Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase near Brownsville, Texas. Since its founding in 2001, the company has made numerous advancements in rocket propulsion, reusable launch vehicle, human spaceflight and satellite constellation technology. By the late 2010s, SpaceX had become the world's dominant space launch provider, its launch cadence rivaling that of the Chinese space program and eclipsing all those of its private competitors. SpaceX, NASA and the United States Armed Forces work closely together by means of governmental contracts.
Satellite flare, also known as satellite glint, is a satellite pass visible to the naked eye as a brief, bright "flare". It is caused by the reflection toward the Earth below of sunlight incident on satellite surfaces such as solar panels and antennas. Streaks from satellite flare are a form of light pollution that can negatively affect ground-based astronomy, stargazing, and indigenous people.
James Edward Oberg is an American space journalist and historian, regarded as an expert on the Russian and Chinese space programs. He had a 22-year career as a space engineer in NASA specializing in orbital rendezvous. Oberg is an author of ten books and more than a thousand articles on space flight. He has provided multiple explanations of UFO phenomena for media outlets. He is also a consultant in spaceflight operations and safety.
Falcon 9 is a partially reusable, human-rated, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. The first Falcon 9 launch was on 4 June 2010, and the first commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched on 8 October 2012. In 2020, it became the first commercial rocket to launch humans to orbit. The Falcon 9 has an exceptional safety record, with 394 successful launches, two in-flight failures, one partial failure and one pre-flight destruction. It is the most-launched American orbital rocket in history.
A twilight phenomenon is produced when exhaust particles from missile or rocket propellant left in the vapor trail of a launch vehicle condense, freeze, and then expand in the less dense upper atmosphere. The exhaust plume, which is suspended against a dark sky, is then illuminated by reflective high-altitude sunlight through dispersion, which produces a spectacular, colorful effect when seen at ground level.
Below is a partial list of alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects or UFOs in Canada.
SAOCOM is an Earth observation satellite constellation of Argentina's space agency CONAE. Two satellites are already orbiting the Earth in a Sun-synchronous orbit. The second one was launched on 30 August 2020.
Planet Labs PBC is a publicly trading American Earth imaging company based in San Francisco, California. Their goal is to image the entirety of the Earth daily to monitor changes and pinpoint trends.
An autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) is a modified ocean-going barge equipped with propulsion systems to maintain precise position and a large landing platform. SpaceX developed these vessels to recover the first stage of its launch vehicles. By recovering and reusing these boosters, SpaceX has significantly reduced the cost of space launch.
Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by Starlink Services, LLC, an international telecommunications provider that is a wholly owned subsidiary of American aerospace company SpaceX, providing coverage to over 100 countries and territories. It also aims to provide global mobile broadband. Starlink has been instrumental to SpaceX's growth.
Paz is a Spanish Earth observation and reconnaissance satellite launched on 22 February 2018. It is Spain's first spy satellite. The satellite is operated by Hisdesat. Paz was previously referred to as SEOSAR.
Starship is a two-stage fully reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by American aerospace company SpaceX. On April 20, 2023, with the first Integrated Flight Test, Starship became the most massive and most powerful vehicle ever to fly. SpaceX has developed Starship with the intention of lowering launch costs using economies of scale, aiming to achieve this by reusing both rocket stages by "catching" them with the launch tower's systems, increasing payload mass to orbit, increasing launch frequency, mass-manufacturing the rockets and adapting it to a wide range of space missions. Starship is the latest project in SpaceX's reusable launch system development program and plan to colonize Mars.
Falcon 9 booster B1048 was a reusable orbital-class Block 5 Falcon 9 first-stage booster manufactured by SpaceX. B1048 was the third Falcon 9 Block 5 to fly and the second Block 5 booster to re-fly. It became the second orbital-class booster to fly a third time and is the first booster ever to be launched five times. B1048 service came to an end on its fifth flight when an engine shut down prematurely on launch. Whilst the primary mission was unaffected and the Starlink payload deployed successfully, B1048 was unable to land. In a subsequent investigation, SpaceX found that isopropyl alcohol, used as cleaning fluid, was trapped and ignited causing the engine to be shut down. To address the issue, in a following launch SpaceX indicated that the cleaning process was not done.
Falcon 9 B1060 was a Falcon 9 first-stage booster manufactured and operated by SpaceX. It was the senior active booster vehicle for the company since the demise of B1058 on 25 December 2023 during transit back to shore, until being expended for the Galileo FOC FM25 & FM27 mission on 28 April 2024. It had flown 20 missions and landed 19 times.
