Space News & Blog Articles

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 Japanese QZS 1R navigation satellite. Follow us on Twitter.

A Japanese H-2A rocket rolls out to its launch pad at the Tanegashima Space Center with the QZS 1R satellite. Credit: MHI

Japan is set to launch a replacement satellite Monday for a navigation spacecraft that has been in space since 2010, augmenting the U.S. military’s GPS network to provide more precise positioning and timing services over the Asia-Pacific region.

A Long March 3B rocket lifts off with China’s Shijian 21 satellite. Credit: CASC

China launched the classified Shijian 21 satellite Saturday on what government officials described as an experimental “space debris mitigation” mission.

Artist’s concept of the Starlab space station. Credit: Nanoracks

Nanoracks announced Oct. 21 it is teaming with Lockheed Martin to develop a commercial crewed space station named Starlab that officials said could reach initial operational capability by 2027.

An Ariane 5 rocket lifts off from the Guiana Space Center with the SES 17 and Syracuse 4A communications satellites. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/S. Martin

A European Ariane 5 rocket fired into space Saturday night from French Guiana with a commercial broadband satellite for SES and a French military telecom craft, setting a new payload mass record for geostationary transfer orbit on the final Ariane 5 flight before launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in December.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of an Ariane 5 rocket with the SES 17 and Syracuse 4A communications satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

An Ariane 5 rocket on its launch pad Thursday in Kourou, French Guiana. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/JM Guillon

Arianespace is counting down to the blastoff of an Ariane 5 rocket Saturday night from French Guiana, the final flight of Europe’s workhorse launcher before NASA and the European Space Agency entrust it to launch the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope.



Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX, said Friday the company’s huge new Starship rocket could be ready for its first orbital test launch from South Texas as soon as November, but the schedule comes with two big uncertainties that may push the launch to next year.

The 74,000-pound Orion spacecraft was lifted inside the Vehicle Assembly Building this week, and mounted to the top of the Space Launch System. Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux

With NASA’s powerful new 322-foot-tall moon rocket fully stacked at Kennedy Space Center, managers said Friday that Feb. 12 is the soonest the unpiloted Artemis 1 mission could blast off toward lunar orbit, a date that hinges on the outcome of a critical fueling test on the launch pad in January.

An Ariane 5 rocket on its launch pad Thursday night in Kourou, French Guiana. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/JM Guillon

Arianespace delayed the launch from French Guiana of a European Ariane 5 rocket with two geostationary communications satellites Friday to conduct more checks of ground support equipment at the spaceport.

The Progress MS-17 spacecraft approaches the International space Station for docking Friday. Credit: Roscosmos

A Russian Progress supply ship docked with the new Nauka lab module at the International Space Station Friday, completing a 29-hour free flight after detaching from a different port at the complex.

A view inside Rocket Lab’s factory in New Zealand, where Electron boosters are lined up in an assembly facility. The rockets with red markings are tagged for recovery missions. Credit: Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab said this week that its next mission, set for launch Nov. 10 after delays caused by a coronavirus lockdown in New Zealand, will include the company’s third booster recovery experiment. For the first time, Rocket Lab plans to have a helicopter in the downrange recovery zone to observe the descending booster in preparation for future mid-air catch attempts.

The Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 1 mission is lowered on top of its Space Launch System rocket Oct. 20 inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building. Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux

Technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center worked overnight Wednesday to tighten 360 bolts connecting the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 1 moon mission to the first Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket, hours after a crane hoisted the deep space capsule atop the booster inside the Vehicle Assembly Building.

South Korea’s first domestically produced satellite launcher failed to reach orbit on its inaugural test flight Thursday. A preliminary review of data indicated the rocket’s third stage shut down early, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: South Korea’s science ministry will stream the Nuri rocket launch live beginning at 1:30 a.m. EDT (0530 GMT) Thursday, Oct. 21.

The DART spacecraft is moved into a shipping container last month at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

A small spacecraft built for a NASA asteroid defense experiment arrived at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California earlier this month and is ready for fueling, one of the final milestones before liftoff in November on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

The James Webb Space Telescope is seen inside the S5C payload processing facility Oct. 15 at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

Engineers removed the James Webb Space Telescope from its intercontinental shipping container in South America last week, and kicked off a final pre-launch comprehensive electrical systems test Monday ahead of blastoff in December on an Ariane 5 rocket, NASA’s program manager said.



Artist’s illustration of the final phase of deploying the solar arrays on NASA’s Lucy spacecraft. Credit: NASA

A NASA official said Monday there is “widespread optimism” that a solar array snag discovered on the Lucy asteroid probe after its launch over the weekend will not jeopardize the spacecraft’s 12-year exploration mission.