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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1QGMOX_NfA California-based spacecraft company SpaceX has released a video of the June 14 test of its Grasshopper rocket. The company said it soared over 1,000 feet during its latest trial run in June and it made a remarkably precise landing. In detail, the rocket flew 325 m, or 1066 feet, after liftoff in McGregor Texas, a rocket development facility. This breaks its previous record height of 840 feet .The test also drew praise for precision in landing. The precision is attributed to new navigation sensors that measure distance between the ground and the vessel. "Most rockets are equipped with sensors...

LE BOURGET, France – Designers of Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket are crafting a defense against U.S. startup rocket builder Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) even before the next-generation Ariane 6 rocket – itself spurred in part by SpaceX – has been approved for production. The first line of defense is the Ariane 5 Midlife Evolution vehicle, whose new upper stage is halfway completed and awaits final approval, in late 2014, of European governments. Ariane 5 ME will increase the current Ariane 5 ECA’s payload-carrying power by about 20 percent, meaning it will carry two satellites weighing a combined 11,000 kilograms....

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, and the U.S. Air Force will soon reach an agreement on a certification plan that would allow the company to vie for national security payload launch contracts with the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy spaceflight launch systems, according to Aviation Week. Founded by billionaire Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, SpaceX opened a Huntsville office in Cummings Research Park in 2010. The private company started in 2002 to design, manufacture and launch advanced rockets and spacecraft and employs about 2,000 workers at its California headquarters. To reduce the costs associated with space launches,...

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Friday to send an unmanned Dragon cargo capsule on its quickest trip yet to the International Space Station, but the company had to work through a problem with the Dragon in orbit. The Falcon 9 made a problem-free ascent from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 10:10 a.m. ET. A half-hour after launch, SpaceX's billionaire founder, Elon Musk, said in a Twitter update that controllers were looking into a technical issue involving the capsule's thrusters. "Issue with Dragon thruster pods," Musk wrote. "System inhibiting three of four [pods]...

Undoubtedly alternative energy and transportation innovator Elon Musk (Flickr photo: Jurvetson) – like his competitor for the taxpayer-funded, six-figure electric automobile market Henrik Fisker – is a smart guy. But will economic and technological realities humble him, or worse, make him look like a fool? After the experiencerecounted last week by New York Times journalist John Broder, who test drove the Tesla Model S in frigid conditions that required frequent unplanned recharging stops throughout the Northeast, humility is out of the question for Musk. The jury is still out on inanity. The Times published Broder’s devastating account on Friday. The...

Dream of going to space but don’t feel like putting in the work to become a NASA astronaut? Here’s your chance to possibly make that fantasy come true. Mars One, a Netherlands-based nonprofit, is seeking volunteers to help colonize the Red Planet, according to Mashable. To meet an aggressive goal of putting people on Mars by 2023, Mars One released its basic astronaut requirements on January 8. Rather than recruiting scientists or pilots, the organization says it will consider anyone, so long as they are at least 18 years old. Intelligence, good mental and physical health and dedication to the...

Data that NASA's discovery wee a sample of Martian dirt could be earth-shattering, but the space agency is taking time to check its work. NASA's not sharing a 'historic' find on Mars... yet Data from a sample of Martian dirt could be earth-shattering, but the space agency is taking time to check its work. SAM, a mobile sample analysis lab, is currently mounted on Curiosity and finding interesting stuff in Martian soil. It seems NASA and the Curiosity rover have found something exciting and nerd-tastic on Mars, but the space agency's scientists are holding back for now, despite how painful...

In Musk's vision, the ambitious Mars settlement program would start with a pioneering group of fewer than 10 people, who would journey to the Red Planet aboard a huge reusable rocket powered by liquid oxygen and methane. "At Mars, you can start a self-sustaining civilization and grow it into something really big," Musk told an audience at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London on Friday (Nov. 16). Musk was there to talk about his business plans, and to receive the Society’s gold medal for his contribution to the commercialization of space.

Vice President Biden snickered during last week's debate at the suggestion there was waste, inefficiency or cronyism in the 2009 stimulus bill. If he can stop cackling for long enough, Biden, the self-proclaimed "stimulus sheriff" should sit down with the IRS officials and the federal inspector general who are investigating a solar company owned by leading Obama donor and subsidy recipient Elon Musk. Musk, as he cashes in on his solar investment by taking his company SolarCity public this month, had to make an awkward admission in his financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Internal Revenue Service...

SolarCity (SCTY), another “green energy” company and recipient of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds, in under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), sources reveal. The company, which recently filed for its initial IPO, has disclosed that it received subpoenas in July from the U.S. Treasury Department. The Treasury Department is investigating whether companies overstated the market value of solar panel arrays they installed when claiming the 30% federal cash grant. The IRS also notified SolarCity that it is auditing two of its investment funds and reviewing the claimed value of solar systems submitted to receive the federal cash...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Oct 9 - A prototype communications satellite flying as a secondary payload aboard a Space Exploration Technologies Falcon 9 rocket was sent into the wrong orbit because of a problem during launch Sunday evening, officials said Tuesday. One of the nine Merlin engines powering the Falcon 9 rocket shut down early, though the other engines burned longer to make up for the loss of thrust, saving the primary mission of delivering a Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station for NASA. The rocket blasted off at 8:35 p.m. EDT Sunday (0035 GMT Monday) from Cape Canaveral...

