Space News & Blog Articles

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage for NASA’s first Space Launch System test flight was stacked on top of the rocket July 5. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

The upper stage for the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System was installed on top of the heavy-lift rocket earlier this month, moving the agency one step closer to liftoff of the Artemis 1 test mission to the moon.

A Chinese Long March 6 rocket lifts off Friday from the Taiyuan space center. Credit: Xinhua

China launched five small satellites designed to detect and monitor global radio transmissions Friday on top of a Long March 6 rocket, joining five similar spacecraft deployed in orbit in 2019.

A Long March 3C rocket lifts off July 6 with China’s new Tianlian 1-05 data relay satellite. Credit: CASC

China launched a fresh satellite for the country’s Tianlian data relay network July 6, reinforcing a fleet of spacecraft designed to connect ground controllers with the country’s space station.

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

Live coverage of the flight of Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity rocketplane carrying company founder Richard Branson and five crewmates to the edge of space. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity rocketplane is released for a glide flight over New Mexico last year. Credit: Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic-founder Richard Branson and five company crewmates are set to take a barnstorming ride to space Sunday in a bold show of confidence in his company’s readiness to start carrying passengers on brief trips out of the atmosphere.

A Cargo Dragon capsule backs away from the International Space station Thursday, heading for splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Credit: Thomas Pesquet/ESA/NASA

Wrapping up a 36-day mission to the International Space Station, a SpaceX Cargo Dragon capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico Friday night with biomedical experiments, spacewalk equipment, and other hardware returning from orbit.

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon capsule departs the International Space Station Thursday. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now

A SpaceX cargo capsule undocked from the International Space Station Thursday and headed for splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico after a two-day delay to wait for Tropical Storm Elsa to clear the area.

Live coverage of the departure of SpaceX’s Dragon supply ship from the International Space Station and its splashdown in the Pacific Ocean with several tons of experiment samples and cargo. SpaceX and NASA will not provide live video coverage of the splashdown. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

A Chinese astronauts outside the Tiangong space station Sunday. Credit: Xinhua

Two Chinese astronauts headed outside the country’s space station Saturday for the second-ever spacewalk in China’s space program, and the first staged from the new Tiangong complex in low Earth orbit.

A Chinese Long March 4C rocket takes off carrying the Fengyun 3E weather satellite. Credit: Xinhua

A new Chinese Fengyun weather satellite launched Sunday and flew into an early morning polar orbit to feed data into global computer models, adding inputs that international weather officials said will improve medium and long-range forecasts.

A Chinese Long March 2D rocket lifts off Saturday. Credit: Xinhua

China successfully launched five small remote sensing satellites on top of a Long March 2D rocket Saturday into an orbit more than 330 miles above Earth.

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket fires its kerosene-fueled main engine seconds after dropping from the company’s Boeing 747 carrier jet. Credit: Virgin Orbit

Virgin Orbit’s air-launched rocket aced its first operational mission Wednesday, firing into orbit from the wing of a 747 carrier jet southwest of Los Angeles to deploy small satellites for the U.S. Army, Navy, the Missile Defense Agency, the Dutch military, and the Polish company SatRevolution.

A Soyuz booster takes off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome Thursday with 36 OneWeb satellites. Credit: Roscosmos

A Russian Soyuz rocket and Fregat upper stage deployed 36 more OneWeb internet satellites into orbit Thursday, bringing the company’s fleet to 254 spacecraft, enough to start commercial service above 50 degrees latitude.

Russia’s automated Progress MS-17 cargo ship is approaching the International Space Station for docking at 9:03 p.m. EDT Thursday (0103 GMT Friday), wrapping up a two-day journey from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with nearly 2.7 tons of fuel, food, water, and supplies.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome with 36 OneWeb broadband satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket takes off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin the Transporter 2 rideshare mission. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket and 88 small satellites from Cape Canaveral Wednesday, sending the rideshare payloads on a southerly track into a polar orbit and notching the eighth successful flight of a reusable booster that debuted exactly one year ago.