It’s always a good idea to carefully consider the company you keep — especially if you happen to work for one of Elon Musk’s massive companies.
According to local channel FOX7, SpaceX manager Kyle Gonzalez has been arrested over the alleged stabbing of a Tesla contractor during a team-building exercise gone horribly wrong.
During the night out with a group of co-workers and friends, Gonzalez reportedly got into a heated argument with the Tesla worker over a game of pool at the Waterhole Saloon, a roadside honky-tonk just outside of Austin, Texas.
Court documents viewed by the Austin American-Statesman claim that the SpaceX manager became irate after one of the women he had entered the bar with went to compliment the Tesla contractor’s performance on a karaoke song. When the Tesla worker asked the woman to join him for a game of pool, Gonzalez allegedly became angry, saying he was “going to kill” the contractor.
That’s when Gonzalez allegedly pulled out his pocket knife and stabbed the man in the neck, leaving him with a one-inch puncture wound, the Statesmen recounts.
The unnamed contractor was then rushed to the hospital for life-saving surgery, and is expected to pull through.
Gonzales was reportedly found hiding out in a nearby parking lot, still holding the bloody knife. Court documents note that the SpaceX manager said he hid “for his safety,” though he later apologized for the attack three separate times. He was charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon, with a bond set at $25,000.
More on SpaceX: SpaceX Vows to Keep Poisoning Nearby Towns With Its Fume-Belching Data Center For Another Year
The post SpaceX Manager Arrested for Allegedly Stabbing a Tesla Contractor Over Karaoke Performance appeared first on Futurism.
When the Artemis 2 crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10, the excitement was palpable — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen had swung around the Moon, broken a human spaceflight distance record, and come home safely. But for the Artemis program, it was just the beginning. Between April’sContinue reading "Why we need in-orbit refueling to return to the Moon"
The post Why we need in-orbit refueling to return to the Moon appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
SpaceX is ready to conduct the 14th test flight of its massive Starship launch vehicle, and this time the company plans to send the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The test launch is scheduled for September 22, with a 75-minute launch window opening at 3:15 p.m. Kyiv time (8:15 a.m. EDT). […]
The post Starship Set to Reach Orbit for the First Time: SpaceX Announces Date for Next Flight appeared first on AERONAUT.media.
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is gliding toward its distant observation post on a pinpoint trajectory so precise that engineers estimate the spacecraft's fuel load will last twice as long as their initial expectations, the space agency confirmed Monday.
The $4.3 billion observatory's designers originally planned to load enough propellant into Roman's four fuel tanks for a minimum lifetime of five years, plus a potential five-year mission extension. That was a conservative estimate. NASA officials knew an on-target launch and perfect execution of the observatory's first post-launch course correction maneuver would leave Roman with a hearty fuel reserve.
"As a result of exquisite planning by our orbital dynamics team, brilliant execution by the operations team, and a precise launch from SpaceX, Roman has fuel for at least 22 years of potential science operations," Jamie Dunn, center director at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a press release.
© SpaceX
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is gliding toward its distant observation post on a pinpoint trajectory so precise that engineers estimate the spacecraft's fuel load will last twice as long as their initial expectations, the space agency confirmed Monday.
The $4.3 billion observatory's designers originally planned to load enough propellant into Roman's four fuel tanks for a minimum lifetime of five years, plus a potential five-year mission extension. That was a conservative estimate. NASA officials knew an on-target launch and perfect execution of the observatory's first post-launch course correction maneuver would leave Roman with a hearty fuel reserve.
"As a result of exquisite planning by our orbital dynamics team, brilliant execution by the operations team, and a precise launch from SpaceX, Roman has fuel for at least 22 years of potential science operations," Jamie Dunn, center director at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a press release.
© SpaceX
Pending regulatory approval, SpaceX said today it intends to launch its 14th Starship mission as early as September 22. This flight is notable, as it will be the first time that SpaceX attempts to launch the experimental vehicle into orbit.
The company set a target liftoff time of 7:15 am local in Texas (12:15 UTC), with a 75-minute launch window. Sunrise in Brownsville, Texas, is 7:17 am CT, so the launch could make for some striking imagery.
