Space News & Blog Articles

Launcher’s Orbiter SN1 transfer vehicle hosts multiple payloads on SpaceX’s Transporter 6 mission. Credit: Launcher / John Kraus

The 114 small satellites set for launch Tuesday on SpaceX’s first mission of the year include 36 spacecraft for Planet’s commercial remote sensing fleet, a space-based solar power experiment, and space tugs to piggyback payloads into different orbits.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The Transporter 6 mission will launch 114 small payloads from customers around the world. Follow us on Twitter.

NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket streaks into the night sky over Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 16. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography

The U.S. Space Force is preparing for as many as 87 launches from Florida’s Space Coast in 2023, including dozens more SpaceX missions and the expected debuts of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan and Relativity’s Terran 1 rockets.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, with the Israeli EROS C3 satellite. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX launched its 61st and final mission of 2022 Thursday night from California, placing an Israeli Earth-imaging satellite into orbit and tying a 1980 record for the most successful flights by a rocket family in a single year.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with the EROS C3 Earth observation satellite for ImageSat International. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.





NASA’s InSight lander used its robotic arm to capture this final “selfie” of the mission in April 2022. Dust is visible on the lander’s two solar panels. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Dust-laden solar panels and darker Martian skies have finally sealed the fate of NASA’s InSight mission, the agency announced Wednesday, after the intrepid lander delivered its final message from Mars at the end of its history-making mission to reveal the secrets of the Red Planet’s interior.

Illustration of the Vega C rocket with its Zefiro 40 second stage firing. Credit: Arianespace

The final two spacecraft in Airbus’s four-satellite, 600 million-euro commercial Pléiades Neo Earth observation fleet crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after launch from French Guiana Tuesday night, falling victim to a failure of a European Vega C rocket.

A Vega C rocket on its launch pad in French Guiana with the Pléiades Neo Earth-imaging satellites inside the payload fairing. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/S. Martin

Two Pléiades Neo Earth observation satellites are set to join Airbus’s constellation of high-resolution optical imagers with a launch Tuesday night from French Guiana on the first commercial flight of Europe’s Vega C rocket, a mission delayed from November to change out suspect hardware on the launcher’s payload fairing.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Vega C rocket with the Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 commercial Earth observation satellites for Airbus. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

Russia’s Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft is pictured docked at the International Space Station in this Oct. 8 file photo. Credit: NASA

Russian managers are assessing whether a damaged Soyuz spacecraft docked at the International Space Station can safely carry its three-man crew back to Earth in late March as planned or whether a replacement must be launched to take its place, officials said Monday.

Rocket Lab’s Electron launcher on the pad at Wallops Island, Virginia. Credit: Rocket Lab / Trevor Mahlmann

Rocket Lab said Saturday that the company received final approval from NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration to launch their first mission from the United States on Sunday, clearing final regulatory and technical hurdles with a new autonomous range safety destruct unit that delayed the launch more than two years.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. The Electron rocket will carry three radio frequency monitoring microsatellites into orbit for HawkEye 360. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Starlink 4-37 mission will launch SpaceX’s next batch of 54 Starlink broadband satellites. Follow us on Twitter.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Watch a replay of our live coverage of the launch here.

SES’s first two O3b mPOWER satellites stacked on top of another, ready for encapsulation inside SpaceX’s launcher fairing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Credit: SpaceX

The first two spacecraft in an 11-satellite refresh of SES’s Medium Earth Orbit O3b internet constellation are poised to ride a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket into space from Cape Canaveral on Friday, less than two weeks after shipment to the Florida spaceport from a Boeing factory in California already fully fueled and integrated for launch.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with the Surface Water and Ocean Topography, or SWOT, satellite for NASA and the French space agency CNES. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography, or SWOT, satellite during solar array deployment testing at Thales Alenia Space’s factory in Cannes, France. Credit: Thales Alenia Space

A French-built satellite equipped with an innovative U.S.-made radar instrument is buttoned up for blastoff aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Friday from California, kicking off a mission to investigate the link between Earth’s water cycle and our planet’s changing climate.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket stands on its launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, awaiting liftoff with the U.S.-French SWOT mission. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX has delayed the launch from California of a Falcon 9 rocket with a U.S.-French environmental monitoring satellite from Thursday to Friday, allowing more time to review the source of moisture in two of the launcher’s booster engines.

Live coverage of the flight of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft on a mission to the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.