Space News & Blog Articles

The opportunity to see a total solar eclipse is capturing the attention of millions across the country, spacecraft are going through key environmental testing and a Florida resident is dealing with an out-of-this-world garbage problem.

These are just some of the topics on deck for this week’s edition of News from the Press Site. The hour-long, live show begins at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 UTC) on the Spaceflight Now YouTube channel.

This week, we’re joined by Emilee Speck, space journalist with FOX Weather, and Stephen Clark, space reporter with Ars Technica. Join the conversation by using the Superchat feature while the video is live.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on the Starlink 6-47 mission on Friday, April 5, 2024. Image: Spaceflight Now

Update 5:12 a.m. EDT: SpaceX launched the Starlink 6-47 mission.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station early Friday morning to kick off a weekend that could see three missions for the company.

The Starlink 6-47 mission lifted off at 5:12 a.m. EDT (0912 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), just minutes before moonrise over the Cape.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1069 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a 14th time. It previously supported the launches of the CRS-24 and OneWeb-1 missions, along with nine Starlink flights.

B1069 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas,’ about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. This was the 64th booster landing on ASOG and the 292nd booster landing to date.

NASA awarded contracts for three companies and their teams to move into the feasibility phase of developing options for a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV). Renderings: Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, Astrolab

NASA selected three companies to move forward with developing crewed, unpressurized rovers capable of operating on the Moon’s South Pole on Wednesday.

Intuitive Machine’s Moon RACER (Reusable Autonomous Crewed Exploration Rover), Lunar Outpost’s Lunar Dawn and Venturi Astrolab’s FLEX (Flexible Logistics and Exploration) rovers were selected by NASA as part of its Lunar Terrain Vehicle Service (LTVS) contract. The maximum potential value of the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, milestone-based contract is $4.6 billion, according to NASA.

Those three principles are each leading multi-company teams in this competition:

“Science is our toolbox for learning and enhanced mobility is one of the most important tools in that science toolbox,” said Jacob Bleacher, NASA’s Chief Exploration Scientist, during the announcement at the Johnson Space Center on Wednesday.

“The diversity of Apollo samples increased when the Lunar Roving Vehicle enabled exploration of more surface area per-mission. That diversity of lunar knowledge is what we seek now,” he added.

SpaceX’s Starlink V2 Mini satellites inside a payload processing facility at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX hopes to follow the successful launch of a European television satellite with a pair of its own Starlink missions from both Florida and California. The first Falcon 9 flight is scheduled to depart from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at pad 40.

Liftoff of the Starlink 6-45 mission is set for 9:02 p.m. EDT (0102 UTC). This would be the 20th Starlink mission of 2024.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about one hour prior to liftoff.

Launch weather for the mission is about as ideal as it gets. The 45th Weather Squadron forecast a greater than 95 percent chance of favorable launch conditions, with the Thick Cloud Layers rule as the main watch item.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1067 in the SpaceX fleet, will be launching for an 18th time. It previously supported missions like the Crew-3 and Crew-4 flights to the International Space Station; the 22nd and 25th Commercial Resupply Services flights to the ISS; and eight Starlink missions.

A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch the Eutelsat 36D mission at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on March 30, 2024. Image: Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is aiming for an ambitious launch cadence on Saturday evening with potentially three launches on tap in fewer than five hours. The first two Falcon 9 rockets are set to depart from Florida’s Space Coast with the last mission taking off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

First up to the plate is the Eutelsat 36D mission, which is set to liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 5:52 p.m. EDT (2152 UTC). This is the opening of a launch window that lasts three hours and 52 minutes.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about one hour prior to launch.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1076 in the SpaceX fleet, will be making its 12 launch attempt. It previously supported missions like the 26th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-26) Dragon flight to the International Space Station, Intelsat IS-40e and Ovzon-3.

