Space News & Blog Articles

An Ariane 5 rocket, propelled by a main engine and two solid-fueled boosters, leaps off the pad at the Guiana Space Center with the James Webb Space Telescope.

The James Webb Space Telescope, a NASA-led international collaboration that took nearly 30 years and $10 billion to get to the launch pad, finally left Earth with a Christmas morning rocket ride from a European spaceport in South America, setting off on a mission to hunt for the first light in the universe. That was just the easy part.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of an Ariane 5 rocket with the James Webb Space Telescope. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

An Ariane 5 rocket reaches the ELA-3 launch zone Thursday at the Guiana Space Center, the final port of call for the James Webb Space Telescope before it ascends into orbit. Credit: ESA/S. Corvaja

Teams in French Guiana positioned a European Ariane 5 rocket into its starting blocks Thursday, ready for liftoff Christmas morning with the nearly $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, the most expensive science instrument ever to leave planet Earth.

Spaceflight Now’s Editor, Stephen Clark, speaks with NASA’s Keith Parrish, the commissioning manager for the Webb Space Telescope. It is his job to make sure the observatory unfolds and extends correctly. He talks us through the deployment sequence in the month after launch. Find out how shake, shimmy and twirl are in the ground controller’s tool box to fix anything that goes wrong.

Spaceflight Now’s Stephen Clark speaks to astronaut, astronomer and former NASA science head, John Grunsfeld about the upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. What big discoveries is he expecting from JWST? Is he nervous about the complex process to unfold the telescope in space? Why did his efforts to prepare JWST for possible servicing fail?

Artist’s concept of the James Webb Space Telescope in its deployed configuration. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

Beginning next year, the James Webb Space Telescope will scan a sampling of the nearly 5,000 alien worlds discovered around other stars to help astronomers identify which of the rocky planets might have atmospheres that could sustain life.

The James Webb Space Telescope inside Northrop Grumman’s factory in Redondo Beach, California. Credit: Northrop Grumman

The James Webb Space Telescope, set for launch in the coming days, will look back more than 13.5 billion years in time to see the faint infrared light from the first galaxies, revealing a previously unseen era of cosmic history that shaped the universe of today.

Live coverage of the preparations for launch of an Ariane 5 rocket with the James Webb Space Telescope. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

A Japanese H-2A rocket takes off from Tanegashima Space Center with the Inmarsat 6 F1 satellite. Credit: MHI

The first in a new line of powerful dual-band satellites for Inmarsat’s communications network linking ships, airplanes, and other mobile customers successfully launched Wednesday aboard a Japanese H-2A rocket.

SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon spacecraft, set against the blackness of space, arrived at the International Space Station early Wednesday. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance capsule is pictured in the foreground docked at the station. Credit: NASA/Raja Chari

A SpaceX Dragon cargo capsuled pulled into port at the International Space Station Wednesday, a day after launch from Florida’s Space Coast with 3.2 tons of experiments, holiday gifts, and external instruments developed by NASA and the U.S. military to help improve hurricane forecasts.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-2A rocket from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. The mission will launch the commercial Inmarsat 6 F1 communications satellite. Follow us on Twitter.

A Falcon 9 rocket climbs off pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center early Tuesday to begin SpaceX’s CRS-24 resupply mission to the International Space Station. Credit: SpaceX

The liftoff of a SpaceX cargo ship on the way to the International Space Station early Tuesday was the 31st and final orbital launch from Florida’s Space Coast in 2021, setting a new record for the most space missions to depart from the spaceport in a calendar year.

Mirror segments on the James Webb Space Telescope reflect members of the Ariane 5 and Webb teams in French Guiana. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/P. Baudon

A poor weather forecast at the Guiana Space Center in South America has forced officials to delay the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope by one day to Dec. 25, Christmas morning, mission managers said Tuesday.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with SpaceX’s 24th operational Dragon resupply flight to the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

A Falcon 9 rocket emerges from SpaceX’s hangar at Kenned Space Center for the quarter-mile trip up the ramp to launch pad 39A. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX’s 31st and final Falcon 9 launch of the year is scheduled to take off early Tuesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, weather permitting, with a Dragon cargo ship carrying more than 6,500 pounds of supplies to the International Space Station.

Russian commander Alexander Misurkin smiles after getting out of the Soyuz MS-20 landing capsule, visible at bottom. Credit: Roscosmos

Two Japanese space tourists and a veteran Russian cosmonaut departed the International Space Station and landed back on Earth Sunday, capping a 12-day mission with a parachute-assisted touchdown in frigid Kazakhstan.

The Ariane 5 rocket’s payload fairing was lowered over the James Webb Space Telescope on Friday. Credit: ESA-Manuel Pedoussaut

The James Webb Space Telescope has been closed up inside the nose cone of its Ariane 5 launcher in French Guiana, and officials confirmed Saturday the huge astronomical observatory is set for blastoff Dec. 24.

Live coverage of the Soyuz MS-20 mission on the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket streaks downrange over the Atlantic Ocean Saturday night. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography

Fifteen hours after hurling a package of Starlink internet satellites into orbit from California, SpaceX launched a high-power geostationary communications spacecraft for Turkey from Cape Canaveral late Saturday, the first time two Falcon 9 rockets have flown on the same day.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Thursday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the Turkish Turksat 5B communications satellite into orbit around 33 minutes later.