Space News & Blog Articles

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Vega rocket with the French military’s CERES electronic intelligence-gathering satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

The fifth Epsilon rocket blasts off from the ?Uchinoura Space Center on Nov. 9 (Japanese time). Credit: JAXA

A Japanese Epsilon rocket launched nine small satellites into orbit Nov. 8, deploying technology to prove out ways to eliminate space debris, a miniature lab for biological experiments, and a potpourri of pathfinder probes to test new sensor and spacecraft components.

A view of the International Space Station captured Sept. 28 by a cosmonaut on the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft. Credit: Roscosmos

Russia shot down an old Soviet-era military spacecraft Monday in a test of an anti-satellite weapon, scattering hundreds of thousands of debris fragments that will remain in orbit for years or decades, U.S. government officials said.

Live coverage of the Expedition 66 mission on the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

A Falcon 9 rocket climbs above a fog layer at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with 53 Starlink internet satellites. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX shot 53 Starlink internet satellites into orbit on top of a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday from foggy Cape Canaveral, commencing a new phase of deploying the global broadband network with the first launch into a new “shell” some 335 miles above Earth.

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission will launch SpaceX’s next batch of 53 Starlink broadband satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

Just ten hours after launching a crew capsule from a nearby pad, SpaceX ignited the main engines on a reused Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Thursday morning for a brief test-firing ahead of a planned liftoff Friday to begin a new phase of deploying the company’s Starlink satellite internet network.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft lifts off Wednesday night from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

SpaceX launched four astronauts toward the International Space Station on a brand new Dragon spacecraft Wednesday night from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, continuing the company’s swift acceleration of crew missions just two days after another capsule returned to Earth.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand carrying two small BlackSky Earth observation satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.



Live coverage of the countdown and flight of SpaceX’s Crew-3 mission carrying NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer on a flight to the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

One of the two spacewalker on Sunday’s excursion is seen outside China’s space station, with a part of the lab’s robotic arm in the background. Credit: CMSA

Astronauts Zhai Zhigang and Wang Yaping, the first Chinese woman to perform a spacewalk, stepped outside China’s space station Sunday for an excursion lasting more than six hours to ready the orbiting lab’s robotic arm for operations.

European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, pilot Megan McArthur, commander Shane Kimbrough, and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide inside their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule after splashdown Monday night in the Gulf of Mexico. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

Two NASA astronauts and mission specialists from Japan and France closed out a 199-day space flight Monday on a SpaceX crew capsule, departing the International Space Station and riding their Dragon spacecraft through a scorching re-entry and splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft glides toward docking at the International Space Station on April 24. Credit: NASA

Four astronauts closing out an expedition of nearly 200 days in orbit floated into their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule at the International Space Station Monday, a couple of hours before the ship was scheduled to undock and fly a 360-degree loop around the complex on the way back to Earth.

Live coverage of the undocking, re-entry and splashdown of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft with astronauts Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, Akihiko Hoshide, and Thomas Pesquet. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

Artist’s illustration of the payload fairing jettisoning from an Ariane 5 rocket, revealing the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: ESA/D. Ducros

The payload fairing on the most recent Ariane 5 launch last month worked perfectly, according to the European Space Agency, helping clear concerns about the shroud before liftoff of the James Webb Space Telescope on the next Ariane 5 flight in December.

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

A Chinese Long March 6 rocket blasts off from the Taiyuan launch base with the SDGSAT 1 satellite. Credit: CASC

An Earth observation spacecraft developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences launched Thursday on top of a Long March 6 rocket, beginning a mission Chinese officials said is dedicated to supporting the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center Friday. Credit: Alex Polimeni / Spaceflight Now

Two of NASA’s flagship missions finally nearing launch, representing more than $50 billion in U.S. government investment over multiple decades, were displayed to news media Friday at spaceports in Florida and French Guiana.