After opening several stores without much pushback, Elon Musk's ambition to replicate the Apple experience in Tesla factory stores is now facing potential roadblocks. Dealer associations in a handful of states, and state regulators in at least one case, say Tesla's stores violate state franchise laws that prohibit factory ownership of dealerships. Electric-vehicle maker Tesla now operates 17 stores in 10 states and the District of Columbia, most in shopping malls. Another six are scheduled to open this fall. The protesting dealer associations say Tesla's factory-owned stores present unfair competition for rival dealerships, are inconvenient for consumers needing repairs and,...

SpaceX is poised to start work on a $1.6 billion contract with NASA today, when a Falcon 9 rocket is set to blast off with 882 pounds of supplies on the first operational commercial cargo flight to the International Space Station. Tonight's liftoff time is 8:35 p.m. EDT/5:35 p.m. PDT (0035 GMT). The capsule will return to Earth in late October with approximately 1,673 pounds of equipment from the space station.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. A private company is on the verge of launching another cargo ship to the International Space Station. On Sunday night, California-based SpaceX will attempt to send a Dragon capsule to the orbiting lab and its three-member crew. Liftoff of the company's unmanned Falcon rocket is scheduled for 8:35 p.m. EDT. Forecasters put the odds of acceptable weather at 60 percent. Thick clouds and rain are the main concerns. A Dragon cargo ship successfully docked to the space station last May, but that was considered a test flight. The coming mission is the first under a $1.6 billion...

Solar panel installer SolarCity Corp filed with U.S. regulators to raise up to $201 million in an initial public offering that could help rekindle investor appetite for cleantech stocks. ....Companies including Google Inc and U.S. Bancorp have provided funds to finance SolarCity's projects. Those investors are able to collect a 30 percent federal tax credit for solar energy systems...... ...SolarCity was founded in 2006 by brothers Lyndon and Peter Rive along with their cousin, PayPal co-founder and Tesla Motors Chief Executive Elon Musk.... SolarCity hopes it can buck the lackluster trend among recent cleantech IPOs.... ....[SolorCity's] total revenue was $46.6...

Space Shuttle Discovery sailed off into the sunset and the United States for the first time in a half century has no proven ability to put men into space. Thank President Obama. Or maybe, thank SpaceX founder Elon Musk. (See Rand Simberg’s very different take on things.) SpaceX is getting federal dollars that NASA would otherwise use. .......While NASA dollars have moved into the pockets of SpaceX, we now know that Elon Musk is an Obama bundler. Yesterday I had a conversation with a Congressman who revealed to me that Musk is a big Obama friend and bundler. Musk has...

Here we go again. It’s unfortunate that so many supposed conservatives are opposed to competitive markets in spaceflight, to the point that they embarrass themselves with ignorant rants against the Obama space policy, one of the very few things that the administration has gotten sort of right. This time, it’s at Big Government, by someone named George Landrith, and it would be an embarrassment to the late and justifiably revered Andrew Breitbart, who started that web site. To address all of the ill-informed nonsense unfortunately requires a good old-fashioned fisking (warning: long post to follow):

Despite the news and pictures from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, America's once great space program is on life support because we no longer have a serious manned space exploration program....And the Obama Administration's unimaginative and amateurish vision for space exploration -- even if successful -- will not revive the dying program. It merely follows the disturbing pattern of the Solyndra scandal, funneling tax dollars to Obama donors and fundraisers. [SNIP] ....SpaceX collects tax dollars so that it can learn how to build and develop something that other companies were doing a generation ago. It is curious that SpaceX is now...

SpaceX’s Dragon capsule completed a nearly perfect flight this morning, splashing down as planned in the Pacific Ocean within a mile of its target. It replicated everything that the Gemini series of flights in the sixties did in a single flight — getting to orbit, performing a rendezvous with another object, closely approaching it, berthing to it, detaching from it, and entering the atmosphere to be retrieved by a ship — except that it was entirely unmanned (so no spacewalk — that will await flights with crew aboard). The only problem encountered was an issue with the LIDAR, the laser...

As Texas appears to be getting more serious about enticing SpaceX to build a spaceport near Brownsville an environmental group has stepped forward to oppose the project.At issue is the threat of “noise, heat, vibration, fencing and hazardous material spills” from the proposed spaceport that could lower the value of nearby Boca Chica Park and the Lower Rio Grande Valley Natural Wildlife Refuge.Here’s the full text of a news release issued today by Environment Texas: Environment Texas launched a petition drive today to stop the proposed construction of a spaceport on private land almost completely surrounded by a south Texas...