Space News & Blog Articles

File (Aug. 6, 2024) — Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo craft, with its prominent cymbal-shaped UltraFlex solar arrays, is pictured awaiting its capture by the Canadarm2 robotic arm commanded by Expedition 71 Flight Engineer Matthew Dominick of NASA. The maneuver marked the 50th free-flying capture for the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Image: NASA

Northrop Grumman’s new Cygnus XL spacecraft will no longer dock with the International Space Station Wednesday morning as originally planned.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sept. 14, 2025, to begin the NG-23 mission. This was the first launch of a Northrop Grumman Cygnus XL spacecraft. Image: John Pisani / Spaceflight Now

Northrop Grumman’s first Cygnus XL vehicle was jettisoned on its way to the International Space Station following a pre-sunset launch from Cape Canaveral Sunday evening.

Technicians use a crane to lift Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft’s pressurized cargo module out of the shipping container on Thursday, July 10, 2025, inside the Space Systems Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The new extended Cygnus capsule, scheduled to launch no earlier than Sept. 14, 2025, will carry supplies, food, and scientific experiments for crew members at the International Space Station as part of the company’s 23rd cargo resupply mission. Image: NASA / Cory S. Huston

The next cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station is launching Sunday and will feature a new iteration of the Cygnus spacecraft from Northrop Grumman.

File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch the Starlink 7-14 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Image: SpaceX

Update Sept. 13, 2:13 p.m. EDT: SpaceX landed its first stage booster on its drone ship.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sept. 10, 2025. It carried 21 satellites for the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 1 Transport Layer, part of the larger Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a low Earth orbit satellite constellation. Image: SpaceX

The Space Development Agency took a big step in realizing a new satellite constellation to support the various branches of the U.S. military and its allies.

A SpaceX Crew Dragon atop a Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) for the first time on the Crew-9 mission. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now

The Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of the Air Force gave the green light for SpaceX to more than double its launch cadence from its workhorse launch pad in Florida and construct a new landing zone for its Falcon rocket boosters.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is pictured in the launch position at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Monday, Sept. 8, 2025, ahead of the first launch attempt of the Nusantara Lima communications satellite. Image: SpaceX

Update Sept. 10, 5:55 p.m. EDT: SpaceX scrubbed the mission, targeting no earlier than Sept. 11.

21 satellites manufactured by York Space Systems for Space Development Agency’s upcoming Tranche 1 Transport Layer launch. Image: York Space Systems

The first in a series of launches supporting a burgeoning satellite constellation for the Space Development Agency (SDA) is set to take flight Wednesday morning from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

An artist’s rendering of the Nusantara Lima satellite in gestationary Earth orbit. Graphic: Boeing

An Indonesian company is looking to improve its space-based communications service with a state-of-the-art Boeing-built satellite bound for geostationary orbit.

File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch the Starlink 7-14 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Image: SpaceX

Update Sept. 6, 3:10 p.m. EDT: SpaceX confirms deployment of the 24 Starlink satellites.

File: A Falcon 9 booster stands ready for the Starlink 12-2 mission at launch complex 39A. Image: Spaceflight Now.

SpaceX is poised to conduct its 500th recovery of a Falcon booster during a Friday morning flight supporting its Starlink satellite constellation.

File image of a Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Credit: SpaceX

Update Sept. 1 a.m. EDT: SpaceX confirms deployment of its Starlink satellites.

File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) ahead of the launch of the Starlink 12-18 mission. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

Update Sept. 3, 1 a.m. EDT: 

File: A Falcon 9 rocket stands in the launch position at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ahead of the planned liftoff of the Starlink 6-61 mission on Oct. 22, 2024. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is capping off the month of August with a Sunday morning sunrise Starlink mission. This will be the company’s ninth time launching its broadband internet satellites this month alone.

File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands in the vertical position at sunset at Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is preparing to launch 24 Starlink broadband satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base Friday evening on a Falcon 9 rocket launch less than 30 minutes after sunset.

A group of technicians works to complete final inspections and checkouts of NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft inside a cleanroom at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida. Image: John Pisani / Spaceflight Now

Technicians inside a pair of clean rooms at the Astrotech facility in Titusville, Florida, are busily readying a trio of spacecraft that will study the Sun and its effects on Earth and across the solar system.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket flies from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on the Starlink 10-11 mission. This launch featured the Falcon 9 booster, tail number B1067, making its 30th trip to space and back. Image: John Pisani/Spaceflight Now

Update Aug. 28, 5:20 a.m. EDT: SpaceX confirmed deployment of the 28 satellites.

SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster completes a landing on the droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions,’ during the Starlink 10-56 mission on Aug. 27, 2025. The recovery was the 400th landing of an orbital class rocket. Image: SpaceX

A Falcon 9 rocket placed another 28 Starlink satellites into orbit shortly after sunrise on Wednesday and scored the 400th successful drone ship landing for SpaceX’s reusable first stage booster.

SpaceX’s Starship rocket is pictured at sunset at Starbase, Texas, following a mission scrub for Flight 10 on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is hoping that with two successive days of scrubs behind it, it will be able to launch its massive Starship rocket on its third launch attempt on Tuesday evening.

File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is preparing for a sunrise launch of its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Wednesday morning.

A SpaceX Starship-Super Heavy rocket thunders away from Starbase, Texas to begin the Starhip Flight 10 mission on Aug. 26, 2025. Image: SpaceX

Running two days late, SpaceX launched its huge Super Heavy-Starship rocket Tuesday, chalking up what appeared to be a remarkably successful test flight in the wake of three back-to-back failures earlier this year.