Space News & Blog Articles

SpaceX is kicking off the second week of October with a planned pair of back-to-back Falcon 9 launches, lifting off from both of its Space Force-based launch pads.

Up first is the Starlink 6-22 mission, which is targeting liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:56 p.m. EDT (0256 UTC). It will loft 22 Starlink V2 Mini satellites up to low Earth orbit. The launch had been scheduled earlier in the evening but was delayed as pre-launch preparations had fallen behind schedule.

The Florida launch will be followed less than 4.5 hours later by the Starlink 7-4 mission, which aims to launch at 12:23 a.m. PDT (3:23 a.m. EDT, 0723 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Because of its trajectory, its payload consists of a slightly smaller load of 21 Starlink V2 Mini satellites.

Both mission will feature Falcon 9 rockets. The two first-stage boosters, B1067 at SLC-40 and B1063 at SLC-4E, will each be launching for the 14th time.

Both missions also have multiple backup opportunities within their respective launch windows. Starlink 6-22 has three reserve liftoff times, running from 10:58 p.m. to 12:35 a.m. EDT (0258-0435 UTC), and Starlink 7-4 has four additional launch times from 1:14-3:46 a.m. PDT (4:14-7:46 a.m. EDT, 0714-1146 UTC).

An Atlas 5 lifts off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Oct. 6, 2023 carrying the first two prototype satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet service. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasted off Friday and boosted a pair of prototype internet satellites into orbit for Amazon’s Kuiper program, the latest entry in the increasingly competitive space-based broadband market currently dominated by SpaceX.

“We’ve done extensive testing here in our lab and have a high degree of confidence in our satellite design, but there’s no substitute for on-orbit testing,” Rajeev Badyal, Project Kuiper’s vice president of technology, said in a statement. “This is Amazon’s first time putting satellites into space, and we’re going to learn an incredible amount.”

The Atlas 5’s Russian-built RD-180 first-stage engine roared to life at 2:06 p.m. EDT, throttled up and smoothly powered the 196-foot-tall rocket away from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, arcing away to the east over the Atlantic Ocean.

The Atlas 5 climbs off the pad, powered by the Russian-built RD-180 engine. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now.

The rocket’s first stage fell away as planned after propelling the vehicle out of the dense lower atmosphere, and the flight continued with the Centaur upper stage. In a departure from normal practice for commercial, unclassified flights, ULA ended its realtime coverage shortly after stage separation, at the request of Amazon.

The rocket company did, however, confirm the successful deployment of the Kuipersat 1 and 2 prototypes.

The dozen spacecraft for the penultimate flight of an Arianespace Vega rocket prior encapsulation in the payload fairing. Image: Airbus Space

A pair of Earth observation satellites along with ten auxiliary payloads will launch aboard Arianespace’s penultimate Vega rocket into sun-synchronous orbit on Friday. The light launch vehicle, which began flying in 2012, is set to liftoff from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on Oct. 6 at 10:36 p.m. local time (9:36 p.m. EDT, 0136 UTC).

The main payloads consist the Thailand Earth Observation System-2 (THEOS-2) for the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) and the Triton spacecraft (also known as Formosat-7R) for the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA).

THEOS-2 is considered the primary payload and is described as “a high-resolution Earth observation optical satellite,” which uses 0.5-meter ground resolution imagery to support the operations of THEOS-1, which launched back in 2008.

The project was approved back in 2017 by the Thai government with a price tag of about $238 million, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

“The platform will host and exploit multi-source data in an interoperable and integrated manner,” said Dr. Anond Snidvongs, the executive director of GISTDA, in a statement. “The resulting insights will be key sources of information for Thai leaders and will help them deliver Actionable Intelligence Policy (AIP): tools for area-based management and decision-making.”

 

The first of Amazon’s satellites for its Project Kuiper internet constellation are set to be launched today aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket. The launch window opens at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 UTC) and lasts for two hours.

At 11:30 a.m. EDT (15:30 UTC), ULA entered the first of two planned 15-minute holds with the second set to occur at T-4 minutes. The launch team said it’s tracking no issues. Follow along for live launch coverage on YouTube and read up on the mission by clicking here.

