A Falcon 9 rocket takes off from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Space Force Base with 52 Starlink internet satellites. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX deployed 52 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit early Saturday after a predawn launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California that routed a Falcon 9 rocket on an unusual track southeast from the West Coast spaceport over Baja California.
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida with the Turksat 5B communications satellite for Turksat. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with 52 Starlink internet satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
A Falcon 9 rocket heads downrange from Cape Canaveral after liftoff May 9. This was the 10th, and most recent, launch of SpaceX’s B1051 first stage booster. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
SpaceX will set a new record for rocket reuse Saturday with the launch of a Falcon 9 booster from California for an 11th trip to space Saturday, carrying more Starlink internet satellites into orbit. If schedules hold, another Falcon 9 will blast off from Florida’s Space Coast about 18-and-a-half hours later with an all-electric Turkish data relay spacecraft.
A Chinese Long March 3B rocket lifts off Dec. 13 with Tianlian 2-02 data relay satellite. Credit: CASC
China succeeded in its 50th orbital launch attempt of the year Dec. 13, when a Long March 3B rocket delivered a Tianlian data relay satellite to orbit on a mission to link ground control with the Chinese space station and other spacecraft.
Ground crews work with the James Webb Space Telescope inside the Ariane 5 rocket’s final assembly building in French Guiana. Credit: ESA-Manuel Pedoussaut
Technicians at a jungle spaceport in South America are completing tests on the James Webb Space Telescope Thursday to make sure they fixed a “finicky” communications interface glitch that halted launch preparations earlier this week, potentially paving the way for liftoff of the three-story-tall observatory as soon as Dec. 24.
A Falcon 9 rocket streaks off its launch pad in Florida in this long exposure photo. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX is set to close out the year with three Falcon 9 rocket flights in just four days from launch pads in Florida and California, carrying another batch of Starlink internet satellites, a Turkish data relay spacecraft, and a resupply mission to the International Space Station.
A Long March 4B rocket launches two Shijian 6 satellites. Credit: CASC
The 400th flight of China’s Long March rocket family deployed two classified Shijian 6 satellites into orbit Dec. 10, likely on a mission to test technology or gather signals intelligence data for the Chinese military.
Galactic Energy’s second Ceres rocket blasts off from the Jiuquan space base. Credit: Galactic Energy
A solid-fueled Ceres satellite launcher developed to serve China’s burgeoning commercially-focused smallsat market successfully deployed five spacecraft into orbit Dec. 7, making the new Chinese rocket two-for-two since its debut last year.
Ground teams at the Guiana Space Center connect the James Webb Space Telescope with its Ariane 5 launcher on Dec. 11. Credit: ESA-Manuel Pedoussaut
Engineers discovered an intermittent data dropout associated with a piece of ground support equipment after connecting the James Webb Space Telescope with its Ariane 5 launcher over the weekend in French Guiana, and the observatory’s long-awaited blastoff will be delayed at least two days to Dec. 24 to troubleshoot the problem, the head of NASA’s science division said Tuesday.
The James Webb Space Telescope is lifted on top of its Ariane 5 launcher inside the final assembly building in French Guiana. Credit: ESA-Manuel Pedoussaut
The nearly $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, suspended under a crane with four cables, was raised atop top an Ariane 5 launcher Saturday inside a vertical hangar in French Guiana, one of the final steps to prep the mission for liftoff this month after a quarter-century of design and development.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launches with NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography
SpaceX launched a refrigerator-sized NASA X-ray observatory from Kennedy Space Center into an unusual orbit hugging the equator Thursday, beginning a $214 million mission to study black holes and super-compact neutron stars.
Yusaku Maezawa, Yozo Hirano, and Alexander Misurkin, wearing blue flight suits, joined seven other residents on the International Space Station after docking Dec. 8. Credit: NASA TV / Spaceflight Now
A Russian cosmonaut, a Japanese billionaire and his production assistant rocketed into orbit Wednesday and headed for the International Space Station for an 12-day visit, the first by paying “space tourists” in more than a decade.
The James Webb Space Telescope is loaded with toxic propellants by technicians wearing protective self-contained suits. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/P. Piron
A crane at the Guiana Space Center in South America will hoist the nearly $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope more than 15 stories above the floor of a rocket assembly hangar this weekend to position the observatory on top of its Ariane 5 launcher for blastoff later this month.
United Launch Alliance’s 90th Atlas 5 rocket lifts off with the Space Force’s STP-3 mission. Credit: Alex Polimeni / Spaceflight Now
United Launch Alliance deployed two U.S. Space Force technology demonstration satellites into an on-target orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator Tuesday after a booming blastoff before dawn from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas 5 rocket.
Blue Origin’s mission patch for the NS-19 spaceflight. Credit: Blue Origin
A forecast of high winds at Blue Origin’s launch site in West Texas has prompted the company to delay its first suborbital space shot with a full complement of six passengers from Thursday to Saturday.
An Electron rocket fires off its launch pad in New Zealand at 7:02 p.m. EST (0002 GMT) with two BlackSky optical Earth imaging satellites. Credit: Rocket Lab
Two more BlackSky high-resolution optical remote sensing satellites rode a Rocket Lab Electron launcher into orbit Wednesday from New Zealand, the second mission for Rocket Lab in three weeks, and the third satellite delivery for BlackSky in the same period.
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