The super heavy lift rocket will be carrying 26 of the larger V3 Starlink satellites into an orbit 275 km above the Earth. In an update on its website, SpaceX said the Starship upper stage will seek to complete six orbits around the Earth before completing its mission after about 10 hours.
© SpaceX
Pending regulatory approval, SpaceX said today it intends to launch its 14th Starship mission as early as September 22. This flight is notable, as it will be the first time that SpaceX attempts to launch the experimental vehicle into orbit.
The company set a target liftoff time of 7:15 am local in Texas (12:15 UTC), with a 75-minute launch window. Sunrise in Brownsville, Texas, is 7:17 am CT, so the launch could make for some striking imagery.
The super heavy lift rocket will be carrying 26 of the larger V3 Starlink satellites into an orbit 275 km above the Earth. In an update on its website, SpaceX said the Starship upper stage will seek to complete six orbits around the Earth before completing its mission after about 10 hours.
© SpaceX
Tesla will finally unveil its new Roadster on October 1, more than eight years after it first showed the car in 2017. And a teaser this weekend suggests the production version is getting Tesla’s “Cyber” design treatment.
The teaser shows SpaceX cold gas thrusters firing out the back, and Elon Musk has promised “radical design changes.” But the Roadster never needed a redesign. It needed to ship.
more…"Musk", de Alex Gibney, estreou no Festival de Veneza com quase quatro horas de duração e críticas muito positivas. Elon Musk não partilha a mesma opinião. Depois de reagir com fúria nas redes sociais, o magnata ameaçou o realizador com uma ação judicial.
The post Megalómano e vigarista: Documentário “desmonta” a imagem de Elon Musk. Magnata ameaça processar o realizador appeared first on Tek Notícias.
Tesla is teasing an October 1 reveal for the new Tesla Roadster, nine years after it first showed the prototype.
The company posted a “Go for launch” teaser image Friday showing the electric hypercar bathed in rocket-launch lighting, with the date “10.01” stamped across it.
more…Welcome to this edition of The Intelligence Brief… This week, SpaceX launched USSF-153, a classified U.S. Space Force mission carrying a mysterious payload into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, highlighting the growing intersection between commercial spaceflight and U.S. national security operations. In our analysis, we’ll be looking at 1) what we currently know about the highly secretive USSF-153 mission, 2) how details surrounding its flight path may offer clues that classified satellites potentially based on SpaceX’s Starshield platform were aboard, 3) how the mission comes amid growing concerns about an emerging era of military competition and potential conflict in Earth’s orbit, and 4) why the launch represents another milestone for SpaceX as reusable commercial rockets play an increasingly important role in national security space missions.
“SpaceX’s ongoing work with the Department of Defense and other partners demonstrates our ability to provide in-space and on-ground capability at scale.”
If you enjoy the news and perspectives offered by The Debrief, make sure that you aren’t missing our stories by making us one of your “preferred sources” on Google News. You can simply follow this link to add The Debrief to your list of favorites, and you can read more about Google’s preferred sources in our article here.
Earlier today, SpaceX launched a classified mission for the U.S. Space Force, which carried a mysterious payload to orbit on one of the company’s Falcon 9 rockets.
The mission, officially known as USSF-153, lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at around 11:37 a.m. EDT on Thursday. Beyond that, little else is known about what, exactly, the classified payload carried aboard the Falcon 9 might have been.
Here’s a look at what we currently know about this morning’s secretive launch, and how it may be related to other recent developments involving the growing use of Earth’s orbit in the advancement of U.S. national security objectives.
According to the company’s website, SpaceX says the USSF-153 mission marks the 27th flight for the first stage SpaceX rocket booster supporting this mission.
The same booster was previously used for the launches of missions that included the Crew-7, CRS-29, PACE, Transporter-10, EarthCARE, NROL-186, Transporter-13, TRACERS, NROL-48, COSMO-SkyMED Second Generation FM3, and 16 Starlink missions, according to an update on the USSF-153 mission page.
“Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean,” the SpaceX update read, noting that it may be possible for sonic booms to be heard in the region around Santa Barbara and surrounding communities, adding that “what residents experience will depend on weather and other conditions.”
The launch was live-streamed by SpaceX, and the moment of takeoff of the classified mission was subsequently added to the company’s official X account. However, few additional details about the exact nature of the mission were revealed, although experts have noted that at least a few details about the rocket’s mission could be discernible from its planned flight path, offering some clues about what USSF-153 might be carrying.
Some outlets have noted the similarity between the current mission’s rocket-stage drop zones and those from past SpaceX Starlink Group 15 missions, which could mean that a group of classified satellites, possibly built using SpaceX’s Starshield satellite platform, may be part of what’s on board.
Serving as the national-security counterpart to the technologies driving SpaceX’s massive Starlink broadband constellation, the program reportedly uses the company’s existing satellite and launch technology to support national security missions. If this is indeed a part of USSF-153’s mission, it would add to the increasingly important role commercial space technologies are playing in U.S. military and intelligence operations.
Last week’s Intelligence Brief newsletter covered recent concerns about potential future conflict in space, which include the use of sophisticated military capabilities in space by the U.S. and foreign adversary nations.
Experts warn that Earth’s orbit might become a critical battlefield in future conflicts, with recent examples of technologies currently being tested for this that include China’s secretive Shenlong spaceplane, as well as the U.S. and its allies demonstrating similar “dogfighting,” rendezvous, and other potentially military operations in orbit.
Additionally, Russia’s longstanding pursuit of anti-satellite weapons adds to the emerging threats that may soon occupy Earth’s orbit. Although it remains unknown whether Thursday’s mission could be related to such capabilities and other technologies aimed at leveraging Earth’s orbit for military purposes, its classified nature does leave this possibility open.
Finally, Thursday’s mission also represents a milestone in SpaceX’s busy 2026 launch schedule, with USSF-153 expected to become the company’s 104th Falcon 9 mission of the year.
Eighty of those launches have been dedicated to expanding the company’s ever-growing Starlink constellation, which now consists of more than 11,000 active satellites in low Earth orbit.
Despite the unusual secrecy surrounding its cargo, the USSF-153 launch showcases the new reusable commercial rocket industry SpaceX has developed, which is now frequently relied on by the U.S. military for carrying national-security hardware into orbit.
That concludes this week’s installment of The Intelligence Brief. You can read past editions of our newsletter at our website, or if you found this installment online, don’t forget to subscribe and get future email editions from us here. Also, if you have a tip or other information you’d like to send along directly to me, you can email me at micah [@] thedebrief [dot] org, or reach me on X: @MicahHanks.
Here are the top stories we’re covering right now…
NASA engineering teams are preparing for the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will soon begin the first phase of its historic mission to help scientists unlock the mysteries of dark energy.
On Wednesday, the American space agency reported that the completed telescope, presently contained within its payload fairing, has been transported from NASA’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility to a SpaceX hangar located at the famous Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
If all goes according to plan, the telescope will be launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at 7:26 a.m. EDT this Sunday, Aug. 30.
The telescope’s unique science instruments make Roman a different breed of space observatory from its predecessors, like the James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Telescope, as they are designed with the special focus of advancing the search for dark energy.
Roman is equipped with two primary capabilities, which involve its Wide Field Instrument (WFI) and Coronagraph Instrument. With a 300-megapixel, near-infrared camera designed for large area image capture and spectroscopy, the WFI will enable astronomers to observe a 0.281 square degree field of view and includes a special imaging mode with two slitless spectroscopy modes.
“The instrument provides a sharp point spread function, precision photometry, and stable observations for implementing the Dark Energy, Exoplanet Microlensing, and NIR surveys,” according to a NASA FAQ page detailing Roman’s primary instrument.
Meanwhile, the telescope’s Coronagraph Instrument also features both imaging and spectroscopy modes, with capabilities fine-tuned for imaging exoplanets.
“The Coronagraph will be the first instrument on a space telescope to make use of numerically optimized, precision-fabricated coronagraph masks,” NASA’s FAQ page reads. This will be achieved by employing a combination of deformable mirrors that will enable high-order wavefront control, a low-order wavefront sensing and control system, and finally, CCD detectors designed for electron multiplication and counting low-flux photons.