Amazon purchased nine Atlas 5 launches for its internet constellation along with 38 flights aboard the forthcoming Vulcan rocket.

Satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet constellation are hoisted up to integrate onto ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket. Image: ULA

Amazon is getting its own delivery fulfilled this Friday, adding to an extensive portfolio that includes its online marketplace, streaming video, grocery and cloud services, with the launch of two prototype relay stations for a space-based internet service it calls Project Kuiper.

The satellites, dubbed KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2, are set to launch on Friday, Oct. 6 during a two-hour launch window that opens at 2 p.m. EDT (1600 UTC). They are hitching a ride to low Earth orbit atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket.

This will be the 20th ULA launch for a non-government, commercial customer. It’s also the 99th launch of an Atlas 5 rocket to date and the 8th launch in the 501 configuration, which doesn’t use side-mounted solid rocket boosters.

The rocket rollout out to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Thursday morning.

ULA said in a Sept. 29 blog post that about 18 minutes after liftoff, the pair of satellites will be deployed at an altitude of 311 miles, or 500 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, at an inclination of 30 degrees. At the request of Amazon, ULA will not provide live coverage after the Centaur upper stage separates from the first stage.

A rendering of the Nanoracks/Voyager Space commercial space station orbiting the Earth. Image: Nanoracks

About a year and a half after signing a Space Act Agreement with NASA to develop a commercial space station, Northrop Grumman formally withdrew from its solo plans in order to partner with Nanoracks, a subsidiary of Voyager Space.

Under this new venture, Northrop Grumman will provide cargo transportation services for the commercial space station dubbed “Starlab.” To that end, the Cygnus spacecraft will be upgraded to allow for autonomous docking with the future space station.

It’s a feature currently available on the SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft as well as Roscosmos’ Progress spacecraft. Currently, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft is berthed to the International Space Station using the Canadarm2 robotic arm.

“This collaboration is a major step forward for the Starlab program,” said Dylan Taylor, Chairman and CEO of Voyager Space in a statement. “Northrop Grumman’s technical capability and proven success in cargo resupply services will play a pivotal role as we accelerate Starlab’s development. We’re proud to be supporting advanced docking systems that push LEO transportation operations forward and advance critical technology for deep space exploration. We are thrilled to have Northrop Grumman on our Starlab team.”

In addition to upgrading Cygnus, Northrop agreed to deliver cargo to Starlab over a five-year period.

Facing 50-50 weather odds, SpaceX is getting ready for a Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral Wednesday night on its 44th Starlink delivery mission of the year.

Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 is scheduled for 10:45 p.m. EDT (0245 UTC), but launch controllers will be keeping a close eye on the weather.

The U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron, based at Cape Canaveral, is warning of scattered showers rolling in off the Atlantic and breezy winds. They predict a 50-50 chance of a weather rule violation, with cumulus clouds and liftoff winds being the major concerns.

SpaceX has four back up launch opportunities if needed at 11:38 p.m. EDT (0338 UTC), 12:48 a.m. EDT (0448 UTC), 1:36 a.m. EDT (0536 UTC) and 1:57 a.m. EDT (0557 UTC). There are six more opportunities on Thursday night should the launch slip further.

File photo of SpaceX’s Starlink V2 Mini satellites stacked for launch inside a payload processing facility at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX

The Falcon 9 is carrying 22 second-generation satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink internet service. The company announced this week that its service was now available across the entire U.S. thank to the four times extra capacity offered by the latest Starink satellite model, known as the V2 Mini. It recently said Starlink now had more than two million subscribers in more than 60 countries.

An artist’s conception of the Psyche spacecraft orbiting near the surface of the Psyche asteroid. Image: Maxar/ASU/Peter Rubin.

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, now scheduled for launch on Oct. 12, will dial down the power of its maneuvering system after engineers discovered its thrusters were in danger of overheating during its eight-year expedition to explore a metallic asteroid.

The $1.2 billion mission was just two weeks from the opening of its launch window when testing of a spare thruster in a ground test bed revealed higher than expected temperatures. At first, engineers based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) suspected it was an isolated problem with the test bed equipment, but it soon became clear the thrusters installed on Psyche were also affected.

