SpaceX

Spacex aborted the rocket takeoff for the first time from flight 1, two years ago

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Spacex has aborted the eighth launch of Starship when there was half a minute for takeoff. Although it is a rocket in tests, this type of last minute cancellation had only happened once. A two -year run. The last time Spacex aborted the launch of a starship loaded with propelants was in April 2023. A frozen valve in Booster 7 frustrated the first attempt to launch the rocket. Almost two years have passed and now both Booster 15 and Starship 34 have given problems. The company stopped the countdown to take off of flight 8 while checking both stages of the rocket. For a moment, the clock worked again and it seemed that Spacex had solved all the setbacks, but seconds later it ended up aborting the takeoff. “Too many unknowns.” As usual, Elon Musk has been the first to offer details of what was happening between scenes. “Too many question signs around this flight”, wrote. “We were 20 bars below the required pressure level.” Musk mentioned the “Ground Spin Start Pressure”, which is the necessary pressure in the gas that is injected into engines so that the turbine turbine turns quickly enough to generate complete combustion and turn on. The next attempt. “The Starship team is determining the next best opportunity available to fly,” Spacex published After the interruptus launch. It will need to disapprove both stages of the rocket and examine them, Musk said, so the company will take one to two days to try again. In 2023, the company took 48 hours to have its facilities for a second attempt. 4,900 tons of propellants. That is the monstrous amount of methane and liquid oxygen that fits in a starship. Spacex will have to replenish the propellants in their tanks farm for a new launch attempt, which normally implies a truck parade towards the platform. First Starship from Florida in 2025. Although there has been no launch, Spacex has had time to announce a new Starships factory at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Gigabay will have 24 work areas and cranes of 400 tons larger than Starbase. It is expected to be operational in 2026. While building these new facilities, Spacex will transport Texas Starships to Florida and wait for the first launch of the rocket from Florida in 2025, provided that the Government approves its environmental review.

38,000 million dollars to lift Tesla and Spacex

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Elon Musk’s mission at this time, at least in doge, is Cut the budget of the Federal Government of the United States in two billion dollars. It is not, obviously, a trivial figure, but rather amazing if we take into account that this budget currently amounts to 7 billion dollars. Hence the conflict of interest of a person who has Tesla or Spacex among his companies, It hasn’t taken long. Yet, The Washington Post has just revealed The, possibly, the greatest paradox of the richest man in the world. An empire with 38,000 million. It told the environment that the rise of Musk as the richest entrepreneur in the world has been deeply linked to the financial support of the United States government. How much? With At least 38,000 million dollars in contracts, subsidies, loans and tax credits for their companies over two decades. In other words: Musk is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the taxpayers’ coffers and, although the tycoon has promoted a disruptive innovation and business independence, its success has depended on the Government’s key investments at critical moments for Tesla, Spacex and other companies in its ecosystem, as we will see below. Investments, o generosity of the State, which now paradoxically has the mission of trimming. The case of Tesla: from collapse to domain. In 2008, when Tesla faced serious financial problems, Musk pressed to obtain A loan of 465 million dollars of the energy department, an amount that was fundamental For the manufacture of Model S and the purchase of its plant in Fremont, California. Without this support, the company would have collapsed. In addition, Tesla has obtained 11.4 billion dollars In regulatory credits for selling carbon bonds to other automotive, a crucial factor for their profitability in key years. Although Musk has criticized government subsidies For consumers, your company has been one of the main beneficiaries of fiscal credits for the purchase of electric vehicles. But there is more. Since its foundation, Tesla has also received billions in state and local incentives, including 1.3 billion dollars In Nevada for its battery gigaphal and 750 million dollars in New York For the Failure SolarCitywhich was then absorbed by Tesla. Despite these benefits, in 2021 Musk moved the Tesla headquarters of California to Texas, arguing a more favorable regulatory environment. The Spacex case: contracts to master space. Since its creation in 2002, Spacex has depended largely on Contracts with NASA and the Department of Defense. Before achieving its first successful launch, the company had already received NASA 278 million dollars In 2006 and then A contract of 1.8 billion dollars In 2008 for the transport of supplies to the International Space Station. Government investment allowed Spacex to develop Falcon 9today the pillar of your business, and benefit from Defense and Espionage Missions for Pentagonsome of them classified and valued at billions. In 2024, Spacex generated 9.3 billion dollars In income from your service Starlink satellite Internetalthough it continues to depend on contracts with federal agencies. Despite their growth, analysts point out that privileged access to government financing has allowed him to overcome competitors such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin in the aerospace industry. Musk and subsidies. They remembered in The report of the post that Musk has publicly advocated The elimination of government subsidiescriticizing the Biden Inflation Reduction Law, the same that Ironically made Tesla would qualify again For tax incentives. In this way, while maintaining that your company is self -sufficient, its success has been based on A model that combines State investment and private capital, a strategy that has allowed it to consolidate the leadership of Tesla and Spacex, but without the same risks that other entrepreneurs face. In this regard, the Professor John Helveston From George Washington University, he pointed out that “every aspect of Tesla has been promoted by subsidies and public financing”, which makes Musk’s rhetoric against government aids It is contradictory. At the same time, its impulse to cut subsidies throughout the industry has affected emerging companies that depend on the same type of support that Tesla had in its beginnings. The role of government in the Musk Empire. The truth is that, despite his libertarian speech, Musk continues to benefit from multimillionaire government contracts and preferential access to state programs. In the last five years, almost Two thirds of the 38 billion dollars In public funds that have promoted their companies have been granted in the form of new contracts or incentives. With 52 active contracts with agencies such as NASA, the Department of Defense and the Administration of General Services, Your connection with the government It remains a fundamental pillar of its business success. Although his influence and his fortune They have grown exponentiallyits relationship with the government remains rather ambivalent: while criticizing state intervention in the economy, it continues to receive the financial support that has cemented its empire. Under this context, Musk does not seem to be only the richest entrepreneur on the planet, but also one of the biggest beneficiaries of public spending in the United States, which now promotes cutting. Image | Gage Skidmore In Xataka | Elon Musk has tried to fire officials with an email: the FBI, the Pentagon and NASA have ordered to keep the secret In Xataka | Elon Musk has put the US Labor Inspection in Doge Diana: he investigated Tesla for the death of a worker

