For those not familiar, the Starship is the next evolution of SpaceX’s fleet of rockets and spacecraft. This one will eventually take us to Mars and beyond. Yesterday’s test flight was a high-altitude test of the Starship spacecraft (serial number 8 or SN8). The test did not include the booster rocket which will eventually be used when a Starship blasts off to leave the earth.

Watch the full Video replay of the SpaceX Starship test flight below in this article.

The Starship is 160ft tall and has the ability to carry over 100 tons of payload. During a mission launch, Starship will sit atop a SpaceX Super Heavy booster rocket capable of 16 million pounds of thrust. With the two stacked for launch, the complete Starship System stands 394 feet tall.

“SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket (collectively referred to as Starship) represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Starship will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, with the ability to carry in excess of 100 metric tonnes to Earth orbit.” – SpaceX.com

The test flight yesterday was to see if the Starship spacecraft could complete a number of important functions for flight and re-entry. As you can see in the video replay below, it started with a launch of Starship and a high-altitude climb. Next the vehicle transitioned into a landing phase.

Part of the landing phase included a spectacular transition from vertical flight into horizontal flight, using its wing-like fins for maneuvering.

As it neared the ground, the Starship transitioned back to a vertical position and initiated its landing burn.

Although the engines fired to execute the landing, the final descent rate at touchdown was a little higher than planned. The result was the explosion of the SpaceX Starship which has been the focus of video streamed online and on news broadcasts.

On its YouTube page SpaceX talks about the test flight. “On Wednesday, December 9, Starship serial number 8 (SN8) lifted off from our Cameron County launch pad and successfully ascended, transitioned propellant, and performed its landing flip maneuver with precise flap control to reach its landing point.”

“Low pressure in the fuel header tank during the landing burn led to high touchdown velocity resulting in a hard (and exciting!) landing. Thank you to all the locals supporting our efforts in Cameron County and beyond. Congratulations to the entire Starship and SpaceX teams on today’s test! Serial number 9 (SN9) is up next – Mars, here we come!”

The company, and its founder Elon Musk, were very pleased with the test flight despite the explosion. All phases of the flight went extremely well, proving that the system works.

The pressure issue in the header tank has now been identified and will be corrected. As any engineer will tell you, you often learn a lot more from a system failure than from a success. That’s why the call them ‘test’ flights.

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The 49-year old Musk’s increase in wealth came along with Tesla stock breaching $500B in market value. The boost in overall market value came as investors purchased stock in the run-up to the company addition in the S&P index. However, Tesla (TSLA) has also seen an unprecedented increase in market value this year, gaining six time its value in 2020.

Despite the coronavirus outbreak which put most automotive businesses on hold or pushed them into a steep market drop, Tesla managed not escape a near-death sentence and according to number, thrived.

Tesla is ranked as world’s most valuable car company, sitting comfortably far from second place, even with production figures that are only a fraction of what other auto giants are pushing now. Although other EV stocks have risen since president-elect Joe Biden’s statements about boosting EVs as a top priority were made public during his campaign, no other company surged the way Tesla did.

One of the Joe Biden platform underpinnings features a strong push for zero emission vehicles and clean energy sources by 2030. If put into practice correctly, it could see Tesla surging even further on the stock market and increasing Elon Musk’s fortune. This would in turn create the possibility of the 49-year old businessman to become the richest person alive.

At the moment, Jeff Bezos holds the title, with an estimated net worth of $181.3 billion.

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The automated flight, 27 hours long, began with a dramatic night launch from Kennedy Space Center. The SpaceX capsule carrying 4 NASA astronauts then docked with the International Space Station late on Monday night.

Watch the SpaceX video replay of Crew Mission 1 Docking with the ISS below:

The connection occurred when the capsule was 262 miles above the Earth. Kate Rubins, on making the first radio contact to the dragon’s commander, remarked how pleasant it was to hear a human voice.

This is the second time that SpaceX has launched an astronaut crew to the ISS. The first mission in October was a test mission with 2 crew onboard. This mission, Crew Mission 1, was the first official crew delivery to the ISS and marks the beginning of a new future for American astronauts traveling into orbit and beyond.

The next replacement crew for ISS is planned in April. Until then, the astronauts, a Japanese and 3 Americans, will be staying in the orbit lab.

This new crew is now united the three already onboard the ISS, including 2 Russians and an American. One of the members of this week’s Hopkins crew, Glover, is the only African-American who went for such a long journey.

The 4 members of the crew have named the capsule ‘Resilience’, owed to the fact that times are really hard for the entire world due to pandemic, and this mission can serve as hope. There was a video broadcast on Monday displaying the storehouse, screen controls and the gravity indicator while touring their capsule.

For the launch, guests were kept to minimum due to coronavirus. Even the founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk didn’t join as he tweeted that he probably has an infection.

Instead, Elon Musk’s SpaceX was represented by Gwynne Shotwell, the president of SpaceX. While Elon Musk assured that he was quite involved, just a little remotely.

Dragon crew channeled the live streams showing views of New Zealand and the pacific almost 250 miles below when they were nearing the altitude to link-up. The SpaceX headquarters radioed saying that the view looks beautiful. 

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The 2021 Los Angeles Auto Show will run from May 21-31 at the LA Convention Center.