“The data that had come from the subcontractor about these cold gas thrusters was incorrect,” said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Psyche’s Principal Investigator. The way the spacecraft was designed to operate was based on those specifications.

It was potentially another major blow for a project already delayed a year by late software, that had also faced challenges developing and building a spacecraft during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When thruster problem was discovered, the Psyche spacecraft was nearing the end of pre-launch preparations at the AstroTech processing facility in Titusville, Florida, near Kennedy Space Center. If any hardware changes were required, the mission could have missed its 20-day launch window and faced another long delay or even cancellation.

A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled for launch tonight on another mission to deliver satellites into orbit for SpaceX’s Starlink internet service. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is planned for 6:39 p.m. EDT (2239 UTC).

It’s shaping up to be a busy night for SpaceX teams on the Florida Space Coast. Early Friday morning, at pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, they rolled out the Falcon Heavy rocket for NASA’s Psyche launch, now planned for Oct. 12. They plan to test fire its 27 first stage engines this evening, possibly while they are also counting down to the Falcon 9 launch. Spaceflight Now will bring you live coverage from both launch pads.

File photo a a Falcon 9 prior to a Starlink satellite delivery mission. Image: SpaceX.

Stormy weather is forecast for Central Florida today and the 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral is predicting only a 40-percent chance of acceptable conditions for the Falcon 9 launch Friday evening. If necessary there are three additional launch opportunities on Friday at 7:34 p.m. EDT (2334 UTC), 10 p.m. EDT (0200 UTC) and 10:15 p.m. EDT (0215 UTC).

If the weather cooperates, the Falcon 9 will liftoff from pad 40 and target a trajectory that will take it south-east. Following stage separation, about two and half minutes into flight, booster 1069, which is making its tenth flight, will arc towards a landing on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas,” which will be stationed about 420 miles (675 km) downrange in the Atlantic east of the Bahamas.

It will be SpaceX’s 43rd Starlink delivery mission of the year. If all goes according to plan, 22 of the so-called V2 Mini satellites, will be released into orbit an hour and five minutes after liftoff.

Artist’s illustration of the Psyche spacecraft and its destination. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The launch of NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission is being delayed a week due to an issue with the spacecraft, according to multiple sources. Liftoff on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is now scheduled for no earlier than Oct. 12.

The billion-dollar mission had been scheduled to liftoff at the opening of a 20-day launch window on Oct. 5. The probe is already running more than a year behind schedule due to software problems.

Liftoff from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is now scheduled for 10:16 a.m. EDT (1416 UTC) on Oct. 12. The Falcon Heavy rocket that will launch the probe is expected to rollout of its hangar soon for a static test firing of its 27 Merlin booster engines that was scheduled no earlier than Friday. As usual, for a mission of this type, the engine test will take place without the payload attached.

NASA did not immediately responded to questions about the spacecraft issue or provide confirmation of the delay. We will update this story when we receive additional information.

Technicians connect NASA’s Psyche spacecraft to the payload attach fitting inside the clean room at the Astrotech satellite processing facility in Titusville, Florida on Sept. 20, 2023. Image: NASA/Kim Shiflett.

The space agency’s last official update on the mission came in a blog post on Sept. 22 when it reported that fueling and testing of the spacecraft were complete. Psyche had been connected to a payload attach fitting for the Falcon Heavy on Sept. 20 at a satellite processing facility near the Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida, in readiness for encapsulation inside the rocket’s nose cone.

The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft descends under its parachute in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. Image: NASA/Bill Ingalls.

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and two Russian cosmonauts undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth early Wednesday, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out an unexpected yearlong stay in space, the longest single flight in U.S. space history.

With Soyuz MS-69/23S commander Sergey Prokopyev monitoring cockpit displays, flanked on the left by co-pilot Dmitri Petelin and on the right by NASA flight engineer Frank Rubio, the Russian ferry ship undocked from the space station’s multi-port Prichal module at 3:54 a.m. EDT.

After backing a safe distance away from the lab and waiting to reach the precise point in space to begin the descent, the spacecraft fired its braking rockets for four minutes and 39 seconds starting at 6:24 a.m., slowing the ship’s 17,100-mph velocity by about 286 mph.