About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1076 aims to land on the SpaceX droneship ‘Just Read the Instructions’ in the Atlantic Ocean. This would be the 76th landing on JRTI and the 289th booster landing to date.

File: A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch a Starlink mission. Image: SpaceX

As the month of March winds down, SpaceX hopes to squeeze in one more launch from California with a batch of 22 of its Starlink satellites on board.

Liftoff of the Starlink 7-18 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base is set for 7:30 p.m. PT (10:30 p.m. ET, 0230 UTC).

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage of the mission beginning about 30 minutes prior to liftoff.

This will be the 15th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1071 in the SpaceX fleet. It previously launched two SmallSat Transporter rideshare mission, a pair of missions for the National Reconnaissance Office and NASA’s ocean-observing SWOT payload among others.

Following liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E), B1071 will land on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You,’ a little more than eight minutes into flight. This will mark the 87th landing on OCISLY and the 289th booster landing to date.

The final Delta 4 Heavy pictured on the eve of its final mission inside the Mobile Service Tower at Cape Canaveral’s pad 37. Photo: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.United Launch Alliance is preparing to bid a fond farewell to what its CEO calls “the most metal of all rockets.” The last Delta rocket, flying in its three-core heavy configuration, is preparing to launch on a mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), dubbed NROL-70.

Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) is set for 1:40 p.m. EDT (1740 UTC). This mission carries a classified payload and signals the end of the Delta chapter for ULA as its new Vulcan rocket prepares to really take over.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage of the mission starting about 90 minutes ahead of launch.

The 45th Weather Squadron forecasts only 30 percent odds of favorable weather for launch on Thursday, March 28, with ground winds and cumulus clouds being the primary concerns. Weather improves to 60 percent favorable on Friday with ground winds being the primary concern in this 24-hour backup scenario.

“Winds at ground level at the pad, especially on a Delta 4, which is a three-core rocket, lots of surface area, the concern is being blown back towards the launch tower,” said ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno during a prelaunch press conference. “We have a very well-understood criteria. It depends on the angle of the wind and we know what to do. We can launch through a pretty narrow moment in time. So, if the winds calm down, even for just a few minutes, so that we’re confident that that’s where they’re going to be, then we’ll launch through that opportunity.”

NASA astronauts Suni Williams (left) and Butch Wilmore (right) pose in front of a graphic of the mission patch for the Starliner Crew Flight Test. Image: Will Robinson-Smith/Spaceflight Now

NASA is five weeks away from putting astronauts aboard a new commercial crew capsule. May 1 is the target launch date for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on the Crew Flight Test-1 (CFT-1) mission the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams on board.

The capsule will launch atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff on May 1 would be at 12:55 a.m. ET (1655 UTC) with docking taking place on May 2.

“This is a thrill for me and our entire Boeing Starliner program team, working with our NASA partners,” said LeRoy Cain, the deputy Starliner program manager. “I would say we are steeped in spaceflight experience in every element and aspect of human spaceflight experience.”

On Thursday, members of the flight control team gave members of the press an overview of the mission at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and discussed some of the their preparations for the mission alongside the crew.

“This is the first flight of a new, crewed spacecraft. You gotta figure out how to fly it. And it started with here’s a simulator and here’s a rocket, and let’s put a crew in the cockpit and figure out how to do this,” said Mike Lammers, the CFT lead flight director who focuses on pre-launch and ascent. “We’ve been doing that for a few years. Now we’re kind of in the final phases where we train with the crew.”

A Falcon 9 stands ready for the Starlink 6-46 mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.

SpaceX is preparing to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Monday evening with 23 Starlink satellites on board. This mission will mark the 175th launch for SpaceX from its workhorse pad to date.

Liftoff of the Starlink 6-46 mission is set for 7:42 p.m. EDT (2342 UTC) from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40). This will also be the 20th mission launching from Florida in 2024.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about one hour prior to liftoff.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1078 in the SpaceX fleet, will be launching for an eighth time. It previously launched NASA’s Crew-6 mission, SES’ O3b mPOWER 3 &4 satellites, the USSF-124 mission and four Starlink flights.

