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 Elon Musk is "absolutely sure" that the new Starship spacecraft, designed for flights to the Moon and Mars, will reach Earth orbit for the first time in 2022, Reuters writes, citing the entrepreneur's speech at his company's Star Base in Boca Chica, Texas. "For now, I'm absolutely confident that we'll put Starship into orbit this year," Musk said. The SpaceX founder admits that his team faced difficulties in developing Raptor 2 engines for its Super Heavy super-heavy rocket. Musk explains that one of the main problems was the melting inside the chambers of the engines from strong heat. However, according to him, the company is "very close to solving this problem" and he expects that by next month production will be increased to 7-8 engines per week, and by the end of the year a new Starship and a launch vehicle will be produced monthly. However, SpaceX may face another problem. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is now conducting an...

The space launch of the rocket of the California startup Astra Space, held on Thursday, was unsuccessful. The launch vehicle could not bring the payload into the given orbit due to technical malfunctions. This was reported on the company's Twitter page     Image Source: Astra.com About three and a half minutes after launch, the first stage of the launch vehicle separated automatically. Despite turning on the second stage engine, it began an uncontrolled rotation. After a few seconds, communication with the stage was interrupted. We are deeply sorry to our customers @NASA and the small satellite teams. More information will be provided after we complete a data review. — Astra (@Astra) February 10, 2022 "We encountered problems during today's launch, as a result of which the payload was not put into orbit," Astra Space said in a statement. Launch Vehicle 0008, also known as Rocket 3.3, lifted off yesterday from SLC-46 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 23:00 Moscow time. I...

Today we posted   photos and videos that showed the assembly process of the Starship rocket with both stages. As a result, SpaceX managed to successfully install a prototype of the Starship 20 spacecraft on the Super Heavy Booster 4 launch vehicle using a 140-meter tower for servicing Starship with robotic manipulators called Megazilla. This tower will be used to "catch" the Super Heavy launch vehicle and the Starship spacecraft on landing. In August last year, SpaceX first assembled a full-fledged prototype of the Starship rocket, after which it was disassembled for further tests. But if at that time the rocket was assembled just to check how well Starship and Super Heavy connect to each other, this time the rocket was assembled before the first orbital launch. It was supposed to take place before the end of last year, but the local regulator did not issue SpaceX a permit. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) now has until Feb. 28 to issue the permit. The lau...

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has released new photos and a video showing a giant tower with a mechanized arm called "Mechazilla" (Mechazilla), which will be used to "catch" the Super Heavy launch vehicle and the Starship spacecraft when landing. Elon Musk commented on what is happening in the photo and video: "The "hands" of the Mechazilla tower lift the Starship spacecraft to the Super Heavy launch vehicle." Earlier, Elon Musk said that in the future, the process of returning the Super Heavy launch vehicle and the Starship spacecraft to Earth will occur exclusively with the help of Mechazilla.   Mechazilla is designed to increase the reliability of the landing, while the design is very complex and expensive. I wonder if SpaceX will be able to confirm the reliability of the Mechazilla from the first time. Recall, SpaceX managed to successfully land a prototype of the Starship SN15 spacecraft only during the fifth launch. pic.twitter.com/EmLdMdPizM —...