That was just enough to drop the far side of the orbit deep into the atmosphere, putting the ship on course for the targeted landing site.

After separating from the upper orbital compartment and lower propulsion and power module, the central crew compartment, the only one protected by a heat shield, hit the top of the discernible atmosphere, 62 miles up, at 6:55 a.m. and landed near the town of Dzhezkazgan at 7:17 a.m. (5:17 p.m. local time).

Mission Status Center

Proving a quick turnaround capability for the U.S. Space Force’s Space System Command’s Space Safari Program Office, the Victus Nox mission launches using a Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket. Image: Firefly Aerospace

Nearly two weeks after the successful launch of a payload for the U.S. Space Force’s Space System Command, leaders from the branch along with launch provider, Firefly Aerospace, and satellite manufacturer, Millennium Space Systems, touted the importance and details of the mission during a press briefing on Tuesday.

Lt. Col. MacKenzie Birchenough, the materiel leader for the SSC’s Space Safari Program Office (an acquisition program office supporting USSPACECOM), said the Victus Nox mission was an important step forward in establishing what they term “Tactically Responsive Space” (TacRS) missions.

“The overarching purpose of this mission was to demonstrate our ability to rapidly… deter and, if necessary, respond to adversary threats in the space domain,” Birchenough said.

The Sept. 14 launch of the Victus Nox spacecraft on a Firefly Alpha rocket was the company’s third launch to date and demonstrated a record turnaround time for a mission from end-to-end.

As images of Firefly’s Alpha rocket soaring through the night sky were captured across the southwest United States, a team of passionate Fireflies flawlessly executed a mission that has never been done before — launching after a 24-hour notice.

The returning Soyuz MS-23/69S crew (clockwise from upper left): NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, flight engineer Dmitri Petelin and commander Sergey Prokopyev. Image: NASA.

Outgoing space station commander Sergei Prokopyev and his two Soyuz crewmates, co-pilot Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, packed up Tuesday for a fiery plunge back to Earth early Wednesday to close out a yearlong stay in orbit, the longest flight in U.S. space history.

When the trio launched in September 2022, they expected to spend six months aboard the International Space Station, the normal tour of duty for a long-duration crew.

But a coolant leak disabled their Soyuz MS-22/68S ferry ship last December, prompting the Russians to launch a replacement — Soyuz MS-23/69S — last February. That meant Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio had to stay aloft an additional six months to put the Russian crew-rotation schedule back on track.

If all goes well, they will finally head for home Wednesday, undocking from the space station at 3:54 a.m. EDT and landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan at 7:17 a.m. EDT (5:17 p.m. local time).

During a brief change-of-command ceremony Tuesday, ISS Expedition 69 commander Prokopyev turned the lab over to European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, presenting him with a symbolic key to the laboratory.

SpaceX is planning its 42nd Starlink delivery mission of the year with a Falcon 9 scheduled to launch from the West Coast carrying a batch of 21 satellites at 1:48 a.m. PDT (4:48 a.m. EDT / 0848 UTC) Monday morning.

We’ll bring you live coverage of the Starlink launch in our Launch Pad Live stream.

The Falcon 9 will head in a south-easterly direction after lifting off from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California targeting a 185×178 mile (297×286 km) orbit, inclined at 53 degrees to the equator.

The first stage booster, making its sixth flight, previously launched the first Tranche 0 mission for the U.S. military’s Space Development Agency and flew four previous Starlink delivery missions. After completing its burn, the first stage will land on the drone ship ‘Of Course I still Love You’ stationed about 400 miles downrange (644km) in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.

File photo of a SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Credit: SpaceX

If all goes according to plan, deployment of the 21 V2 Mini Starlink satellites will occur just over an hour after launch. The V2 Mini model was introduced earlier this year and is much larger than the V1.5 satellites. Equipped with upgraded antennae and larger solar panels, the latest models can deliver four times the bandwidth of the previous satellites.

From left to right, NASA Sample Return Capsule Science Lead Scott Sandford, NASA Astromaterials Curator Francis McCubbin, and University of Arizona OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta, examined the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule after it landed at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range on Sept. 24, 2023. Image: NASA/Keegan Barber.