About eight-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, B1078 will land on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ This will be the 62nd landing on ASOG and the 228th booster landing to date.

A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch at pad 39A on a mission to deliver another 23 Starlink satellites to orbit. Image: Spaceflight Now.

SpaceX is gearing up for the first of two Starlink missions from Cape Canaveral in 48 hours. A Falcon 9 rocket will launch from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 7:39 p.m. EDT on Saturday, one minute after sunset. It will be followed by another Falcon 9 from nearby pad 40 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Monday.

In a forecast issued by the 45th Weather Squadron on Friday, Space Force meteorologists gave Saturday’s launch a 75-percent chance of acceptable weather. The main concerns are for highs winds and breaching the cumulus cloud rule associated with the risk of lightning.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage with commentary of the launch starting about an hour prior to liftoff.

The mission was originally scheduled for Friday evening but SpaceX abandoned that attempt citing bad weather. The decision to scrub the launch came Friday afternoon as the rocket was rolling out of the hangar at launch complex 39A. The Falcon 9 was not raised vertical until late Friday night.

The Falcon 9 first stage assigned to the Starlink 6-42 mission will be making a record-tying 19th flight. Booster 1060 first flew in June 2020 and has made 12 previous Starlink delivery missions. It most recently launched on Feb. 15 placing the IM-1 commercial lunar lander on course for the Moon.

Photographers capture the liftoff of the Soyuz MS-25 mission bound for the International Space Station. Image: NASA/Bill Ingalls.

Two days after a rare last-second launch abort, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft blasted off Saturday on a flight to the International Space Station, carrying two short-duration crew members and a NASA astronaut bound for a six-month tour of duty.

Soyuz MS-25/71S commander Oleg Novitskiy, Belarus guest cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya and NASA veteran Tracy Dyson thundered away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 8:36 a.m. EDT (5:36 p.m. local time) and slipped into orbit eight minutes and 45 seconds later.

Launch originally was planned for last Thursday, but the countdown was aborted inside 20 seconds to launch when computers detected low voltage readings in the Soyuz 2.1a rocket’s first stage electrical system.

It was the first ever such abort for a Soyuz rocket, and it took Russian engineers a day to review telemetry, pinpoint the problem and replace suspect batteries. Subsequent testing showed all systems were go for a second launch attempt Saturday.

As the Soyuz countdown ticked toward a late afternoon launch in Kazakhstan, a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship launched Thursday from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station caught up with the space station and moved in for docking at 7:19 a.m., bringing 6,200 pounds of science gear, spare parts and crew supplies to the lab complex, including fresh food and coffee kits.

Expedition 71 NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and Belarus spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya are seen in quarantine, behind glass, during a press conference, Wednesday, March 20, 2024 a the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Dyson, Novitskiy, and Belarus spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya are scheduled to launch aboard their Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft on March 21. Image: NASA/Bill Ingalls

A Russian cosmonaut, an American astronaut and a Belarusian flight attendant turned spaceflight participant are preparing for a mission to the International Space Station. Their arrival at the orbiting outpost will mark the beginning of Expedition 71.

Liftoff onboard a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome is set for 4:21 p.m. MSK (9:21 a.m. ET, 1321 UTC). Oleg Novistky, Tracy Dyson and Marina Vasilevskaya make up the trio of the MS-25 mission.

They are set to dock with the space station at about 11:39 p.m. MSK (12:39 p.m. ET, 1639 UTC). This will be the fourth trip to the ISS for Novitsky, the third trip for Dyson and the first trip for Vasilevskaya.

Novitsky, 52, served as the commander for his three previous flights and will hold the position again on this mission. He graduated from the Air Force Academy in Russia with a speciality in military unit management and formations in 2006 and went on to graduate from the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in 2015. He amassed more than 700 hours of flight time in his career.