There is already an official plan for the next Starship flights. It’s incredibly ambitious, even for Spacex

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While finalizing the eighth flight of Starship, Spacex has also closing the details of the ninth launch, which could happen shortly after with some of the most ambitious objectives so far. Eighth flight before expected. Elon Musk has confirmed that Starship Flight 8 is scheduled for this FridayFebruary 28. He has not made any mention, as usual, that the final date of the launch is subject to the regulatory approval of the government. If Spacex is confident that Starship will take off on Friday is because he hopes to receive the flight license reviewed by then. It is earlier than expected, taking into account that the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States has a Open research on flight 7in which the Starship ship exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, disintegrating near the Turkish and Caicos Islands and causing a small aerial chaos For the rain of metals that followed. First load deployment. In any case, flight 8 will repeat the objectives of the previous launch, using the Super Heavy Booster 15 and the ship 34 ship for the test, the second that incorporates the Block 2 improvement block. Two meters higher, the Starship Block 2 It has a greater capacity to store propelants and better performance perspectives in the atmospheric reentry, both for the design changes of its front spoilers and for the numerous improvements of its thermal shield. In addition to re -expending an engine in the exorbitant space, flight 8 will display load for the first time using the “fish dispenser” mechanism of Starship’s upper bay. These are 10 wooden models that simulate being next -generation Starlink satellites, larger than the Starlink V2 Mini than today the Falcon 9 rocket is able to launch in lots of 23. A ninth flight even more difficult. Although great news is not expected for flight 8 because Spacex still has to demonstrate the objectives that could not be met on flight 7 for the explosion of the ship, the next, the ninth, will mark a significant leap in the program. A Special permit application Sent by Spacex to the Federal Communications Commission, the agency that manages the United States radio spectrum, revealed two important things about the company’s plans: Starship flight 9 will occur between March 14 and June 30, 2025, as soon as two weeks after flight 8 Spacex not only hopes to capture the Super Heavy propeller with the arms of the launch tower, as he did on flight 5 and flight 7, he also wants to do the same with the Starship ship for the first time Double capture or double dip. Although there are not many details about the ninth flight, beyond the communications application for the double landing, Spacex has confirmed that he will use the same procedure he uses with the propeller: If everything goes well, he will try to land in the arms of the tower; But if something does not fit, it will cancel the landing and let the rocket fall into the ocean. Therefore, during flight 9 we could see, at best, the first double capture (Super Heavy and Starship ship returning, each in their time, to the launch tower) or, in the worst of the Cases, a double ameter with dip and self -control. It will undoubtedly be the riskiest flight to date: the first one in which the starship will reach orbital speed to return to the launch platform to the southeast of Texas, and the first in which the ship, which suffers much higher temperatures than The propeller on his return could test the capture maneuver with the tower arm as a landing method. The most surprising thing about everything? Which could happen in mid -March. Image | The Super Heavy Booster 14 and the Starship 33 In Xataka | “Souls on board, 283”: an Iberia plane had to declare emergency to land after the starship explosion

A Polish called the police for a fallen tank from heaven. It is from a spacex rocket that rented without control in Europe