In addition to being the company’s first electric SUV, this launch of the Fisker Ocean represents the company’s first production vehicle. According to Fisker, Ocean will deliver class-leading range and performance, along with functional interior space which includes third-row seating.

“It’s with great excitement that we’re making the global debut of the Fisker Ocean here in our home city of Los Angeles,” said Henrik Fisker, Chairman and CEO of Fisker.

“As befits the world’s first digital car company, we are also planning to showcase several Fisker-unique technologies that will support our differentiated ownership experience and vehicle functionality.”

While Fisker is based in California, the company has developed a partnership in Europe with Magna International. Magna will assemble the Ocean in Europe, with production scheduled to being in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Despite the fact that production has not yet begun, Fisker has already inked a deal for 300 vehicles. These Oceans will be delivered to Viggo, a Danish ride-hailing service.

Viggo, plans to use the Fisker vehicles to build its all-electric fleet. With it the company hopes to set a new standard for urban transportation.

Some see Fisker as a company which could eventually become a rival to Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors. But with production of its first electric vehicle still over a year away, that could take some doing.

To learn more about Fisker and the company’s vision for eco-friendly electric vehicles, visit www.FiskerInc.com.

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The screening process takes into account the most relevant performance figures of the industry and generates an indicator of how performance will evolve in the future.

According to Calum MacRae, Automotive Analyst for GlobalData, Tesla has gone above the sector average in various measures. For example, Tesla is the undisputed leader in market capitalization (total market value of the company’s outstanding shares).

In terms of manufacturing capacity utilization rate, Tesla rated 90% throughout 2019, keeping the automaker at the top of GlobalData’s list.

With currently just one main distribution plant in the US and two upcoming nodes in Shanghai and Berlin, Elon Musk’s company is expected to boost its capacity dynamically in the next half decade. The boost, according to MacRae, is also a result of an observed high demand on electric vehicles.

Future Outlook for Tesla

Based on the analytic report, Tesla shows a positive outlook and emerges rather unscathed from the current covid-19 crisis. This is a sharp contrast to older, larger automakers whom have had their sales cut drastically in 2020.

The optimistic sales figures combined with the top engineering expertise and marketing techniques boost the company towards a winning position in the post-epidemic business environment.

On the same note, GlobalData set BMW, Toyota, Honda and Geely as sector leaders in manufacturing capacity utilization, while pushing Ford, Renault, Tata Motors and Nissan at the other end of the scale.

Even though it doesn’t feature the seniority of other well-established automakers, GlobalData considers key attributes featured by Tesla to keep the US-based electric vehicle manufacturer outperforming the sector for years to come.

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For those who lived in or visited the area around the Kennedy Space Center, referred to as Florida’s Space Coast, during the Space Shuttle era, they will remember that opportunities to see a rocket launch came only a few times a year.

With the entrance of private space launch companies like SpaceX in recent years, that situation has changed dramatically. This week, in fact, will likely see a record for rocket launches from the Space Center.

In the span of just a few days, there will in be 3 rocket launches – beginning on Thursday.

Launch 1

In a matter of hours, the first of these launches will be a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket at 2:04 AM ET on August 29, 2020.

The Delta IV Heavy, the largest of its kind, will lift off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch complex 37 – just south of the Kennedy Space Center.

Carried aloft by three large booster rockets, the launch of the Delta IV Heavy should be easy to see from Eastern and Central Florida against the dark night sky.

The rocket will carry a classified spy satellite into orbit for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.

Launch 2

In what will be a record setting week, the second rocket launch in just three days is scheduled to take place around 10:08 am on Sunday morning, August 30.

Like the Falcon 9 from a couple weeks ago, Saturday’s Falcon 9 will carry another of the company’s 60 Starlink satellites into orbit. This is part of SpaceX’s mission to build a constellation of satellites which will provide affordable broadband internet to even the most remote parts of the planet.

But if you miss either one of these launches, don’t worry – there’s yet another one coming up.

Launch 3

On Sunday, August 30th, SpaceX will be launching two of its Falcon 9 Rockets on the same day! The second of these will be Sunday evening, at 7:19 pm eastern time.

On this mission, Falcon 9 will lift-off carrying a SAOCOM 1B Earth observation satellite for Argentina. This launch for Elon Musk’s company is the third SpaceX Falcon 9 to fly in just the last few weeks.

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While most people only think about the launch companies in this sector, there is an interdependence between a number of companies in the expanding commercial space industry.

One other such company, BlackSky, recently announced that it has selected ATLAS to fulfill a need for support of its space related services. BlackSky uses a constellation of satellites which use imaging and other sensors to gather data which they in turn use to help other companies and organizations interpret and monitor global data and trends.

“ATLAS Space Operations is a key partner in our promise to make our customers the first to know about areas and events important to them,” said Nick Merski, VP Space Operations.

“Our companies share similar DNA which includes great people creatively solving important problems.”

Under the terms of the deal, ATLAS will support two of BlackSky’s imaging satellites from its ground stations in Japan and Guam. ATLAS will handle the telemetry and other data relays between Earth and the satellites.

BlackSky is currently building a constellation that will eventually consist of 60 satellites.

Most recently, the company sent up two of its most advances imaging satellites. Each of which is capable of providing color images with a resolution of up to 1-meter.

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