He began his cosmonaut training in February 2007 and was named a test cosmonaut in July 2009.

For the first time, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon 2 spacecraft on top is positioned in launch configuration at pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is gearing up for the next phase of launches from Cape Canaveral that is, in a way, a callback to a previous era in their launch history. While this will be SpaceX’s 30th flight as part of NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program, it’s the first time a Dragon 2 spacecraft will launch to the International Space Station (ISS) from pad 40.

Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket and Cargo Dragon spacecraft on this mission is set for Thursday, March 21, at 4:55 p.m. ET (2055 UTC). More than 6,000 pounds of cargo and science is packed into the capsule, which will dock autonomously to the zenith port of the ISS’ Harmony module on Saturday morning at roughly 7:30 a.m. ET (1130 UTC). NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara and Michael Barratt, will oversee the docking process from inside the ISS.

The 45th Weather Squadron forecast conditions to be 90 percent favorable at liftoff on Thursday, with upper-level winds potentially being a limiting factor. Should the mission slip past Thursday, the 24-hour backup opportunity on Friday only has a 20 percent chance of good weather, due to a low-pressure system forming off the Atlantic coast of Florida.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage starting about an hour prior to liftoff.

“The SpaceX 30 cargo vehicle is packed full of the hardware and samples to support a very diverse set of new and continuing research from all across the international partnership,” said Heidi Harris, the associated program scientist for NASA’s International Space Station Program Research Office.

File photo of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at pad 4E ready to launch a Starlink mission. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX kicked off another busy week following the third test flight of its Starship rocket on Thursday and three Falcon 9 missions. The company notched a Monday launch with 22 Starlink satellites from its pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off on the Starlink 7-16 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at 7:28 p.m. PT (1028 p.m. ET, 0228 UTC).

The Falcon 9 first stage booster being used on this flight, tail number B1075 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a 10th time. It previously launched two missions for the U.S. Space Development Agency as well as seven other Starlink missions.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1075 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’ It was the 86th landing on OCISLY and the 285th SpaceX booster landing to date.

While this mission is in work, SpaceX and NASA are also preparing to launch a Cargo Dragon from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This will be the 30th flight under SpaceX’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA to fly cargo and science up to the orbiting outpost.

SpaceX Starship rocket stands ready to launch on its third integrated flight test from southern Texas. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

SpaceX’s Starship rocket is poised to take to the skies over Texas for a third time Thursday morning. The launch is moving forward thanks to the final approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, which issued its supporting documents Wednesday afternoon.

Liftoff of the world’s tallest rocket currently flying is set to take place during a 110-minute launch window that opens at 7 a,m. CT (8 a.m. ET, 1200 UTC). The vehicle was stacked for launch late last week at SpaceX’s Starbase launch and manufacturing site in southern Texas near Brownsville.

Spaceflight Now will have joint live coverage with Lab Padre beginning about 1.5 hours prior to liftoff.

The mission represents the shortest time between second and third flights for a commercial, orbital rocket. Both the Falcon 1 and the Falcon 9 spent more than a year between those two flights.

This mission will also fly a markedly different flight path compared to the previous two missions. SpaceX hopes to send the Ship 28 upper stage to reach a splash down in the middle of the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar.

A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to support the Starlink 6-44 launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on March 13, 2024. Image: Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is busily preparing for two missions from launchpads in both Florida and Texas. It’s poised to launch the third integrated flight test (IFT-3) of its Starship rocket Thursday morning, but in the meantime, it hopes to launch a batch of Starlink satellites from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Liftoff of the Starlink 6-44 mission from Launch Complex 39A is set for no earlier than 7:29 p.m. ET (2329 UTC) on Wednesday. There are 23 satellites on board the Falcon 9 rocket, which will mark more than 6,000 Starlink satellites launched to date.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage about an hour prior to liftoff.

