Space News & Blog Articles

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Two Chinese rockets deploy telecom and environmental monitoring satellites

A Long March 3B rocket lifts off with the Chinasat 6D communications satellite. Credit: CASC

Two Chinese rocket launches hours apart Friday successfully deployed a radio and TV broadcasting spacecraft and an atmospheric environmental monitoring satellite.

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Russian cosmonauts begin spacewalk to outfit European robotic arm



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SpaceX launches and lands rocket National Reconnaissance Office mission

A Falcon 9 booster stage returns to Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, eight minutes after launching the NROL-85 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. Credit: Gene Blevins / LA Daily News

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with a classified payload at dawn Sunday for the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. government’s spy satellite agency, and landed the booster stage back at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

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Russia launches Soyuz rocket with military spy satellite

A Soyuz rocket lifts off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense

A new Russian spy satellite launched April 7 aboard a Soyuz rocket, likely embarking on a mission to identify and locate foreign military forces by tracking their radio transmissions.

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Photos: Falcon 9 rocket vertical on Vandenberg launch pad

SpaceX raised a Falcon 9 rocket vertical Saturday at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California after a two-day delay caused by technical and weather problems. The rocket will carry a classified payload into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office.

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NASA to return Artemis moon rocket to assembly building for repairs

NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket on pad 39B on Saturday evening. Credit: Spaceflight Now

NASA will move the Space Launch System moon rocket back into the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center to replace a failed valve and fix a hydrogen leak found during tests at the launch pad, the agency announced late Saturday.

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Chinese astronauts return to Earth after six-month mission on space station

China’s Shenzhou 13 spacecraft landed in Inner Mongolia to wrap up a 182-day mission. Astronaut Wang Yaping, smiling after her exit from the spacecraft, became the most experienced Chinese space flier. Credit: CCTV / Spaceflight Now

Three Chinese astronauts flew back to Earth late Friday to wrap up a 182-day mission on China’s space station, the longest crew mission in the history of the country’s space program. The landing sets the stage the launch of a new crew and expansion of the Chinese space station later this year.

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Live coverage: Chinese astronauts coming home after six months in space

Live coverage of China’s Shenzhou 13 mission, a six-month expedition to the Chinese space station. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

CCTV Landing Webcast (Clean Feed in Chinese)

CGTN Landing Webcast (English)

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Chinese astronauts undock from space station, head for landing

Astronaut Wang Yaping, Zhai Zhigang, and Ye Guangfu on-board the Chinese space station. Credit: CMSE

Three Chinese astronauts packed up, boarded their return capsule, and undocked from China’s space station Friday in preparation for a return to Earth after six months in orbit.

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Commercial crew has no problem adapting to life on space station

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

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Hydrogen leak halts tanking test for Artemis moon rocket

NASA’s Space Launch System on Launch Complex 39B, with gaseous oxygen vapors venting from the top of the core stage during a cryogenic tanking test Thursday. Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky

A hydrogen leak near the connection between NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket and its mobile launch platform foiled another attempt Thursday to pump cryogenic propellants into the towering mega-booster at the Kennedy Space Center.

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Live coverage: SpaceX counting down to sunrise launch from California

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with the NROL-85 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

SpaceX Webcast

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U.S. intelligence-gathering payloads awaiting launch on SpaceX rocket

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sits horizontal Thursday at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Credit: Brian Sandoval / Spaceflight Now

SpaceX plans to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from California’s Central Coast just after sunrise Friday, boosting a classified cargo into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office on what is widely believed to be a naval reconnaissance mission.

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NASA’s Perseverance rover spots its own parachute on Mars

The Mastcam-Z instrument on the Perseverance rover captured this view April 8 of the craft’s parachute and back shell on the surface of Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

More than a year after arriving on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover has spotted its parachute and part of its aeroshell sitting on the surface of the Red Planet as the robot heads for a dried-up river delta where liquid water flowed billions of years ago.

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Live coverage: NASA trying again today to complete Artemis 1 countdown test

Live coverage of the wet dress rehearsal for the Space Launch System on NASA’s Artemis 1 mission. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

SFN Live

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NASA restarts moon rocket wet dress rehearsal countdown

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

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Rocket Lab confirms plan to catch booster with helicopter later this month

A modified Sikorsky S-92 helicopter will attempt to catch a descending Rocket Lab booster in mid-air during the company’s next mission. Credit: Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab plans the first attempt to catch one of its returning small satellite boosters by helicopter after a launch later this month, nearly three years after the company announced its daring recovery and reuse concept.

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China launches three space missions, debuts new rocket configuration

China’s first Long March 6A rocket, with four strap-on solid rocket boosters, lifted off March 29 from the Taiyuan launch base. Credit: CASC

China launched three more space missions in recent weeks, debuting the country’s first rocket to be fitted with strap-on solid-fueled boosters and deploying satellites to image planet Earth and calibrate orbit prediction models, according to Chinese state media.

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First crew of private astronauts welcomed aboard International Space Station

SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavour spacecraft approaches the International Space Station for docking Saturday. Credit: NASA TV / Spaceflight Now

A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked at the International Space Station on Saturday with four private astronauts, beginning a planned stay of at least eight days — and maybe longer — while becoming the first mission with an all-commercial crew to visit the orbiting research complex.

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Citing valve problem, NASA will load only the SLS core stage in next countdown test

NASA’s Space Launch System on pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

A problem with a helium valve on the Space Launch System moon rocket’s upper stage will require ground teams to only partially load the giant launcher with cryogenic propellants during an upcoming countdown dress rehearsal, NASA officials said Saturday.

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Live coverage: SpaceX crew capsule closing in on space station

Live coverage of the rendezvous and docking of Axiom’s Ax-1 mission at the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

NASA TV

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