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.
Virgin Galactic’s Eve carrier jet carries the VSS Unity on a test flight in April 2023. Image: Virgin Galactic.Four-and-a-half years after an initial sub-orbital test flight, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is finally ready to begin commercial operations with the launch Thursday of a six-man crew, including three Italian researchers, on an up-and-down flight to the edge of space aboard the company’s winged spaceplane.
A prototype of Europe’s reusable Prometheus engine roars to life on the test stand in Vernon, France on June 22, 2023. Image: ArianeGroup.
Europe has successfully completed the first hot-fire test of its reusable Prometheus rocket, a 12-second burn while integrated to the Themis first-stage demonstrator at the ArianeGroup site in Vernon, France.
An overhead drone captures the static test fire of Starship Ship 25 on June 26, 2023. Credit: SpaceX.
SpaceX conducted a six-engine static test fire on Monday of the Starship vehicle that will eventually be paired with a Super Heavy booster for the second test flight of the company’s fully-reusable launch system.
The final Ariane 5 rocket inside the launcher integration building at the Guiana Space Center. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/S. Martin
Europe’s last Ariane 5 rocket is now scheduled to lift off July 4 after being grounded for more than two weeks due to a problem with the pyrotechnic systems required to jettison the launcher’s strap-on solid rocket boosters. Europe’s workhorse rocket is being retired after 27 years of service.
SpaceX’s Starship sits atop its Super Heavy booster prior to the the launcher’s first test flight in April 2023. Image: SpaceX.
SpaceX will need another six weeks or so to finish implementing hundreds of changes to its Super Heavy-Starship rocket and the gargantuan booster’s Texas launch pad before it will be ready for a second attempt to reach orbit, company founder Elon Musk said Saturday.
Watch our live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 5-12 mission at 9:56 a.m. EDT (1356 UTC) on June 23 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Follow us on Twitter.
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the Starlink 5-7 mission with 47 Starlink internet satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
Watch our live coverage of the countdown and launch of a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket with a classified spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office from Space Launch Complex 37B at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Follow us on Twitter.
File photo of Delta 4 rocket boosters inside ULA’s factory in Decatur, Alabama. Credit: NASA
United Launch Alliance has closed its Delta rocket assembly line in Alabama, after the 389th and last Delta rocket rolled out of the factory for the journey to its launch base in Florida, clearing real estate in ULA’s sprawling manufacturing center for the next-generation Vulcan launch vehicle.
Watch our live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with PSN’s SATRIA communications satellite from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Follow us on Twitter.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off Monday on the Transporter 8 mission. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX launched 72 small payloads into polar orbit from California’s Central Coast Monday, delivering satellites to space for customers around the world while accomplishing the 200th landing of a Falcon rocket since the first booster recovery in 2015.
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with 72 CubeSats, microsatellites, hosted payloads, and orbital transfer vehicles on the Transporter 8 rideshare mission. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
Watch a replay of our live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 5-11 mission at 3:10 a.m. EDT (0710 UTC) on June 12 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Follow us on Twitter.
File photo of Virgin Orbit’s carrier aircraft and a LauncherOne rocket under its wing. Credit: Virgin Orbit
Virgin Orbit, the satellite launch company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, has permanently ceased operations, just a few months after a major mission failure in January and at a time when it was already facing financial headwinds.
Artist’s illustration of the Starship landing system on the moon. Credit: SpaceX
A senior NASA official raised concerns Wednesday that “difficulties” with SpaceX’s development of the huge new Starship rocket could delay the Artemis program’s first moon landing with astronauts from late 2025, a mission that will use a derivative of the Starship vehicle to ferry a two-person crew to and from the lunar surface.
Watch our live coverage of the Flight Readiness Firing for United Launch Alliance’s first Vulcan Centaur rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Follow us on Twitter.
The Shenzhou 15 spacecraft descends toward landing under its main parachute. Credit: CCTV
Three Chinese astronauts departed the Tiangong space station Saturday and landed in the remote Gobi Desert of northwestern China, capping a six-month expedition that included four spacewalks and a host of experiments in the microgravity environment of low Earth orbit.
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