Along with its search for dark energy and exoplanets, Roman will also provide NASA and researchers around the world with an unprecedented opportunity to study the formation of galaxies and the way that dark matter governs their evolution over time.
NASA will begin live coverage of Roman’s launch on Sunday morning at 6:20 a.m. Eastern Time, and you can follow the updates online with NASA’s free streaming platforms.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.
SpaceX made Florida's Space Coast home to the world's busiest spaceport for a decade, but that will change this year. The company is significantly cutting the number of launches from Florida until Starship arrives, a senior SpaceX official confirmed Tuesday.
The Falcon 9 rocket has been SpaceX's workhorse, routinely launching batches of satellites for the company's Starlink network, primarily from launch pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There were 165 Falcon 9 launches last year—about three flights per week—and about 75 percent of them carried Starlink satellites.
This year is different. SpaceX has launched more missions from its West Coast launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California since January, and this trend will amplify for the rest of the year.
© SpaceX
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has captured the clearest images yet of a newly formed impact site on the Moon.
The 60-foot-wide crater was formed on August 5, 2026, as the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket slammed into the lunar surface, prompting amateur and professional astronomers around the world to watch for signs of the spacecraft’s impact.
Although no obvious evidence of the lunar crash landing was observed, six days later, NASA trained the powerful eye of the LRO onto the suspected crash site, eventually gathering several close-up views that reveal the best images of where the rocket made impact that have been captured to date.
The rocket that collided with the Moon was a leftover from Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1, which originally launched in January 2025.
Although the upper stage of the rocket was never intended to collide with the Moon at the time of its launch, after carrying the Firefly Aerospace mission to space, it entered a highly elliptical orbit that, over the course of about 18 months, subjected it to intense solar radiation and repeated gravitational tugs from both the Earth and the Moon. The resulting deviations altered its trajectory enough that the rocket was placed on an unavoidable lunar collision course.
Capturing images of the new crater was no small task and required precision spacecraft pointing. The LRO travels approximately one mile per second in its orbit around the Moon, which means it completes a pole-to-pole orbit roughly every two hours.
Tilting the spacecraft to point its Narrow-Angle Camera toward the impact site during successive passes, the images had to be timed to within a window of less than ten seconds to prevent the newly formed lunar feature from being shifted several miles beyond the field of view of the LRO’s camera.
Fortunately, the LRO team has a good bit of experience when it comes to spotting and photographing high-resolution images of features on the Moon. The photos they captured between August 11 and 12 reveal the new 60-foot-wide crater, along with patterns evident in the surrounding landscape as lunar regolith was propelled outward from the impact site.
In the new before-and-after images, darker material can be seen, which has weathered over time due to surface exposure to cosmic rays, solar irradiation, and countless micrometeorite impacts. Contrasting with this darker surface area are brighter areas, visible in “rays” near the newly formed crater, where subsurface material that has retained lighter coloration was blasted outward.
Before locating the impact site, NASA scientists coordinated with professional and amateur astronomers, as well as several space agencies from around the world, to reconstruct the rocket stage’s trajectory based on publicly available data.
Much of that data came from NASA’s own Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), which helped to refine predictions about where the strike was believed to have occurred. Although normally part of the American space agency’s planetary defense efforts that track asteroids and comets that could potentially threaten Earth, the recent lunar impact served as a rare opportunity to test their prediction tools.
Once coordinates for the expected location of the impact were determined, NASA and its partners supplied these to the South Korean Space Agency (KASA), whose Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, or Danuri, and its high-resolution LUTI camera, were first to capture images of the crater.
At that time, it was determined that the crash site and resulting lunar impact feature were within about 0.6 miles of NASA’s original predicted location. Based on the KASA observations, NASA was able to supply the new information to its LRO team in advance of the successful capture of the new NASA imagery.
The resulting images offer one of the clearest views of a new crater on the lunar surface, and one produced by an object originating from Earth. Additional details about the photos and the technologies used to capture them can be found at NASA’s website.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.
Login