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The second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket of Spacex rented last night without control over Europe, illuminating the sky of several Central European countries with flashes as they burned in the atmosphere. Not all the rocket disintegrated. This morning they found a deposit in Poland. Night show. From Germany, From Denmark, From Poland itself. They were not even 5 in the morning, but on social networks they began to appear videos of the Metal remains Burning with drama in the night sky of central Europe. Atmospheric resentments are a show that we are increasing 13.8 meters long by 3.66 meters in diameter. A tank fell in Poland. It is not usual for a Spacex rocket to resent without control, so it is even less common for him to do so in a place as densely populated as Europe. But the rocket did not disintegrate completely and part of the remains fell, without causing damage, on the outskirts of Poznań, a city of half a million inhabitants west of Poland. At 9:20 in the morning, an employee of an industrial plant He warned the police that an object had “fallen from heaven” in its facilities. It was a pressure tank coated with carbon fiber (COPV) identical to the one that appeared on a Washington farm in 2021. Trajectory of the reentry of the rocket on Europe according to astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell On that occasion, it was confirmed that it was A helium deposit of the second stage of a Falcon 9. The object, of a meter and a half of length, is pressurized to 400 bars and is capable of resisting extreme conditions, including the reentry. In the Washington farm left a crater of 10 centimeters deep on the earth, a sample of the speed at which he re -entered the atmosphere. It was a rocket failure. Spacex is the Ryanair of Space, the company that launches most rockets with a difference: two to three per week. Does this mean that we will have to go out with a helmet to the street? Not necessarily. Like most rockets (China has notorious exceptions), The second stage of the Falcon 9 fuel reserve to exorbitite on the ocean with a motor re -desence once the load is deployed. In this case, the remains that fell on Europe are due to a technical failure in the launch of the Starlink 11-4 mission, which He failed to readece his engine to exorbitar on February 2. The rocket spin around the earth to enter the atmosphere naturally due to gravity. He did it on February 19, 3:43 UTC, in a trajectory extended to Ukraine and that coincides with the remains found in Poland. Images | Ludi-e, Adam Borucki (X) In Xataka | A strange object appeared in a Glamping of North Carolina. They were the remains of a Spacex spacecraft

Spacex will activate today the direct cellular connection of its Starlink satellites

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A year ago, Spacex launched the First set of Starlink satellites with direct connection For smartphones. Today, the Starlink Direct To Cell constellation is ready to start offering LTE coverage from space. It is just an initial offer in beta phase, but still has 10 times more reach that the coverage of any other satellite operator with the same objective. No corner without coverage. Unlike broadband Starlink satellites, Starlink Direct To Cell (DTC) function as mobile telephony towers in space, enabling messaging services and data in the corners of the planet that until now did not have cellular coverage. It is not very different from what they have been offering, through agreements with satellite operators, Apple, Huawei, Google or Samsung mobiles for emergencies, but expanding service capabilities to Keep even video calls From recondite corners of the planet. Spacex is guided and eats it. All this is possible because Spacex spears of two or three lots of Starlink satellites every week, taking advantage of the reliability of its Falcon 9 rockets partially reusable. No other company has this competitive advantage, which has allowed Elon Musk’s company to deploy about 7,000 satellites in the low orbit of the earth, 80% of the entire mass that is launched into space –and climbing. Starlink It is already a profitable business: These satellites continue to provide low latency Internet to 4.6 million customers in 118 different countries. But the roof of what Spacex can bill with Starlink will break today when The first constellation designed for Starlink DTC Between operation. The test. Spacex ha Received authorization of the Federal Communications Commission of the United States (FCC) to carry out an experimental test of Starlink DTC from January 27 to July 26, 2025. The test, says Spacex, will allow “to evaluate the performance of Direct to Cell and plan your complete deployment.” How it works. Each DTC satellite carries an Enodeb modem, the same type of technology that cell phone antennas use. The satellite is communicated directly with user phones and, then, the information to the Starlink terrestrial network forwards. DTC satellites They are integrated with the rest of the Starlink constellation through laser connections, so they do not require additional land infrastructure.The necessary transmission power to communicate with a phone is 0.2 watts, very low compared to the necessary to connect satellites. The satellites continue to offer broadband Internet while adding the cellular coverage function. And users do not need accessories to connect, because it uses standard LTE/4g technology at frequencies of the range 1.6–2.7 GHz, assigned by the operators associated with Spacex (T-Mobile in the United States, Entel in Chile and Peruetc). Spacex puts the competition in check. The goal of Starlink DTC is to take advantage of the Spacex muscle to eliminate most of “dead areas” of cell connectivity, reaching agreements with telephone operators to serve their customers when they run out of earthly signal. There are also a number of potential industrial, maritime and agricultural clients that cannot use traditional parabolic antennas, but could take advantage of this service with less latency than traditional companies that have their satellites in geostation orbit. Starlink satellites are about 550 km and Geo satellites are 36,000 km altitude. Differentiate or die. While giants like Amazon plan to launch the First operational satellites of the Kuiper project at the beginning of 2025 (and accelerate the cadence of launches when Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket be fully available), smaller companies seek to differentiate themselves so as not to compete with Spacex. In Spain, Sateliot is riding A 5G satellite constellation specially designed for the internet devices. And in the Netherlands, Telesat and the European Space Agency have successfully tested the First direct 5g satellite connection. Initiatives that can be integrated into IRIS2, the European Starlink that The EU has budgeted in 10,000 million euros. Images | Spacex In Xataka | Spacex has just made the first video call with an iPhone directly connected to a Starlink satellite