The first stage booster supporting this mission, B1062, will be launching for a 19th time, tying it as the flight leader alongside B1058 and B1061. B1058 was destroyed during its voyage back to Port Canaveral.

B1062 previously launched two GPS satellites; Inspiration4 and the Ax-1 crewed flights; and 11 Starlink missions among its previous 18 launches.

Rocket Lab’s 45th Electron rocket to date launches on the “Owl Night Long” mission for Synspective. Image: Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab launches its third Electron mission of the year and its fourth for Japanese Earth-imaging company, Synspective.

The mission, dubbed “Owl Night Long,” lifted off on March 13 from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex-1 in Mahia, New Zealand, at 4:03 a.m. NZDT (11:03 a.m. EDT, 1503 UTC). This was the 45th Electron rocket to launch to date.

It sent the StriX-3 satellite into an orbit 561 km above the Earth’s surface at a 97-degree inclination. It’s the latest in the StriX-series of satellites, which are synthetic aperture radar (SAR) spacecraft. It allows them to observe the Earth’s surface regardless of weather or day light.

Rocket Lab previously launched the following missions on behalf of Synspective:

The most recent mission carried the 300th Rutherford engine and became the 150th satellite launched by Rocket Lab. The Electron is a two-stage rocket that stands 18 meters (59 feet) tall.

A view of the Crew Dragon Endurance as it prepared to undock from the International Space Station following 197 days at the orbiting outpost. Image: NASA

A journey of more than half a year orbiting around the world is coming to an end for the four-member team of the SpaceX Crew-7 mission. The Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 11:20 a.m. EDT (1520 UTC) after 197 days.

Commander and NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli and her crew, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov bid farewell to the rest of Expedition 70 during a ceremony on Sunday.

“This has been the adventure of a lifetime. This is something I’ve dreamed about since I was a child and I was afraid I would get up here and might be disappointed and it wouldn’t live up to my expectations,” Moghbeli said. “But the international partnership we have up here and the space station are just incredible. It’s an indication of what we can do when we work together.”

The approaching conclusion of the Crew-7 mission wraps up the first spaceflights for both Moghbeli and Borisov.

“It’s a bittersweet moment. We have been here for over six months, but the time has flown very fast and it’s time to get back,” Borisov said. “I’m really happy that we’ve done all the work we have planned to do. The station is working just fine, all the experiments are going and we know that we are taking over by a great team for continuing into the end of Expedition 70 and into the beginning of Expedition 71.”

File: A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch a Starlink mission. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX completed a double launch day on Sunday with the flight of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The Starlink 7-17 mission will add another 23 satellites to the growing low Earth orbit constellation.

Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) occurred at 9:09 p.m. PDT (12:09 a.m. EDT, 0409 UTC). It followed the successful launch of the Starlink 6-43 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force station at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 UTC).

The first stage booster supporting this mission, B1063, made its 17th flight. It previously launched NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft, the Transporter-7 rideshare mission and 11 Starlink satellite missions among its previous flights.

B1063 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You,’ a little more than eight minutes after liftoff. This will mark the 85th landing on OCISLY and the 283rd booster landing to date.

This mission was the ninth launch for SpaceX from Florida in 2024 and the 309th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket to date.

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

SpaceX is closing out the weekend with a pair of planned Falcon 9 launches from Florida and California while also preparing for the undocking of Crew Dragon Endurance from the International Space Station.

The Falcon 9 rocket supporting the Starlink 6-43 mission is set to liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 UTC). It will add 23 Starlink satellites to the growing low Earth orbit constellation.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to liftoff.

The first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1077, will be launching for an 11th time. It previously launched the Crew-5 mission, the Commercial Resupply Services 28 (CRS-28) mission and the Northrop Grumman 20 (NG-20) Cygnus flight to the ISS.

About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the booster will land on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions.’ This will be the 74th landing on JRTI and the 218th booster landing to date.