A saucer-shaped capsule carrying asteroid fragments that may hold clues about the birth of the solar system slammed into Earth’s atmosphere Sunday and descended to an on-target parachute-assisted touchdown in Utah in the final chapter of a dramatic seven-year, four-billion-mile voyage.

Released from the OSIRIS-REx mothership four hours earlier, the 110-pound 31-inch-wide sample return capsule, loaded with a half-pound of rocks and soil collected in 2020 from an asteroid known as Bennu, hit the top of the discernible atmosphere, 82 miles up, at a blistering 27,000 mph 10:42 a.m. EDT.

Over the next two minutes, rapidly decelerating in a hellish blaze of atmospheric friction, the capsule’s heat shield endured re-entry temperatures of more than 5,000 degrees and a braking force 32 times the force of gravity as it streaked toward landing at the Utah Test and Training Range west of Salt Lake City.

With scientists and engineers holding their collective breath — a similar capsule crash landed in Utah in 2004 when its parachutes failed to open — the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule survived its trial by fire and presumably deployed a stabilizing drogue parachute at an altitude of 20 miles.

The sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission pictured on the desert floor, shortly after touching down. Its red and white striped parachute rests near by. Image: NASA/Keegan Barber.

The capsule’s 24-foot-wide main capsule was expected to unfurl and inflate at an altitude of 5,000 feet, but NASA said it actually deployed at 20,000 feet. That may have contributed to a slightly earlier-than-expected touchdown, but in any case, the main chute appeared to lower the sample return capsule to an expected 11-mph landing at 10:52 a.m. EDT, the final step in a nail-biting descent.

Spaceflight Now’s Will Robinson-Smith speaks with some of the key figures at Lockheed Martin, who helped bring the OSIRIS-REx mission to life and will continue working with both the spacecraft and the asteroid samples after the return capsule lands in the Utah desert.

Live coverage as a capsule lands in the U.S. Army test range in the Utah desert carrying samples from the surface of asteroid Bennu. The OSIRIS-REx (short for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) has been on a seven-year journey to Bennu and back. If all goes according to plan the capsule will land under a parachute at about 10:55 a.m. EDT (1455 UTC) on Sunday.

Mission Status Center

Spaceflight Now will provide live coverage of the Starlink 6-18 launch from Cape Canaveral, with commentary, starting about an hour before launch.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Saturday night with a booster making its 17th flight. It will be only the second to reach this milestone and the 200th time SpaceX has launched a previously flown Falcon 9 first stage. Liftoff, with 22 Starlink satellites inside its payload fairing, is scheduled for 9:07 p.m. EDT (0107 UTC Sunday).

The first stage for this Starlink 6-18 mission, is booster 1060, which first flew in June 2020 carrying the GPS 3-3 satellite for the U.S. Space Force and went on to fly the Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, Intelsat G-33/G-34 and Transporter-6 mission, plus 11 Starlink delivery flights.

Just four days ago, booster 1058 became the first Falcon 9 first stage to make a 17th flight on the Starlink 6-17 mission. SpaceX had previously identified B1060 as the first stage for that mission but corrected the error on its website after the launch.

SpaceX recently re-certified its Falcon 9 first-stage fleet for 20 reuses, five more than the previous rating.

 

Taken on Oct. 27, this image shows NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully placing its sample collector head into the Sample Return Capsule (SRC). The sequence begins with the collector head hovering over the SRC after the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) arm and moving it into the proper position for capture. At the end of the sequence, the collector head is secured onto the capture ring in the SRC. A few particles can also be seen escaping from the capsule. Image: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin

For the first time in its agency’s history, NASA is bringing home a sample of an asteroid. The nearly eight-ounce sample from carbon-rich asteroid Bennu is set to land in the desert of the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) on Sunday, Sept. 24.

The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft launched back in Sept. 15, 2016 and collected a sample from Bennu on Oct. 20, 2020.

It began making its way back towards Earth over the last couple of years. After making it’s final trajectory maneuver on Sept. 17, OSIRIS-REx is just about ready to release its precious cargo.

Following sample release, the spacecraft will adjust its course and get renamed “OSIRIS-APEX” as it journeys off to observe another asteroid: 99942 Apophis.