Space News & Blog Articles

A Falcon 9 rocket rises through a thick layer of fog at Vandenberg Space Force Base as it launches 15 second-generation Starlink satellites. Image: SpaceX.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is lifted off Wednesday night/Thursday morning carrying the first batch of second-generation Starlink satellites to be lofted from the West Coast. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base occurred at 9:09 p.m. PDT (1209 a.m. EDT / 0409 UTC July 19).

Live commentary will begin at 9 p.m. PDT / 12 a.m. EDT / 0400 UTC in our Launch Pad Live Stream. Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1B on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand with seven small satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Threads or Twitter.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1B on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand with seven small satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Threads.

For the second time this week, SpaceX is pushing the envelope by flying a Falcon 9 rocket for a 16th time. Booster 1060 is now scheduled to liftoff from Cape Canaveral’s pad 40 at 11:50 p.m. EDT (0350 UTC) Saturday carrying 54 Starlink satellites into orbit. Just last Sunday, Booster 1058 launched 22 second-generation Starlink satellites, becoming the first Falcon 9 rocket to make a 16th flight. Previously, the reusable Falcon 9 first stage booster had only been certified for 15 missions.

File photo close up of a Falcon 9 static fire. Image: SpaceX.

SpaceX will test fire a Falcon 9 on pad 40 at Cape Canaveral tonight to clear the booster for its 16th flight. A launch attempt early Friday was aborted in the final minute of the countdown. SpaceX did not disclose the reason for the scrub.

For the third time in its space program, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will launch a mission to the Moon. India is hoping for a more successful outcome this time around after a failed attempt to land safely on the Moon back in 2019.

For the second time this week, SpaceX will push the envelope by flying a Falcon 9 rocket for a 16th time. The rocket is scheduled to liftoff from Cape Canaveral’s pad 40 at 12:40 a.m. EDT (0440 UTC) carrying more Starlink satellites into orbit. On Sunday night another booster lifted off from the same launch pad becoming the first Falcon 9 rocket to make a 16th flight.

The Blue Origin BE-4 first stage engines of United Launch Alliance’s first Vulcan rocket were successfully test fired June 7 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Image: ULA.

The debut of United Launch Alliance’s next generation rocket, the Vulcan Centaur, is now scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2023, following an investigation into a mishap that destroyed an upper-stage test article, company CEO and President Tory Bruno said during a media briefing on Thursday.

A stellar nursery in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex as imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope. Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (STScI)

Celebrating the James Webb Space Telescope’s first year of science operations, NASA released a mesmerising new image of a nearby stellar nursery where 50 or so sun-size stars are blazing or just switching on in shimmering clouds of interstellar hydrogen.

The final Ariane 5 roars away from the Guiana Space Centre on July 5, 2023. Photo: ESA – S. Corvaja.

Europe is facing months without its own independent access to space for large satellites following the retirement of its heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket this week after notching up its 117th and final mission over 27 years of operations.

Booster 1058 is a distinctive member of the SpaceX’s Falcon 9 fleet because it was emblazoned with a red NASA ‘worm’ logo prior to the May 2020 flight of Demo-2, the first Cred Dragon mission to carry astronauts. This photo of the soot-covered booster was captured in December 2020 after the CRS-21 space station cargo resupply mission, its fourth launch and landing. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now.

SpaceX will test the limits of its reusable Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday evening when it launches a booster on a record-breaking 16th flight. The launch was originally scheduled before dawn on Sunday but SpaceX opted to target a rare 12-hour-later backup opportunity in the evening, 13 minutes after sunset. The Falcon 9 is now scheduled to liftoff from Cape Canaveral at 8:36 p.m. EDT (0036 UTC Monday) with the fifth batch of second-generation Starlink satellites.

SpaceX lofted another batch of Starlink internet satellites into orbit on Friday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. A Falcon 9, carrying 48 satellites inside its payload fairing, lifted off at 12:29:50 p.m. PDT (3:29:50 p.m. EDT; 1929:50 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 4-East.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the Starlink 5-3 mission with 48 Starlink internet satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

Europe’s venerable Ariane 5 rocket blasted off on its 117th and final flight Wednesday, successfully boosting two communications satellites into orbit but leaving the European space program without a large satellite launcher of its own until a delayed successor comes on line.

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s navigation camera captured the rotorcraft in shadow during its 52nd flight on April 26, 2023. This image was finally received after Ingenuity was out of communication for 63 days. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

NASA engineers are prepping the miniature Mars helicopter Ingenuity for its 53rd flight across the surface of the Red Planet after re-establishing contact following a two-month radio blackout.

The final Ariane 5 rocket rolls to the launch pad on Monday, July 3, 2023. Image: ESA – S. Corvaja.

Europe’s workhorse Ariane 5 rocket is being retired after 27 years of service. Check this page for live coverage of the countdown and launch. Liftoff from the Guiana Space Center, the European spaceport in South America, is now scheduled for no earlier than Wednesday, July 5. The 65-minute launch window window runs 7 p.m. to 8:05 p.m. local time (6:00-7:05 p.m. EDT / 2200-2305 UTC).

Aerial view of the launch of Ariane 5 V198 on November 26, 2010, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Image: ESA/CNES/ARIANESPACE – Optique Video CSG – L. Mira.

Europe’s iconic Ariane 5 rocket, with its liquid hydrogen-fueled core stage and solid rocket boosters, has guaranteed Europe’s access to space, providing a unique capacity for launching satellites and spacecraft into precise orbits over almost three decades.

The last Ariane 5 rocket arrives at the launch pad for its last satellite delivery mission. Image: Arianespace.

The last Ariane 5 rocket was hauled to the launch pad on Monday at the Guiana Space Centre, Europe’s South American spaceport. Ariane 5, which for years was the world’s leading commercial satellite launcher, is scheduled to make its final lift off on Tuesday, carrying a French military satellite and a communications technology testbed spacecraft for Germany.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket thunders away from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, boosting the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope on a trajectory to deep space where it will probe the nature of dark energy and dark matter. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.

The European Space Agency launched its $1.5 billion Euclid space telescope Saturday, an ambitious, first-of-a-kind attempt to pin down the nature of dark matter, an unknown material pervading the cosmos, and dark energy, the mysterious repulsive force that is speeding up the expansion of the universe.

An artist’s impression of the Euclid space telescope. Image: ESA.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space telescope will blast off from Cape Canaveral on 1 July on a mission to shed light on the ‘dark universe’ dominated by dark matter and dark energy.

VSS Unity ignites its engine after being released from its carrier aircraft. Image: Virgin Galactic.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic launched its first commercial space flight Thursday, sending three Italian researchers, two company pilots and an astronaut trainer on a high-speed thrill ride to the edge of space aboard a winged rocketplane.