Starship

SpaceX achieved a key milestone in its Starship flight test campaign: returning the booster and the upper stage back to Earth.

SpaceX launches mammoth Starship rocket and brings it back for the first time

The Japanese billionaire who commissioned SpaceX for a private mission around the moon on a Starship rocket has abruptly canceled the project, citing ongoing uncertainties around when the launch vehicle…

Japanese billionaire pulls plug on private ‘dearMoon’ lunar Starship mission

SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket could take to the skies for the fourth time on June 5, with the primary objective of evaluating the second stage’s reusable heat shield as the…

SpaceX sent Starship to orbit — the next launch will try to bring it back

SpaceX is continuing to make progress on the development of Starship, the largest rocket ever built, with the third test flight Thursday accomplishing considerably more than the previous two tests.…

SpaceX makes significant progress with third Starship orbital test flight

SpaceX will attempt to send the massive Starship rocket to orbit for the third time early Thursday morning after U.S. regulators gave the green light for launch. The company is…

SpaceX aiming to launch massive Starship for the third time early Thursday

SpaceX is aiming to launch its massive Starship rocket for the third time as soon as March 14, the company confirmed in a social media post Wednesday. SpaceX is still…

SpaceX eyes March 14 for next Starship test flight

The Federal Aviation Administration has concluded its review of SpaceX’s investigation of the second Starship launch in November, with the regulator saying Monday that it accepted the “root causes and…

FAA completes investigation into SpaceX’s second fiery Starship test

Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. Happy Monday, everyone!

Ex-Blue Origin leaders want to mine the moon

Starlab, the private space station being developed by Voyager Space and Airbus, will go to orbit onboard a SpaceX Starship rocket before the decade is out, the companies announced Wednesday.…

SpaceX will launch the Starlab private space station using Starship

NASA is pushing back the next two Artemis missions to the moon — including the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years — by around 12 months in…

NASA delays Artemis moon missions to give SpaceX, others more time to develop tech

Hello and welcome back to Max Q. By the time you read this, United Launch Alliance will have hopefully launched its Vulcan Centaur rocket for the first time, and Astrobotic’s…

United Launch Alliance and Astrobotic launches, Countdown Capital shutdown

It was a jaw-dropping year for the space industry, and while we all know by now that progress isn’t linear, we feel pretty confident that 2024 will be even more…

What we’re looking forward to seeing from the space industry in 2024

In less than 24 hours, SpaceX will attempt to launch Starship to space for the second time. The official launch window opens at 7:00 AM CST on Saturday and lasts…

How to watch SpaceX launch Starship for a second time live

SpaceX has officially pushed back the second orbital flight test of Starship by one day, to Saturday, CEO Elon Musk confirmed on X. Rumors about the push-back started to swirl…

Musk: SpaceX now aiming for Saturday for Starship’s second flight test

Regulators have given SpaceX the green light to launch its super massive Starship rocket for a second time, just a few days shy of seven months after the first orbital…

Go for launch: SpaceX receives regulatory green light for second Starship flight

The Federal Aviation Administration has finished a key portion of the launch license review for SpaceX’s Starship, bringing the company one step closer to a second launch. Regulators said Tuesday…

FAA completes SpaceX Starship safety review as environmental assessment remains ongoing

The Federal Aviation Administration has closed the mishap investigation into SpaceX’s first orbital test flight in April, but regulators won’t green light a second launch until the company completes more…

Elon Musk says Starship is ‘ready to launch,’ FAA says not yet

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has closed its report into the Starship Heavy test launch at SpaceX’s Boca Chica launch facility that went awry, blasting dirt and debris across a…

FAA recommends 63 corrective actions to SpaceX in Starship Heavy incident report

SpaceX conducted a full-pressure test of a new water deluge system for its Starship launch vehicle on Friday, as the company looks to resolve one of the biggest problems that…

SpaceX tested ‘mega-steel pancake’ water deluge system for Starship

SpaceX has hired NASA’s former head of human spaceflight Kathy Lueders as the company continues to develop its Starship launch system to return humans to the moon and beyond. The…

Ahead of next Starship launch, SpaceX hires key NASA human spaceflight head

SpaceX’s Starship is poised to change the launch industry — and give space startup founders much to consider.

Space startups need to start preparing for a post-Starship world

A coalition of advocacy groups has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over its handling of the environmental assessment of SpaceX’s launch plans in southeast Texas.…

FAA failed to fully assess environmental effects of Starship, lawsuit alleges

SpaceX’s recent Starship test flight, the first during which it flew with its Super Heavy orbital booster, was a bit more of a mess than it even appeared when it…

SpaceX’s Starship didn’t self-destruct immediately as planned during test launch

SpaceX launched a fully integrated Starship launch vehicle for the first time on Thursday morning, a long-awaited and highly anticipated milestone in the vehicle development program. The orbital test flight…

SpaceX’s successful failure is a wake-up call for Starship’s timeline

SpaceX has launched its fully stacked version of Starship, including the upper stage and the Super Heavy booster, for the first time. The combined launch vehicle stands at nearly 400…

SpaceX launches fully stacked Starship for the first time

Tomorrow’s Starship orbital flight test may well go explosively wrong, and SpaceX’s less than stellar coordination with officials responsible for overseeing debris cleanup at nearby state parks could leave them…

Another Starship explosion would be bad news for nearby park managers

SpaceX has just announced that today’s orbital flight test attempt of the Starship launch system will now be a wet dress rehearsal, due to a frozen pressure valve. That means…

SpaceX transitions today’s Starship orbital flight test to wet dress rehearsal

In a few short hours, SpaceX will attempt to fly its fully integrated Starship launch system for the first time from the company’s massive base on Texas’s southeastern coast. While…

Watch SpaceX try to fly a fully stacked Starship for the first time

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has issued a launch license to SpaceX for the Starship orbital flight test, which could now take place as soon as Monday. A 150-minute test…

FAA grants launch license to SpaceX, clearing way for Starship orbital flight test

More and more hype is building for the first orbital flight test of Starship, SpaceX’s ultra-heavy launch system. That hype has started to reach a crescendo this week as the…

Hype grows for SpaceX’s Starship orbital flight test, but barriers remain