SpaceX

Polaris Dawn Commander Jared Isaacman sits down with Matt Anderson, the chief growth officer for the Space Force Association, during the second annual Spacepower Conference to discuss human spaceflight. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now The man who may very well be NASA’s 15th Administrator made his first public address since receiving the nomination for the role. Jared Isaacman made an appearance at the Space Force Association’s Spacepower Conference in Orlando on Wednesday, having previously spoken at last year’s inaugural conference. While the event was billed as a discussion on his recent spaceflight, his comments before a room full of U.S. Space Force Guardians and commercial companies garnered additional interest given his nomination by President-Elect Donald Trump. During a roug...

A Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) ahead of the launch of the RRT-1 mission. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now Update 8:37 p.m. EST (0137 UTC): SpaceX cited high winds as the reason for the scrub of the launch of the RRT-1 mission. SpaceX scrubbed the planned launch of a payload that has not been officially identified. The mission, according to SpaceX and the FAA is being referred to as “RRT-1.” Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was set for 8:05 p.m. EST (0105 UTC). In a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, said “Teams will continue to keep a close eye on the weather as we work toward the next best launch opportunity.” “A new target launch date will be shared once available,” SpaceX wrote. On Thursday, the...

File: A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch a Starlink mission. Image: SpaceX SpaceX is preparing to launch its latest batch of Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base late Friday morning. It comes as the U.S. Space Force’s Assured Access to Space (AATS) works to ensure resiliency from one of two primary spaceports that’s seeing far more orbital launches than it has historically experienced. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 11-2 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) is set for 11:28 a.m. PST (2:28 p.m. EST, 1928 UTC). This will be the 87th Starlink launch so far this year. Spaceflight Now will have live coverage of the mission beginning about 30 minutes prior to liftoff.  The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1082 ...

Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur with two commercial spaceflights to his credit and strong ties to Elon Musk and SpaceX, has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as NASA’s next administrator. Image: John Kraus/Inspiration4 Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, a veteran private astronaut with strong ties to Elon Musk and his rocket company SpaceX, has been nominated by the incoming Trump administration to serve as NASA’s next administrator, the president-elect said in a statement Wednesday. If confirmed, Isaacman, 41, would be the fifth NASA administrator with spaceflight experience, replacing former Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who flew into orbit aboard the space shuttle Columbia in early 1986. “I am delighted to nominate Jared Isaacman, an accomplished bu...

File: A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch a Starlink mission. Image: SpaceX SpaceX aims notched another milestone in spaceflight reusability Wednesday night when it not only launched a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket booster for the 350th time in program history, but also performed its 300th successful booster landing. The Starlink 9-14 mission lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7:05 p.m. PST (10:05 p.m. EST, 0305 UTC). However, in announcing the mission on its website though, SpaceX just broadly said, “The four-hour launch window opens at 4:06 p.m. PT.” For the third time in as many launches from California, SpaceX left the public in the dark as to whether or not the launch will be viewable via livestream. When it published details of...