BOCA CHICA, Texas, April 20 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's SpaceX on Thursday launched its next-generation Starship cruise vessel for the first time atop the company's powerful new Super Heavy rocket, but the uncrewed test flight ended minutes later with the vehicle exploding in the sky. While the two-stage rocket ship failed to make it beyond an altitude of 20 miles (32 km), SpaceX officials cheered the outcome for achieving the test flight's primary objective of getting the new spacecraft off the ground in what appeared to be an otherwise clean liftoff. NASA chief Bill Nelson tweeted: "Congrats to @SpaceX on Starships first integrated flight test! Every great achievement throughout history has demanded some level of calculated risk, because with great risk comes great reward Continue reading →

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas (AP) SpaceX called off the first launch attempt of its giant rocket Monday after a problem cropped up during fueling. Elon Musks company had planned to fly the nearly 400-foot Starship rocket from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. Continue reading →

Update for April 20 at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT): SpaceX launched Starship on an epic test flight that ended in an explosive 'rapid unscheduled disassembly.' Read our post-flight coverage here. All eyes are on SpaceX and its Starbase facility in Texas this week as the company prepares to launch its giant Starship rocket for its first flight into space. Continue reading →

SpaceX's powerful Falcon Heavy rocket is getting ready to fly again. Elon Musk's company conducted a "static fire" (opens in new tab) with the Falcon Heavy on Thursday (April 13), briefly igniting the vehicle's 27 first-stage Merlin engines on the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Static fires are common preflight tests, designed to ensure that a rocket's various systems are primed for launch Continue reading →

A robotic SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule is returning to Earth today (April 15) after a month parked at the International Space Station. The Dragon CRS-27 supply ship undocked from the International Space Station at 11:05 a.m. Continue reading →

This weeks Twitter kerfuffle is all about public funding. Elon Musk decided to label National Public Radios account first as government-influenced media, which it previously applied to state-operated media outlets that shade into propaganda. Later, the label was changed to government-funded media. Continue reading →