The stakes were high for SpaceX on Tuesday when their triple-core monster rocket leapt off from Florida’s Space Coast on an ambitious shakedown mission that held many unknowns for the California-based company.

After the triumphant first launch of the Falcon Heavy megarocket yesterday (Feb. 6), which is propelling a Tesla electric car out into the solar system, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk still seemed surprised that the mission had succeeded.

The first Falcon Heavy rocket built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX soared on its maiden voyage today (Feb. 6).

You can watch SpaceX’s Starman mannequin ride a Tesla Roadster in space live on YouTube after the successful Falcon Heavy test launch of Feb. 6, 2018. Check it out!

Weltraummüll als Accessoire: Im All dümpelt nun ein Tesla mit einem Dummy. SpaceX hat die Falcon Heavy-Rakete in den Weltraum geschickt. Die schönsten Bilder vom Start

Here are some of our favorite photos from the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch today (Feb. 6).

Die Welt hat eine neue leistungsstärkste Rakete: SpaceX’ Falcon Heavy hat Dienstagabend ihren ersten Testflug absolviert. Die Rakete startete um 15:45 Uhr Ortszeit Florida.

Nicht nur der Start der Falcon-Heavy-Rakete ist ein Novum in der Raumfahrt. Innen drin steckt noch eine roter modifizierter Tesla als Marketinggag. Ein normales Auto würde den Start nämlich nicht überstehen.

Elektroauto-Pionier Elon Musk 30654 hätte auch einen Betonklotz nehmen können. Oder Stahlblöcke, wie es in der Raumfahrt bislang üblich war. Doch das ist dem Multiunternehmer und Marketingkenner zu langweilig. Deshalb lässt Musk, der zeitglei…

To gain a fuller understanding of Falcon Heavy’s caliber and the ambitions behind the SpaceX launch, it is worthwhile to look at the numbers.

A decade-long journey to the launch pad could end on Tuesday for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket with the long-awaited maiden launch of the tri-core rocket. With a commercial launch license from the FAA in hand, a clean Launch Readiness Review and fair weather forecast, SpaceX wheeled the monster…

The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a launch license for the inaugural launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, scheduled for Feb. 6.

When SpaceX launches its first Falcon Heavy rocket this week, the company is going to attempt something never done before: a rocket landing triple play.

Am Dienstag will SpaceX endlich den ersten Flug der neuen Rakete Falcon Heavy durchführen. Der war seit Jahren verschoben worden. Zur Vorführung soll sie nun einen Tesla in einen Orbit um die Sonne schießen.

A beefed-up sounding rocket-turned-orbital-launch-vehicle zoomed into the skies over Japan’s Kyushu Island on Saturday in a bid to become the smallest launch vehicle to successfully achieve orbit one year after its inaugural test flight crashed into the Pacific Ocean.

Just over a year after crashing into the Pacific Ocean on its first test flight, Japan’s SS-520 sounding-rocket-turned-orbital-launch-vehicle stands ready for another try to become the world’s smallest orbital launch vehicle, just powerful enough to lift a three-Kilogram CubeSat.

During a Russian spacewalk at the International Space Station, cosmonauts tossed an antique electronics box into space.

Expedition 54 Commander Alexander Misurkin and Flight Engineer Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos have completed a spacewalk lasting 8 hours and 13 minutes. It is the longest Russian spacewalk, breaking the previous record of 8 hours and 7 minutes that Oleg Kotov and Sergei…

A pair of cosmonauts have wrapped up preparations for Friday morning’s spacewalk to work on the Russian segment of the International Space Station. The other four Expedition 54 crew members continued more eye exams throughout the day on Thursday.

Two Russian Cosmonauts are set for a complex six-hour and 40-minute spacewalk on Friday outside the International Space Station to work on the exterior of the Russian ISS Segment to replace communications gear on the Zvezda Service Module.

Two Russian Cosmonauts had a trial of patience on Friday when working on the Service Module of the International Space Station to replace antiquated communications gear with new electronics to enable the Russian ISS Segment to connect to Russia’s Luch satellites positioned in Geostationary Orbit…

Despite a potential end to the ISS in the mid-2020s, the nonprofit organization that operates the ISS national lab is concerned with near-term utilization.

Vor zehn Jahren sollte Hans Schlegel das europäische Modul “Columbus” an der ISS installieren. Doch es kam anders. Nun erklärt der Astronaut erstmals, was los war – und was seither in dem Labor geleistet wurde.

The International Space Station program is getting ready to recognize the 10th year in space of its Columbus lab module from the European Space Agency (ESA). The Expedition 54 crew members, meanwhile, spent the day helping scientists on the ground understand the impacts of living in space.

