Space News & Blog Articles

Spaceflight Now will provide live coverage of the Starlink 6-18 launch from Cape Canaveral, with commentary, starting about an hour before launch.

Ahead of launching the Artemis 2 mission no earlier than November 2024, the four astronauts donned test flight suits to go through a pre-launch simulation. They rode to launch pad 39B in Canoo electric vehicles and climbed the Mobile Launcher tower.

Frank Rubio inside the International Space Station’s Destiny laboratory module. Image: NASA.

If NASA had asked astronaut Frank Rubio, well in advance, if he would like to spend a full year aboard the International Space Station, he likely would have turned it down. But that’s how it turned out anyway, when trouble with his crew’s Soyuz ferry ship forced them to extended a six-month stay to 12.

SpaceX will push the boundaries of booster reusability Tuesday night with the scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 using a first stage rocket making its 17th flight. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral with 22 satellites for the Starlink internet network is scheduled for 10:47 p.m. EDT (0247 UTC).

A shower of sparks at the point the Electron rocket’s second stage engine was supposed to ignite. Image: Rocket Lab.

A Rocket Lab Electron rocket, carrying a radar-imaging satellite for Capella Space, failed on Tuesday after a problem occurred two and half minutes into flight. It was the fourth failure in 41 flights for the small satellite launcher.

Artist’s impression of Capella’s Acadia radar-imaging satellite. Image: Capella.

Rocket Lab is gearing up to launch the second of four next-generation radar-imaging satellites for Capella Space atop an Electron rocket from New Zealand at 6:30 p.m. NZST (2:30 a.m. EDT / 0630 UTC) on Tuesday.

Mission Status Center

Live coverage will start here about one hour before launch

The FAA has closed the SpaceX-led mishap investigation following the first Starship Integrated Test Flight (IFT). SpaceX founder Elon Musk also published the checklist of 63 items to be completed before the company can apply for a launch license modification for IFT-2.

This page is available to Spaceflight Now members only

Support Spaceflight Now\’s unrivaled coverage of the space program by becoming a member. Your monthly or annual membership will help us continue and expand our coverage. As a supporter of the site you will also gain access to bonus content such as this page.

SpaceX will launch another batch of satellites for the company’s Starlink internet service from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 11:57 p.m. PDT Monday (2:57 a.m. EDT / 0657 UTC Tuesday). We’ll have live coverage of the liftoff in our Launch Pad Live stream.



A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch 22 second-generation Starlink internet satellites at 7:56 p.m. EDT (2356 UTC) Friday evening from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Additional launch opportunities are available at 11:12 p.m. EDT (0312 UTC) and 11:30 p.m. EDT (0330 UTC). The Falcon 9’s first stage booster will land on the drone ship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ in the Atlantic Ocean. The booster is making its 7th flight.

Starship 25 is lifted atop Super Heavy booster by the launch pad ‘chopsticks’. Image: SpaceX.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced Friday the conclusion its mishap investigation into the first integrated test flight of SpaceX’s reusable Starship launch vehicle. It stressed SpaceX has 63 corrective actions that need to be taken before Starship can make a second test flight.

United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket made its way back to the pad at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday morning for a mission carrying national security mission payloads, collectively codenamed Silentbarker. The 45th Weather Squadron’s launch weather forecast shows conditions are 85 percent favorable for liftoff at 8:51 a.m. EDT (1251 UTC).

A Japanese H-2A rocket is prepared for fueling on the launch pad Sunday. Image: MHI Launch Services.

A next-generation X-ray space telescope and an experimental lunar lander are back on the launch pad Wednesday after a ten-day delay. An H-2A rocket is scheduled to liftoff from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan at 7:42 p.m. EDT (8:42 a.m. local time / 2342 UTC).

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

Another SpaceX Starship rocket stands fully integrated against the South Texas horizon and company-founder Elon Musk said from his perspective, they’re ready to launch.

Crew Dragon streaks through the midnight sky as seen from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Image: Will Robinson-Smith/Spaceflight Now.

Blazing like a shooting star as it streaked high above northern Florida, a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carried four space station fliers back to Earth early Monday, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean east of Jacksonville to wrap up a six-month stay in orbit.

SpaceX rolled out a Falcon 9 Sunday for a record-breaking 62nd launch of the year. Image: Spaceflight Now.

A Falcon 9 rocket is being readied Sunday for a record-breaking 62nd orbital launch of the year for SpaceX. The previous record was set in 2022 with 61 launches by the company. Liftoff from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, with 21 Starlink satellites aboard, is currently targeted for 9:56 p.m. EDT (0156 UTC).

Mission Status Center