Space News & Blog Articles

A composite shot showing the liftoff of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 40 and the landing of the Falcon booster, 1101, at the new recovery site, Landing Zone 40, during NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. Image: John Pisani/Spaceflight Now

Flying in the face of superstition, NASA and SpaceX conducted a smooth countdown and launch of three astronauts and a cosmonaut to begin the latest, long-duration mission to the International Space Station on Friday, Feb. 13.

Base of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket where the tail service masts feed propellants into the rocket’s core stage. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now.

NASA is loading liquid hydrogen aboard its Space Launch System moon rocket at the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday for an unpublicized but crucial test of the repairs made to a leaky umbilical that derailed a countdown rehearsal on Feb. 2.

An anomalous plume is visible from one of the Vulcan’s solid rocket motors during the launch of the USSF-87 mission on Feb. 12, 2026. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.

United Launch Alliance said an issue affected one of the four solid rocket boosters that helped propel its Vulcan rocket into space Thursday on a mission for the United States Space Force. Despite the problem the rocket, making only its fourth flight, continued on its planned trajectory, the company said.

United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, designation V-005, is seen at the pad at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station prior to the launch of the USSF-87 mission for the U.S. Space Force. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now

United Launch Alliance is gearing up for a predawn launch of its Vulcan rocket on Thursday morning, the companies first flight of the year.

File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch the Starlink 7-14 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is preparing for its 12th Starlink mission of the year so far with a Falcon 9 rocket launch set for Wednesday morning from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket rolls from the Government Vertical Integration Facility (VIF-G) to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Vulcan will launch the USSF-87 mission for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC). Image: United Launch Alliance

On the cusp of launching its first Vulcan rocket of the year on Thursday, United Launch Alliance leadership announced its goal for 2026 to launch between 18 and 22 times.

Teams monitor the countdown during a dress rehearsal in preparation for the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Dragon spacecraft on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission with NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev onboard, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in the control room of SpaceX’s HangarX at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Image: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

The launch of the next crew rotation mission to the International Space Station will have to wait at least another day after NASA and SpaceX leadership determined weather along the flight path would be unacceptable.

The nine Merlin 1D engines at the base of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket briefly ignited during a static fire test of the vehicle on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. This test was a precursor to the launch of Crew-12 to the International Space Station. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

An early morning rocket engine test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station brings NASA and SpaceX one step closer to flying the next long duration mission to the International Space Station.

File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch the Starlink 7-14 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is set to launch its Falcon 9 rocket on a return to flight mission following a brief stand down period lasting less than a week.

SpaceX works on the crew access arm at Launch Complex 39A on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

It’s the end of an era as SpaceX transitions all of its planned Dragon flights from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

A United Launch Alliance Vulcan booster is offloaded from the company’s R/S RocketShip barge at a dock at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This will be the first Vulcan rocket to launch from the West Coast. Image: United Launch Alliance

United Launch Alliance is staging rockets at launch complexes on both the West Coast and the East Coast for the first time since November 2022.

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket stands atop pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. After working around a hydrogen leak at the base of the rocket, engineers spent the day Monday pumping more than 750,000 gallons of supercold liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel into the 32-story-tall launcher in a dress rehearsal countdown. How the leak might play into plans to launch four astronauts on a moon mission as early as Sunday is not yet clear. Image: NASA

A hydrogen leak at the base of NASA’s giant SLS moon rocket Monday threw a wrench into a carefully planned countdown “wet dress” rehearsal, but engineers were able to manage a workaround and the test proceeded toward a delayed, simulated launch.

File – SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket stands in the vertical launch position at Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base ahead of the launch of the Starlink 17-5 mission on Aug. 18, 2025. This was the ninth flight for Falcon 9 booster, tail number B1088. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is kicking off the month of February with a Monday morning Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

A full moon rises behind NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket atop pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. If a practice countdown and fueling test Monday go well, NASA is expected to press ahead with launch of the Artemis 2 mission on Feb. 8, sending four astronauts on a flight around the moon. Image: NASA/Sam Lott

Braving rare sub-freezing temperatures, Kennedy Space Center workers pressed ahead with a dress-rehearsal countdown Sunday, readying NASA’s huge SLS rocket for a critical fueling test Monday to clear the way for launch on a flight to send four astronauts on a flight around the moon.

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft sit atop the Mobile Launch at Launch Complex 39B the morning of Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

Abnormally cold weather forecast over the weekend for Florida delayed both the earliest possible launch date for the Artemis 2 mission and a crucial fueling test for the Space Launch System rocket.

SpaceX launches the Starlink 6-101 mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral on Jan. 30, 2026. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.
SpaceX completed its 13th and final Falcon 9 rocket launch of the month, which flew from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on in the predawn hours of Thursday morning.

File photo of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at pad 4E ready to launch a Starlink mission. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is set to launch its penultimate Falcon 9 rocket of the month with a mid-morning flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Thursday.

The GPS 3 Space Vehicle 09 satellite is encapsulated inside Falcon 9 rocket payload fairings at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida. Image: SpaceX

The U.S. Space Force is set to send its ninth third-generation Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite into medium Earth orbit on Monday night. The satellite will ride to space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after the government moved the spacecraft from a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket.

File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands in launch position at Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base ahead of the launch of the NROL-57 mission. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX plans to launch 25 of its Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites from California on Sunday morning.

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket at Launch Complex 39B (left) and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket inside its Vertical Integration Facility (right): Image: NASA/Keegan Barber (left), United Launch Alliance (right)

February 2026 is shaping up to be a blockbuster month for launches from Florida’s Space Coast. In addition to a now regular cadence of Falcon 9 launches from SpaceX, Cape Canaveral is poised to see launches from Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance and potentially NASA via its Space Launch System rocket.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base on Jan. 21, 2026, to begin the Starlink 17-30 mission. Image: SpaceX

Update Jan. 21 2:20 a.m. EST (0720 UTC): SpaceX confirms deployment of the 25 Starlink satellites.