Trump has made it very clear that he wants to conquer Mars. Now NASA has the enormous problem of not being called SpaceX

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Trump made just one space promise during his inauguration speech, but it was no small feat. The Martian dream. Between cheers and jumps of enthusiasm of Elon Musk, Donald Trump pointed out Mars as new “manifest destiny” of the United States. The newly inaugurated president promised to take astronauts to the Red Planet and plant the American flag in Martian soil. Trump stated: “We will pursue our manifest destiny to the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the flag on the planet Mars.” His words are not coincidental and have a clear influence, but they seem to mark a change of priorities for NASA that leaves the future of the Artemis lunar program. The influence of Elon Musk. “We’re going straight to Mars, the Moon is a distraction,” wrote the CEO of SpaceX two weeks ago. No one quite understood the scope of that tweet, since SpaceX has a very important contract with NASA to build the lander for the Artemis III and IV lunar missions, but now that message resonates on Capitol Hill. There, President Trump focused on Mars. It could just be a rhetorical statement (slowly, but surely, we have to get to Mars before China does), but with Elon Musk as a key ally, the new government could really be preparing a radical shift in astronautics strategy. The current Artemis program. It was precisely Trump’s first term that shaped NASA’s current lunar program. The then administrator, Jim Bridenstine, managed to put the United States’ return to the Moon on track with an architecture that combined NASA’s internal developments (the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft) with commercial spacecraft from private companies (SpaceX’s Starship HLS and the lunar module Blue Moon by Blue Origin). In turn, Bridenstine promoted a series of unmanned lunar missions and the creation of the Artemis Accordswhich already has 53 signatory countries, for international cooperation in future missions to the Moon, including the construction of a lunar base, the commercial exploitation of the satellite and everything that comes after (Mars, comets and asteroids). The Moon is a cruel lover. Artemis is not at her best. Manned missions have been delayed for problems on the Orion ship and delays in Starship development. Furthermore, the insane cost overruns of the SLS rocket have put a good part of public opinion against the current architecture of the program, which could be reconfigured with the support of SpaceX’s new Starship and Blue Origin’s New Glenn rockets. To make matters worse, the first two commercial missions associated with Artemis (CLPS‑1 and CLPS‑2) failed to reach the Moon or lie down when landing on the moonwhich has precipitated the cancellation of other more important missions such as NASA’s VIPER rover. But until Trump’s speech, there was nothing to predict that the Artemis program would be in danger. Is it really? From the Moon to Mars. Until now, NASA’s plan was to establish itself on the Moon throughout this decade and the next (or at least in the Gateway lunar station in orbit with the satellite) to prepare for the jump to Mars in the 2040s. Prioritize the Red Planet I would leave three scenarios to the foreseeable new administrator from NASA, Jared Isaacman: A reduced lunar program, without aspirations to create a large lunar base like the one proposed by the ILRS program led by China. Thus, the United States would continue in the race to put the first woman on the moon without stopping to focus on Mars. In exchange, he would cede lunar land to his opponents A bifurcated program with parallel lunar and Martian missions that do not throw away everything that has been developed so far. It would be the logical step if NASA’s budget were unlimited, but with the huge investment what the lunar program entails, adding a Martian program seems impossible A total redirection to the conquest of Mars. Following Elon Musk’s vision: the Moon is a distraction from the ultimate goal of become a multiplanetary civilization. Even with a majority in Congress, it is the option in which giants such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and even New Space lose (Blue Origin has several lunar contracts). It seems complicated for congressmen to agree on a clean slate, but it is not totally impossible How would the United States get to Mars? There would be a public tender, but one option immediately comes to mind. NASA could adopt the SpaceX Mars program as your own. Elon Musk said SpaceX planned to launch five uncrewed Starships to Mars in 2026 and, if they managed to land, the first crewed mission to Mars in history in 2028. The experts agree at a crucial point: a mission with astronauts to Mars in the next four years is technically impossible if it is to be done with guarantees, since the scientific and technological challenges are monumental. But there were also many people convinced that Trump would not win the election again while Musk bet money that yes I would. Image | The White House, NASA In Xataka | Artemis has entered into crisis: NASA remains silent about the Orion spacecraft and rumors of cancellation of the SLS grow

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