Space News & Blog Articles

Update: SpaceX has delayed the launch of the Axiom 3 mission to Thursday.

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

SpaceX is looking to notch its fourth launch in January with another Starlink flight. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink satellites is targeting liftoff at 7:52 p.m. EST (0052 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

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

SpaceX pushed back to Saturday the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from California due to unfavorable weather for booster recovery in the Pacific Ocean. The launch, carrying 22 Starlink satellites, will add to the more than 5,300 satellites already in orbit.

(Left to right) Ax-3 Mission Specialist Marcus Wandt, Pilot Walter Villadei, Commander Michael López-Alegría, Mission Specialist Alper Gezeravcı. Image: Axiom Space

For the third time, Axiom Space is preparing a charter mission to the International Space Station. The Ax-3 mission carries the distinction of featuring an all-European crew, with Commander Michael López-Alegría being a dual citizen of both the United States and Spain.

The Artemis 2 crew, standing in from of their Artemis spacecraft, discusses their planned around-the-moon flight with reporters at the Kennedy Space Center. Left to right: commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.

A quartet of astronauts will have to wait until next year before their voyage around the Moon. In a robust update on Tuesday afternoon, NASA leadership announced that the next two missions in the Artemis program, and the first featuring astronauts, will each shift back by nearly a year.

Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander in the clean room at Astrotech in Titusville, Florida. The spacecraft was the main payload onboard the first launch of ULA’s Vulcan rocket. Image: ULA

In situation seemly pulled from a science fiction movie, a robotic mission to the Moon swung from the brink of failure to having renewed hope before the pendulum swung back again with a successful lunar landing for Astrobotic’s Peregrine spacecraft now unlikely.

The inaugural Vulcan rocket leaps off the pad at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The booster was powered by the first pair of BE-4 engines to fly in space. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now

With the company’s future riding on it, United Launch Alliance’s first Vulcan rocket successfully put a commercial robotic lander on course for the Moon after lifting off from Cape Canaveral’s pad 41 at 2:18 a.m. EST (0718 UTC).

Watch live coverage as the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket will launches on its inaugural flight with the Peregrine commercial robotic lunar lander for Astrobotic. Peregrine will carry multiple experiments, scientific instruments, and tech demo payloads for NASA and other customers.

The Falcon 9 rocket goes upright at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Photo: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.

The next batch of 23 Starlink satellites for SpaceX’s space-based internet service are scheduled to ride a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit Sunday from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff is now targeted for 5:35 p.m. EST (2235 UTC).

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The United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket is transported from the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) to Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in preparation for the certification mission (Cert-1). The mission will launch the Astrobotic Peregrine commercial lunar lander, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, into a highly elliptical orbit more than 220,000 miles (360,000 km) above Earth to intercept the Moon and carry a Celestis Memorial Spaceflight Payload into deep space. Image: ULA

Nearly a decade of planning, designing, assembly and testing for United Launch Alliance (ULA) is about to culminate in the first launch of its Vulcan rocket. The maiden flight of the launch vehicle is set for Monday, Jan. 8, at 2:18 am EST (0718 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The payload for the Certification-1 (Cert-1) flight test on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket is encapsulated inside its payload fairing in preparation for launch. The mission will launch the first Astrobotic Peregrine commercial lunar lander, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, into a highly elliptical orbit more than 220,000 miles (360,000 km) above Earth to intercept the Moon and carry a Celestis Memorial Spaceflight Payload into deep space. Image: ULA

A gold-plated tracker, an imager searching for surface water and an radiation detector are among the suite of five instruments flying on board one of NASA’s first missions to the Moon’s surface since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

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The orbital launch year is about to kick off in Florida in the same way it ended 2023: with the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. On board the workhorse launch vehicle is a communications satellite for Sweden-based Ovzon. Liftoff of the rocket is set at the opening of a ten-minute launch window that begins at 6:04 p.m. EST (2304 UTC). It will mark the second Falcon 9 flight in less than 24 hours, following the launch of 21 Starlink satellites from California late Tuesday.

SpaceX launches its first orbital mission of 2024. The Starlink 7-9 mission featured the first six direct-to-cell satellites. Image: SpaceX

Update 9:31 p.m. EST: SpaceX adjusted the presumed liftoff time.

A PSLV-DL rocket stands tall at the First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India. The rocket will launch the PSLV-C58 mission on Jan. 1, 2024 locally. Image: ISRO

The orbital launch calendar is set to begin just hours into the first day of 2024 based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). At 0340 UTC (9:10 a.m. IST or 10:40 p.m. EST on Dec. 31), a rocket will liftoff from India to begin what will likely be another record-breaking global launch year.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from the fog surrounding Space Launch Complex 40 on the Starlink 6-36 mission. This was the 72nd and final orbital launch of 2023 from the Cape. Image: Spaceflight Now

SpaceX completed double-header launch night as the end of the year approaches. A Falcon 9 rocket launched the Starlink 6-36 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:01 p.m. EST (0401 UTC) on Thursday.

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket stands ready to launch the X-37B military spaceplane on Dec. 11, 2023. The mission was scrubbed due to poor weather and ground issues in mid-December. Image: Adam Bernstein

For the second time this month, SpaceX is gearing up to launch the X-37B military spaceplane onboard its Falcon Heavy rocket. Liftoff of the USSF-52 mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is set for 8:07 p.m. EST (0107 UTC) on Thursday at the opening of a ten-minute launch window.

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The remains of Falcon 9 booster 1058 arrive at Port Canaveral after the vehicle toppled over and broke apart in bad weather. Image: Steven Young/Spaceflight Now.

A piece of America’s space history is now on the ocean’s floor. During its return voyage to Port Canaveral in Central Florida, a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster toppled over and broke in half.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch the SARah 2 & 3 satellites for the German military. The twin craft, equipped with passive synthetic aperture radar reflectors, will liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base during an 83-minute window that opens at 5:11 a.m. PST / 8:11 a.m. EST / 1311 UTC on Sunday, Dec. 24.