(AFP) — Three US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut arrived Tuesday at the International Space Station for a six-month mission on board the orbiting laboratory. During their stay, in which they are rotating in to replace departing crew, some 200 scientific experiments are scheduled to be carried out. The quartet blasted off from Florida late Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The capsule docked with the ISS and its hatch was opened at 3:50 […]
Tag: space x
Space-X lobs Spanish military satellite into orbit
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Elon Musk’s Space-X sent a Spanish military satellite into orbit Thursday in a hitch-less liftoff from California, extending the private space company’s record of successful launches. Space-X, which proved the utility of its massive Falcon Heavy rocket earlier this month, put up the Paz imaging satellite and two of the company’s own test internet communications satellites on a smaller Falcon 9 rocket. “Successful deployment of PAZ satellite to low-Earth orbit […]
SpaceX’s Elon Musk to launch his own car into deep space
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — SpaceX confirmed Wednesday its CEO Elon Musk plans to blast his cherry red electric car off toward the Red Planet when the company’s Falcon Heavy rocket launches for the first time next month. Many wondered if Musk was joking last week when he tweeted his plans for the Falcon Heavy’s inaugural payload to be his “midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity,” the classic song by the late David Bowie. […]
Musk beats deadline for building world’s biggest battery
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Entrepreneur Elon Musk has won a US$50 million bet by beating a 100-day deadline for building a giant battery to help South Australia avoid energy blackouts, officials said. State Premier Jay Weatherill said testing of the massive lithium ion battery would begin within days, ahead of the December 1 deadline Musk set for himself when he signed off on the project earlier this year. Musk had pledged to build the battery […]
SpaceX Falcon launches ten communications satellites
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, United States (Reuters) – SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Sunday (June 25) carrying 10 communications satellites to low-Earth orbit, the company said on its website. “This is the second set of 10 satellites in a series of 75 total satellites that SpaceX will launch,” it said in a statement. The launch is for Iridium, a provider of voice and data communications. […]
SpaceX makes first US military launch, then lands rocket again
by Kerry Sheridan Agence France Presse MIAMI, United States (AFP) — SpaceX on Monday blasted off a secretive United States government payload, known only as NROL-76, marking the first military launch for the California-based aerospace company headed by billionaire tycoon Elon Musk. The payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, which makes and operates spy satellites for the US, soared into the sky atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 7:15 am (1115 GMT). About 10 minutes after […]
SpaceX cargo craft released from space station to return to Earth
Reuters — The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft left the International Space Station on Sunday (March 19) to begin its journey back to Earth The resupply cargo craft was released from the ISS at 0411EDT (0911GMT) and was set to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California after a five-hour journey, according to NASA. NASA says the cargo shift was carrying some 5,400 pounds (2,450 kilos) of gear and scientific samples for […]
Amazon’s chief Jeff Bezos unveils new rocket design
MIAMI, United States (AFP) – Amazon founder Jeff Bezos unveiled plans Monday for a massive rocket called New Glenn designed to launch people to space and propel satellites into orbit, raising the ante in the US commercial space industry. Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, said the rocket has been in the works for the past four years, and will be launched by decade’s end. At 270 feet (82 meters) high for the two-stage […]





