- What promise did the reusable shuttle design make about the future cost of reaching orbit, and how did that hold up?
Commercial Spaceflight
Private-sector rockets, launch vehicles, and space companies.
- Why did NASA object to Dennis Tito's visit to the International Space Station while Russia agreed to fly him?
- How much did Dennis Tito pay for his trip and how long did he spend aboard the ISS?
- Why had rocket boosters historically been discarded or expensively refurbished rather than simply reflown?
- What happened during the March 2017 flight of the reused Falcon 9 booster?
- How did proving booster reuse change the economics of spaceflight?
- How did the Falcon Heavy's two side boosters manage to land simultaneously at Cape Canaveral?
- What happened to the central core booster that was supposed to land on the drone ship?
- What payload did SpaceX launch on the Falcon Heavy's maiden flight, and where did it end up?
- How does Starship's first-stage thrust compare to the Saturn V rocket?
- What happened during Starship's first and second integrated flight tests in 2023?
- Why did SpaceX describe both failed test flights as successful?
- What role is Starship intended to play in NASA's Artemis program and future Mars missions?
- How did Starship's first three flight tests in 2023 each end in the vehicle's destruction?
- What made the Super Heavy booster's splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico during Flight 4 a success?
- Why was surviving atmospheric reentry a critical milestone for Ship 29 on the fourth integrated flight test?
- Why is returning intact at both ends a prerequisite for Starship's stated goal of landing on the Moon and Mars?
- What went wrong with the Astrobotic Peregrine and Intuitive Machines IM-1 lunar landing attempts before Blue Ghost?
- How does the Super Heavy booster catch manoeuvre work, and what happened during Starship's seventh flight test?
- What milestones did SpaceX reach with Falcon 9 launches and booster reuse in 2025?
- What capabilities did later 2025 Starship tests demonstrate beyond the booster catch, like satellite deployment?
- What payload did the Ariane 64's maiden flight carry, and how much mass did it deliver to low Earth orbit?