Space News & Blog Articles

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Vega-C rocket with the Italian Space Agency’s LARES 2 satellite for experimental physics research. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

The first Vega-C launcher inside its mobile gantry at the Guiana Space Center in South America. Credit:
ESA-Manuel Pedoussaut

Europe’s new Vega-C launcher, debuting more powerful rocket motors and a larger payload volume, is set to lift off on its first flight Wednesday from Kourou, French Guiana, to cap more than seven years of development.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1A on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand on a satellite delivery mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured the distinct signature of water, along with evidence for clouds and haze, in the atmosphere surrounding a hot, puffy gas giant planet orbiting a distant sun-like star. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Among the dazzling images from the James Webb Space Telescope released Tuesday was a squiggly line of spectral data that contained the tell-tale chemical fingerprint of water vapor and clouds in the atmosphere of a scorching hot planet circling a star 1,150 light-years from Earth.

This side-by-side comparison shows observations of the Southern Ring Nebula in near-infrared light, at left, and mid-infrared light, at right, from NASA’s Webb Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

The James Webb Space Telescope’s multi-wavelength observations of the Southern Ring Nebula reveal the dying throes of a star flinging off vast amounts of stellar debris, and showed for the first time the star responsible for the spectacle is sheathed in its own cloak of dust.

Stephen’s Quintet viewed by the James Webb Space Telescope. The leftmost galaxy, named NGC 7320, is located 40 million light-years from Earth. The other four galaxies (NGC 7317, NGC 7318A, NGC 7318B, and NGC 7319) are closer together and are located about 290 million light-years away. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

The five galaxies of Stephan’s Quintet, prominently featured at the beginning of the holiday film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” were seen with new eyes by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Carina Nebula viewed by the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

The James Webb Space Telescope’s first image of Carina Nebula shows an iconic star-forming cloud of gas and dust 7,600 light-years away, revealing previously unseen vistas of young stars thanks to the new observatory’s sharp-eyed infrared vision.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The release of additional images from the James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) Tuesday, followed by a press conference at 12:30 p.m. EDT (1630 GMT). NASA TV will broadcast both events, and you can watch on this page.

EDITOR’S NOTE: President Joe Biden will hold participate in a White House event at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) Monday to reveal the first science image from the James Webb Space Telescope. Additional images will be released Tuesday.

Artist’s illustration of the CAPSTONE spacecraft near the moon. Credit: Terran Orbital

NASA’s CAPSTONE spacecraft, a miniature pathfinder for future lunar crew missions, has overcome a communications outage and performed its first course correction maneuver since a Rocket Lab propulsion module gave the probe a final push toward the moon July 4.

A Soyuz rocket lifts off July 7 with a Glonass navigation satellites. Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense

A fresh satellite joined Russia’s Glonass navigation network with the launch of a Soyuz rocket Thursday from a military spaceport about 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket fires into orbit from California with 46 Starlink satellites. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX launched the 50th dedicated mission for the Starlink internet network Sunday from California’s Central Coast, deploying 46 broadband relay nodes to begin populating a new polar-orbiting “shell” to fill in gaps in the satellite constellation.

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with 46 Starlink internet satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

SpaceX’s Starlink 4-21 mission lifted off July 7 on a Falcon 9 rocket. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now

SpaceX launched another group of 53 satellites from Cape Canaveral for the company’s Starlink internet network Thursday, the same day it unveiled a new maritime broadband service. Federal regulators recently approved SpaceX’s request to provide Starlink connectivity for mobile users.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Starlink 4-21 mission launched SpaceX’s next batch of 53 Starlink broadband satellites. Follow us on Twitter.

File photo from April of a Falcon 9 rocket standing on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now

Fifty-three more Starlink internet satellites are fastened to the top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for liftoff Thursday from Cape Canaveral, the first of five Falcon 9 flights scheduled for July.

From left to right: A Chinese Long March 2F rocket launches June 4 with the Shenzhou 14 astronaut mission; A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches Feb. 3 with a batch of Starlink internet satellites on Feb. 3; A Soyuz rocket launches Feb. 10 with a cluster of OneWeb internet satellites. Credit: Xinhua/SpaceX/Arianespace

If it feels like there are more rockets launching into orbit than ever before, it’s not just you. The world’s launch operators, led by SpaceX and China’s state-run enterprises, launched 72 missions into orbit in the first half of 2022, on pace to break last year’s record of 135 orbital deliveries.

A camera on-board Virgin Orbit’s first stage captured this view of the main engine plume during the climb into space. Credit: Virgin Orbit

Virgin Orbit’s air-launched rocket carried seven small CubeSats into orbit on the company’s first nighttime mission late Friday night off the coast of California, helping clear the way for teams to base the next Virgin Orbit launch from the United Kingdom later this year.

United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, to begin the USSF-12 mission for the U.S. Space Force. Credit: United Launch Alliance

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket fired off its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Friday on a six-hour climb to geosynchronous orbit, deploying a classified payload and a U.S. Space Force satellite to test an improved infrared heat-sensitive sensor design that could help detect and track enemy hypersonic missiles.

NASA’s Artemis 1 moon rocket stands on pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center on June 30. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now

NASA’s powerful new Space Launch System moon rocket will be hauled from its launch pad back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center overnight Friday into early Saturday morning for final repairs, testing and closeouts, moving closer to liftoff later this summer after completing a fueling demonstration last month.