. The first stage completed its ninth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

Next, it continued its unrelenting pace of launching Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off with 27 from Cape Canaveral. The first stage completed its 29th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

That flight makes this particular first stage the third most traveled launch vehicle, with only the space shuttles Discover (39 flights) and Atlantis (33 flights) ahead of it.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

84 SpaceX
35 China
10 Rocket Lab
7 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 84 to 61.

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