Space News & Blog Articles

Updated: California launch slips.

The crew access arm is manuevered into place on the newly constructed tower at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.

A crew access arm was lifted into place at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral on Monday, as SpaceX races to ready the pad for its first Crew Dragon launch with astronauts as soon as January.

Aerial view of the fully stacked Starship vehicle at Starbase, Texas, on Sept. 6, 2023. Image: SpaceX.

More than half a year after its first flight, SpaceX believes it’s on the cusp of getting to launch its Starship rocket for a second time.

A Falcon 9 rocket streaks across the sky, sending 23 Starlink V2 Mini satellites on their way to low Earth orbit. This was the 18th launch and landing of this booster, tail number 1058. Image: Michael Cain

SpaceX broke another re-flight record on Friday evening with the launch of 23 more Starlink satellites on a Falcon 9 booster making its 18th flight.

Jasmin Moghbeli, wearing a spacesuit with red stripes, works with Loral O’Hara to secure insulation around a failed radio communications unit during the fourth all-female spacewalk. Image: NASA TV.

Astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara worked outside the International Space Station Wednesday to replace a bearing assembly in one of the lab’s solar array rotation mechanisms. But the task took longer than expected and they were unable to retrieve a failed electronics box as planned.

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

The first payload teed up for NASA’s industry-led missions to the Moon has arrived in Florida. Astrobotic announced on Halloween that its Peregrine lunar lander was unpacked inside a clean room on the Space Coast after leaving Astrobotic’s facilities in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Friday.

SpaceX’s Starship rocket stands fully stacked near the shoreline of Texas at its Starbase facility on Oct. 20, 2023. On Oct. 31, the FAA said it concluded its safety review ahead of its second test flight. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX’s highly anticipated second test flight of its Starship super heavy lift rocket is one step closer to liftoff from South Texas. On Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced the conclusion of its safety review.

A Falcon 9 booster, making its eighth flight, lifts off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Oct. 30. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.

A Falcon 9 carrying 23 more satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink internet service lifted off from Cape Canaveral Monday, bringing the total number of Starlinks currently in orbit to more than 5,000 satellites. Liftoff from pad 40 occurred at 7:20 p.m. EDT (2320 UTC).

File photo of SpaceX’s Starlink V2 Mini satellites inside a payload processing facility at Cape Canaveral earlier this year. Credit: SpaceX

Update 8:38 p.m. EDT (0038 UTC): A scrub was called at T-30 seconds to liftoff. The launch team will target its next launch attempt with a 24-hour recycle. The launch window opens at 7:20 p.m. EDT (2320 UTC).

A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Oct. 29, 2023, carrying 22 Starlink satellites. Image: SpaceX.

The first of two Falcon 9 missions SpaceX is planning for Sunday carried into orbit the largest batch of second-generation Starlink satellites to be launched from the West Coast. It was the 50th Starlink launch of the year.

The completed Nova-C lander for the IM-1 mission is photographed in mid-October at Intuitive Machines’ facilities in Houston, Texas, ahead of it being shipped to Cape Canaveral, Florida. Image: Intuitive Machines

The first lunar lander aiming for a touchdown at the Moon’s south pole has a new launch date. Intuitive Machines said Friday it is targeting the launch of its Nova-C lander on the IM-1 mission for no earlier than January 12, 2024.

Lisa Watson-Morgan, program manager for the Human Landing System program, moderates a fireside chat with Benji Reed, Sr. Director of Human Spaceflight Programs at SpaceX (left) and John Couluris, Sr. VP of Lunar Transportation at Blue Origin. Image: Will Robinson-Smith

After a successful mission with Artemis 1 in November, 2022, and with the pieces of the Artemis 2 architecture coming together for a launch targeting late 2024, NASA continues to simultaneously push towards the big items that are key to the future missions.

Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub work outside the International Space Station on Oct. 25, 2023. Image: NASA TV
Two Russian cosmonauts ventured outside the International Space Station Wednesday to look for the source of a leak at or near a newly installed radiator on the Nauka lab module and to isolate it from coolant lines.

This illustration shows a concept for multiple robots that would team up to ferry to Earth samples of rocks and soil being collected from the Martian surface by NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover.
Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech

The next decade will be a critical time for the exploration of Mars with the multi-agency Mars Sample Return (MSR) being the marquee mission. The undertaking has been decades in the making, but an independent review of the MSR architecture raised some key questions about the feasibility and cost.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket sends up 22 Starlink satellites on the Starlink Group 6-23 mission. Image: Adam Bernstein

SpaceX is hoping to ace its second launch of the day with another Falcon 9 rocket, this time launching from the East Coast. The Starlink Group 6-24 mission is targeting liftoff at 10:17 p.m. EDT (0217 UTC).

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

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch 21 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 12:47 a.m. PDT (3:47 a.m. EDT, 0747 UTC). It is the first of two Starlink delivery missions planned for Saturday.

Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket lifts off from West Texas on Thursday. Credit: Blue Origin

The three companies who have flown people to space and back, Blue Origin, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, joined two experts at a Congressional hearing to press for regulatory improvements, warning the U.S. risks losing its lead in spaceflight.

SpaceX’s Starship rocket after Ship 25 was restacked on top of Booster 9 on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023. The rocket was unstacked the following day. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX leadership is heading to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to lobby for greater efficiency when it comes regulatory approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The company is hoping to streamline the process of issuing launch licenses for both Starship test flights and more routine Falcon 9 rocket missions.

Update 11:53 a.m. EDT (1553 UTC): New T-0 launch time from SpaceX.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink satellites, delayed by upper level winds and held up for the Falcon Heavy launch of NASA’s Psyche, is scheduled to liftoff from Cape Canaveral’s pad 40 at 7:01 p.m. EDT (2301 UTC) on Friday night.

Falcon Heavy climbs away from Kennedy Space Center, carrying NASA’s Psyche spacecraft. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now.

Getting off to a ground-shaking start, NASA’s $1.2 billion Psyche asteroid probe roared into space atop a Falcon Heavy rocket Friday, setting off on a 2.2-billion-mile voyage to a rare, metal-rich asteroid that may hold clues about how the cores of rocky planets like Earth first formed.