Elon Musk calls incident, “Only a scratch,” on X early Thursday morning. No accidents reported following explosion at Starbase facility in Texas. (Credit score: LabPadre through Storyful)
Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch astronauts to the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) Thursday.
The window for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission from Kennedy Area Heart in Florida opens at 12:09 p.m ET.
“The flight is the eleventh crew rotation mission with SpaceX to station, and the twelfth human spaceflight beneath NASA’s Business Crew Program,” NASA stated in a weblog put up.
“The Crew-11 cadre will fly aboard the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft that beforehand flew NASA’s SpaceX Demo Mission-2, Crew-2, Crew-6, and Crew-8, along with Axiom Mission 1, the primary personal astronaut mission to the microgravity laboratory.”
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft sit on the pad at Launch Complicated 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart earlier than the launch of Axiom Area’s Axiom Mission on June 11, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Photographs)
SPACEX STARSHIP EXPLODES ON TEXAS LAUNCH SITE
Earlier than NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan Aerospace Exploration Company (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov liftoff from Kennedy’s Launch Complicated 39A, listed here are 5 issues to learn about SpaceX.
1. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk
When Musk based SpaceX in 2002, its headquarters had been in Hawthorne, California. Since then, the HQ for the aerospace and protection firm has moved to Starbase in southern Texas. The corporate has 13,000 staff, and its income for 2024 was $8.7 billion, in line with Forbes.
It’s at the moment the biggest personal firm valued at round $400 billion, per stories.
Musk’s believes the corporate can ultimately make it to planet Mars.
He additionally has a rivalry with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who owns house firm Blue Origin.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk walks on stage throughout a T-Cellular and SpaceX joint occasion on August 25, 2022 in Boca Chica Seaside, Texas. The 2 corporations introduced plans to work collectively to offer T-Cellular mobile service utilizing Starlink satellites. (Michael Gonzalez/Getty Photographs / Getty Photographs)
NASA SPACEX CREW-6 LAUNCH SCRUBBED AFTER LAST-MINUTE TECH ISSUE
2. Inside SpaceX
SpaceX prides itself on the work it has completed in 23 years. The “house aviation firm that designs, manufactures, and launches superior rockets and spacecraft,” World Knowledge’s web site says. Missions are launched from launch websites at Cape Canaveral Air Drive Station, Kennedy Area Heart and Vandenberg Air Drive Base in California.
As of Wednesday afternoon, SpaceX’s web site says it has accomplished 521 missions, 482 landings and 448 reflights.
“Whereas most rockets are designed to deplete on reentry, SpaceX rockets cannot solely stand up to reentry however also can efficiently land again on Earth and refly once more,” it stated.
Assist groups work on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft shortly after it landed with NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov onboard on March 18, 2025 off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida. (Keegan Barber/NASA through Getty Photographs)
3. Starlink
Together with astronauts, SpaceX launches satellites into house, permitting communities and vacationers worldwide to remain related. The division of SpaceX “is the world’s first and largest satellite tv for pc constellation utilizing a low Earth orbit to ship broadband web able to supporting streaming, on-line gaming, video calls and extra,” its web site says.
The know-how has been picked up by journey companies, similar to United Airways and Carnival Company, to offer dependable Wi-Fi to clients within the air and at sea.
| Ticker | Safety | Final | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UAL | UNITED AIRLINES HOLDINGS INC. | 90.24 | -0.41 | -0.45% |
| CCL | CARNIVAL CORP. | 30.14 | +0.44 | +1.48% |
Following pure disasters, like Hurricane Milton in October 2024, Starlink kits have been activated to offer cell satellite tv for pc service in partnership with cellphone carriers. Musk has additionally deployed the satellites over Ukraine amid its conflict with Russia.
Starlink web is now accessible on all Carnival Company ships the world over. (Carnival Company / Fox Information)
4. With success comes failure
Not all of SpaceX’s missions have been profitable.
Final month, SpaceX’s Starship exploded, sending a large fireball into the sky from Texas that was caught on a number of livestreams.
Falcon 9, the “reusable, two-stage rocket” that’s getting used for Thursday’s deliberate launch, suffered a “liquid oxygen leak” in July 2024, inflicting the Merlin Vacuum engine to expertise an “anomaly,” leading to a lack of satellites.
EntrepreneurShares COO Eva Ados weighs the advantages of proudly owning SpaceX in comparison with Tesla on ‘Making Cash.’
5. Trump, authorities subsidies and contracts
President Donald Trump attended a SpaceX launch final Might. This was as he and Musk spent a big period of time on the White Home whereas he was head of the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) earlier than a terse exit.
President Donald Trump waves goodbye to the gang after attending a put up launch gathering after NASA industrial crew astronauts Doug Hurley (L) and Bob Behnken blast off from historic Launch Complicated 39A aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket within the crew D (Jonathan Newton/Washington Submit through Getty Photographs)
Following a public fallout between Musk and Trump, a highlight was shone on how a lot authorities funding Musk’s corporations had acquired over time.
Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump hearken to a query from reporters within the Oval Workplace of the White Home on Might 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch / Getty Photographs)
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SpaceX, a vital contractor for NASA and the Area Drive, has acquired at the very least $1 billion in authorities contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credit annually since 2016, and between $2 billion and $4 billion a 12 months from 2021 to 2024, as beforehand reported.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a payload of 24 Starlink web satellites soars into house after launching from Vandenberg Area Drive Base on July 18, 2025, seen from Santee, California. (Kevin Carter / Getty Photographs)
FOX Enterprise’ Eric Revell contributed to this report.