Elon Musk’s SpaceX secretly installed Starlink internet on Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas cruise ship last month and since then, passengers have been able to use it freely with their Voom package. Why? The Federal Communications Commission recently approved SpaceX to provide Starlink satellite internet to vehicles in motion, which includes cruise ships.
NASA has officially awarded a NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract to SpaceX. Elon Musk’s company will provide launch service for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope mission, which is actually the top-priority large space mission recommended by the 2010 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey.
SpaceX gives us a first look at a Super Heavy booster rocket equipped with 33 Raptor engines ahead of its first orbital flight. In case you missed out on Elon Musk’s announcement, the Starship is basically a two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle, which consists of the Super Heavy booster stage and the Starship second stage, with the latter having four main variants: cargo, crew, propellant tanker, and lunar lander.
Elon Musk announced a SpaceX Starlink internet plan designed specifically for RVs yesterday, and it’s available now, but with a few differences from its fixed counterpart. Let’s just get all of the downsides out of the way, with the first being that when users travel with the satellite away from their home address, the data is automatically deprioritized, thus resulting in slower internet speeds.
The rumors are true, Google Street View can be used to tour the International Space Station (ISS), thanks to ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet. He used DSLR cameras to capture nearly all the modules, the US Laboratory and Cupola included, to give us a preview of how where they collect data on the Earth’s oceans, atmosphere, and land surface.
The team at Everyday Astronaut was fortunate enough to get a personal tour of SpaceX’s Starbase where we get to see the Megabay. This structure will house 10-12 workstations, while the high bay adds an additional two stations, enabling SpaceX to work on up to 14 rockets simultaneously. We also learn that the excess gas produced by the Starship’s main engines will now be used for maneuvering thrusters rather than separate cold gas units.
Photo credit: Upasna Gautam
The SpaceX Falcon 9 launch this morning carried a new batch of Starlink satellites into orbit, but also caused a giant space jellyfish to appear over Florida. Some may have seen something similar in the skies in California or Texas, and that’s because when a rocket reaches high altitudes, the sun’s rays illuminate the plume of gases in its trail during the early morning or dusk hours.
SpaceX Starlink internet is officially coming soon to Hawaiian Airlines flights, and for free, or at least in the beginning. Complimentary access will be provided to every guest onboard flights between the islands / continental U.S / Asia / Oceania aboard their Airbus A330, A321neo as well as Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
It’s official, Axiom Space’s Ax-1 private astronaut crew is currently making their way back to Earth after spending nearly 15-days aboard the International Space Station. Their SpaceX Dragon capsule undocked at 9:10 pm EST on Sunday, April 24th and is anticipated to splash down right off the coast of Florida tomorrow, April 25th.
A bizarre Hawaii spiral phenomena has been puzzling some local residents as well as internet communities, but it was actually just the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This whirlpool-like object was captured by the Subaru Telescope on the night of April 17th, near Mauna Kea, just hours after a SpaceX launched a spy satellite into orbit. What you’re seeing is actually the the characteristic spiral caused by the post-deorbit-burn fuel.