Careering around Earth every 90 minutes, 400 km above our heads, is the International Space Station – humanity’s orbital outpost.The first permanent European research facility in space, the Columbus module – seen partially in the bottom right of this image – was delivered 10 years ago thi…

This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image features Tunisia’s capital Tunis, in North Africa, and highlights some of the country’s important wetlands.Captured on 15 December 2017, the image shows part of the Mediterranean’s Gulf of Tunis, which provides natural protection for this ancient city and …

China launched a Long March 2D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Friday, carrying a group of seven satellites from China, Italy, Argentina and Denmark including an innovative experiment to study the ionospheric precursors of Earthquakes to evaluate whether forecasting of strong…

NASA’s Earth Observing System is a collection of satellites that monitor the planet’s climate system over an extended period.

The White House announced Jan. 26 that it will nominate former NASA astronaut James Reilly to be the next director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Two satellites placed into incorrect orbits by an Ariane 5 that suffered an anomaly during its Jan. 25 launch can be recovered and placed into their desired orbits, their operators said Jan. 26.

A long-lost-but-recently-rediscovered NASA satellite appears to have a fully charged battery and is “in good shape” overall, the agency said in an update yesterday (Feb. 5).

The handlers of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft have just revealed the official patch for the probe’s extended mission, which centers on the flyby of a distant and mysterious object called 2014 MU69 on Jan. 1, 2019.

What gives Jupiter’s Great Red Spot its distinct color? A new study shows why the answer may not be easy to find.

“NASA recently posted an image taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) aboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity. A reader from Australia contacted me to point out some curious structures within the rock featured in that image. I get a lot of emails like this. Normally these emails include something…

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity recently took a panoramic photo showing some of the key spots the vehicle has explored during its five-plus years on the Red Planet.

A new self-portrait by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity shows the dusty robot hard at work on the slopes of the Red Planet’s towering Mount Sharp.

Living near a star is risky business, and positioning a spacecraft near the Sun is a very good way to observe rapidly changing solar activity and deliver early warning of possibly harmful space weather. ESA is now looking at doing just that.

The evolution of colliding stellar winds in HD 5980 between 2000 and 2016. Credit: ESA/XMM-Newton; Y. Nazé et al. 2018

Seven planets orbiting the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. Credit: NASA

The seven Earth-size planets of TRAPPIST-1 are all mostly made of rock, with some having the potential to hold more water than Earth, according to a new study.

  TRAPPIST-1 Ein Planet könnte der Erde ähneln Redaktion / idw / Pressemitteilung der Universität Bern astronews.com 5. Februar 2018

All seven planets discovered in orbit around the red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 could easily fit inside the orbit of Mercury, the innermost planet of our solar system. In fact, the proportions of the TRAPPIST-1 system look more like Jupiter and its moons.

Looks like #StopBridenstine tweets about #NASA Administrator nominee Bridenstine use Twitterbots. Many of the Twitter accounts have no user pics, single digit followers, identical text fired out in batches in fast succession seconds/minutes apart like this one from @climatetruth…

“We found that NSBRI delivered research products that helped NASA make progress toward the goal of mitigating human health and performance risks associated with space travel. However, while most NSBRI charges complied with applicable laws and the award’s terms, NASA improperly permitted NSBRI to…

Former astronaut Terry Virts; “The kind of person who learns how to fly an airplane and drop bombs is different than one who learns to fly spaceships.”

NASA is opening a new anti-harassment campaign for employees weeks after a congressional committee asked U.S. science agencies to investigate their harassment policies.

A Russian Soyuz 2-1A / Fregat launch vehicle lifted off from the country’s Far Eastern Vostochny Cosmodrome at 2:07:18 UTC on February 1, 2018 with a pair of Kanopus-V imaging satellites as primary payloads and nine Micro- and CubeSats as secondary passengers. The mission successfully redeemed…

A Russian Soyuz 2-1A / Fregat launch vehicle lifted off from the country’s Far Eastern Vostochny Cosmodrome at 2:07:18 UTC on February 1, 2018 with a pair of Kanopus-V imaging satellites as primary payloads and nine Micro- and CubeSats as secondary passengers. The mission successfully redeemed…

  S-NET Nanosatelliten machen gemeinsame Sache Redaktion / Pressemitteilung des DLR astronews.com 2. Februar 2018

As SpaceX gears up for the first launch of its Falcon Heavy rocket, the company is backing away from launching crewed missions beyond Earth orbit on it.

The Deep Space Network is NASA’s worldwide radio telescope array that makes it possible to communicate with spacecraft.

“Mad” Mike Hughes strapped himself in to his second homemade rocket Saturday. But his rocket never left its pad.

Three different rockets – one each from Russia, China and Japan – launched satellites into orbit over three days in back-to-back-to-back space missions.

Astronaut poop could become the bottom rung of a space-based microbial food chain.

Die Europäische Weltraumorganisation ESA und das internationale Beschleunigerzentrum FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research GmbH), das derzeit beim GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt entsteht, arbeiten bei der Erforschung kosmischer Strahlung künftig eng z…

Columbia: Thinking Back – Looking Ahead, Excerpt from “New Moon Rising”, by Frank Sietzen, Jr. and Keith Cowing

Fifteen years after the shuttle Columbia and its crew of seven were lost returning to Earth after a 16-day mission, pieces of the winged orbiter are still being found and the debris is being used by NASA to educate and inspire a new generation of space workers.