#spacex

#spacex

Four astronauts in a SpaceX spacecraft streaked across California's clear skies last night, returning to Earth after 167 days in space. The mission Crew-11 returned from the International Space Station about a month earlier than planned due to an undisclosed medical concern for a crew member. In the 25-year history of the station, this marks the first time anyone has left for a medical reason.

SpaceX guided its Dragon capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station. "It's so good to be home," said Nasa astronaut Zena Cardman, the capsule commander. It was an unexpected finish to a mission that began in August and left the orbiting lab with only one American and two Russians on board.

"was and continues to be in stable condition,"

Other storylines are also worth watching this year that didn't make the Top 20. Will SpaceX's Starship begin launching Starlink satellites? Will United Launch Alliance finally get its Vulcan rocket flying at a higher cadence? Will Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket be certified by the US Space Force? I'm looking forward to learning the answers to these questions, and more.

SpaceX's insider share sale was priced at $421 a share, Bloomberg reported Friday, which would mark a sharp jump in valuation from earlier secondary transactions. That is likely to lift the carrying value of Google's long-standing investment in Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company. Alphabet, Google's parent, has been an investor in SpaceX since at least 2015, when it joined Fidelity Investments in a $1 billion funding round for a combined stake of about 10% at the time, Bloomberg has reported.

Alphabet, parent company of Google, has been one of the best-performing stocks of the year, up nearly 70%, and now has a market capitalization of $3.8 trillion. The company also happened to make what could turn out to be one of the most lucrative startup investments of all time, which could finally bear fruit next year. In 2015, Google invested around $900 million in SpaceX for a stake of around 7% in Elon Musk's space company, which was then valued at $12 billion.

Scott Tilley, a satellite researcher based out of British Colombia, uncovered evidence that some 171 SpaceX-built Starshield satellites have been broadcasting signals in the wrong direction, according to Ars Technica. The satellites were operated as part of the US government's National Reconnaissance Office surveillance program, which is meant to expand the country's ability to spy over other nations. According to Ars, Tilley discovered the SpaceX satellites were using a frequency which is internationally designated for Earth-to-space and space-to-space transmissions.

SpaceX and Elon Musk are once again being called on to rescue spacefarers - this time, the Chinese crew of Shenzhou-20, delayed on China's Tiangong space station after suspected space debris damage. The three-person crew including Chen Dong, Chen Zhongui, and Wang Jie, arrived in April and were supposed to return in November after a handover with the Shenzhou-21 crew. That return has been postponed while engineers assess potential damage from what reports describe as "a tiny piece of space debris."

"I am pleased to nominate Jared Isaacman, an accomplished business leader, philanthropist, pilot, and astronaut, as Administrator of NASA,"

The space agency's decision to reopen the contract for the Artemis mission moon lander renews competition between SpaceX, which had previously won the award, and Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos's space startup. But it also sets off a competition between Texas and Washington, the two companies' respective home states. Politicians have long fought over American space spending, as Fast Company has previously explained. But it's not clear where they stand, at least for now.

Rockets roar. Photographer Andrew McCarthy captured the moment that a SpaceX Starship roared into space from its launchpad in Texas. Photographing the fiery plumes of the 33 Raptor engines that power the Starship Super Heavy booster proved a technical feat but also required luck. "We can study wind patterns, look at past launches, but ultimately, each one will behave slightly differently due to the chaos of the event," McCarthy says.

We are in a race against China so we need the best companies to operate at a speed that gets us to the Moon FIRST," Duffy wrote. "SpaceX has the contract to build the HLS which will get U.S. astronauts there on Artemis III. But, competition and innovation are the keys to our dominance in space so [NASA] is opening up HLS production to Blue Origin and other great American companies.

Duffy also cites "maybe others" getting involved. This refers to a third option. In recent weeks, officials from traditional space companies have been telling Duffy and the chief of staff at the Department of Transportation, Pete Meachum, that they can build an Apollo Lunar Module-like lander within 30 months. Amit Kshatriya, NASA's associate administrator, favors this government-led approach, sources said.