SpaceX is making significant progress in the development of the Starship V2, including new features and upcoming missions, while also facing competition and challenges in the space market.

Questions to inspire discussion.

What developments have been made on SpaceX’s Starship V2?
—The video discusses the sighting of propellant tanks, progress of super heavy booster 10, and new hot staging techniques for the Starship V2.

SpaceX has shared spectacular new footage of last month’s launch of the most powerful rocket ever to fly.

The cinematic content (see video below) shows the first-stage Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft (collectively known as the Starship) blasting skyward in the second integrated test flight of the vehicle, which could one day carry astronauts to the moon, Mars, and beyond.

Liftoff occurred at 12:07 a.m. ET on Thursday (Dec. 7).

SpaceX knocked out yet another Falcon 9 launch overnight but is prepping for liftoff of its powerhouse Falcon Heavy from the Space Coast as early as Sunday.

A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 12:07 a.m. carrying another 23 Starlink satellites to orbit.

The first-stage booster flew for the ninth time with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed downrange in the Atlantic.

Elon Musk’s latest rocket—the most powerful ever built—would offer better economics than conventional craft.

WASHINGTON — Capella Space will launch two radar imaging satellites on SpaceX rideshare missions after an Electron launch failure disrupted its deployment plans.

Capella announced Dec. 5 that it had arranged to fly two of its Acadia satellites on SpaceX rideshare missions in the first half of 2024. Acadia-4 will fly on the Bandwagon-1 mission as soon as April 2024 while Acadia-5 will launch on Transporter-11 no earlier than June 2024. The Transporter-11 mission was arranged through launch services company Exolaunch.

Capella said in a statement that the arrangements allow for a diversity of orbits for its spacecraft. Bandwagon-1 is the first of a new line of dedicated rideshare missions that SpaceX announced earlier this year that will go to mid-inclination orbits, rather than sun-synchronous orbits accessed by Transporter missions.

Wednesday night, SpaceX announced Starlink high-speed internet is now available in Honduras, expanding its sizable service footprint across the Western Hemisphere.

Hours later, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 more Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The late-night Falcon 9 soared off Launch Complex 40 at 12:07 a.m. EST Thursday, extending the ongoing record of annual orbital launches from the Space Coast to 68 — with another 24 days remaining in December.

SpaceX may aim to conduct a propellant-transfer demonstration on Starship’s third flight.

Individual technologies necessary for in-orbit cryogenic refueling are at a stage of development where they are “ready now to go into flight systems,” Dankanich said, either with a demonstration in space or on an operational spacecraft.

First, small steps

By the fourth anniversary of those awards, only SpaceX appears to have a chance to complete the tasks outlined in its “Tipping Point” award, valued at $53 million.

WASHINGTON – Australian in-space servicing startup Space Machines Company announced plans Dec. 5 to work with U.S. on-orbit refueling startup Orbit Fab to validate and demonstrate key technologies.

SMC is the first non-U.S. customer to use Orbit Fab’s fiducial alignment markers. The markers are painted on SMC’s Optimus Orbital Servicing Vehicle, which is set to launch in early 2024 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare flight.

Orbit Fab’s fiducial markers are designed to act like a QR code, ensuring, for example, that a fuel shuttle replenishes the correct client. The fiducial markers also ensure proper spacecraft alignment for docking.