A Falcon 9 rocket roars away from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Jan. 14, 2025, on the Transporter 12 mission. Image: Space X.
SpaceX launched 131 payloads Tuesday onboard the company’s 12th smallsat rideshare mission to date.
Space News & Blog Articles
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BepiColombo's sixth Mercury flyby: the movie
Video: 00:01:36
Fly over Mercury with BepiColombo for the final time during the mission’s epic expedition around the Sun. The ESA/JAXA spacecraft captured these images of the Solar System's smallest planet on 7 and 8 January 2025, before and during its sixth encounter with Mercury. This was its final planetary flyby until it enters orbit around the planet in late 2026.
Space2Sea Antarctica: 2 Ukrainian soldiers fulfill 1st part of Antarctic dream
Visiting Antarctica — and, in particular, Ukraine's Vernadsky Research Base on the continent's peninsula — was a lifelong dream of two Ukrainian soldiers.
How to Debate a Flat-Earther
The problem with debating a flat-Earther is that they didn’t arrive at their conclusions from the weight evidence, so using the evidence isn’t going to work to change their minds.
LIGO Has Detected Unusual Black Holes Merging, But they Probably Don’t Explain Dark Matter
The traditional theory of black hole formation seems to struggle to explain how black holes can merge into larger more massive black holes yet they have been seen with LIGO. It’s possible that they may have formed at the beginning of time and if so, then they may be a worthy candidate to explain dark matter but only if there are enough of them. A team of researchers recently searched for microlensing events from black holes in the Large Magellanic Cloud but didn’t find enough to account for more than a fraction of dark matter.
XMM-Newton catches giant black hole’s X-ray oscillations
The European Space Agency's XMM-Newton has detected rapidly fluctuating X-rays coming from the very edge of a supermassive black hole in the heart of a nearby galaxy. The results paint a fascinating picture that defies how we thought matter falls into such black holes, and points to a potential source of gravitational waves that ESA’s future mission, LISA, could see.
SpaceX launches 21 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin the Starlink 12-4 mission on Jan. 13, 2025. Image: SpaceX
Update 2:37 p.m. EST (1937 UTC): SpaceX confirmed deployment of the Starlink satellites.
Blue Origin scrubs first New Glenn launch attempt due to “vehicle subsystem issue”
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket stands at Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station prior to the rocket’s inaugural flight on the NG-1 mission. Image: Blue Origin
Update 3:20 a.m. EST (0820 UTC): Blue Origin scrubbed the launch.
SpaceX launches, lands first stage booster for record-setting 25th time during Starlink flight
SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 booster, B1067, on the Starlink 12-12 mission on Jan. 10, 2025. This was the first time an orbital class rocket launched for a 25th time and went on to land successfully as well. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now
Update 2:37 p.m. (1937 UTC): SpaceX safely landed the first stage booster on the droneship.
SLS Could Launch A Titan Balloon Mission
Few places in the solar system are better suited to a balloon than Titan. The combination of low gravity and high atmospheric density makes Saturn’s largest moon ideal for a lighter than “air” vehicle, and the idea to put one there has been around for at least two decades. So why haven’t we yet? The simple answer is the size of the necessary balloon is too large for the existing launch platforms. But a team from Boeing, the prime contractor on the Space Launch System (SLS), believes their new launch platform will be capable of getting a large balloon into orbit, along with its necessary scientific payload – and start unlocking the mysteries of this intriguing moon.
Food grows better on the moon than on Mars, scientists find
Scientists expect the moon to have better soil for growing food than the red planet
ESA Director General’s Annual Press Briefing
Video: 01:22:54
Watch the replay of ESA's start-of-the-year press briefing looking ahead to 2025.
Top three images from BepiColombo's sixth Mercury flyby
On 8 January 2025, the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission flew past Mercury for the sixth time, successfully completing the final ‘gravity assist manoeuvre’ needed to steer it into orbit around the planet in late 2026. The spacecraft flew just a few hundred kilometres above the planet's north pole. Close-up images expose possibly icy craters whose floors are in permanent shadow, and the vast sunlit northern plains.
Live coverage: SpaceX to launch Starshield satellites for the NRO on Falcon 9 rocket from California
File: The Falcon 9 at sunrise Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 as final preparations were made for the NROL-167 mission. Image: SpaceX.
SpaceX is preparing for its first West Coast Falcon 9 launch of the year, which will feature the latest batch of Starshield satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office.
SpaceX launches 21 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to begin the Starlink 12-11 mission on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now
Update Jan. 8, 11:37 a.m. EST (1637 UTC): SpaceX confirms successful deployment of the 21 Starlink satellites.
SpaceX launches first dedicated Starlink mission of 2025
SpaceX launches the Starlink 6-71 mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, its first dedicated Starlink flight of 2025. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now
Update Jan. 6, 4:54 p.m. EST (2154 UTC): SpaceX confirms deployment of the 24 Starlink satellites.
SpaceX to attempt first payload deployment, engine reuse during Starship Flight 7
The Starship upper stage on a test firing mount ahead of a static fire demonstration in December 20204. It’s the first Block 2 Starship that will be launched by SpaceX. Image: SpaceX
SpaceX is launching into 2025 with what is poised to be a blistering pace of launch for its super heavy lift rocket, Starship. The company is angling for as many as 25 launches of the nearly 40-story-tall rocket, if approved by federal regulators.
'Silo' Season 2: Steve Zahn sees his enigmatic character Solo as a 'curious, delightful kid' (exclusive)
Accomplished actor Steve Zahn lifts the layers of his Solo character, how he got the job on Silo, and what it's like working with Rebecca Ferguson.
New Study Explains How Mars Dust Storms Can Engulf the Planet
Mars is well-known for its dust storms, which occur every Martian year during summer in the southern hemisphere. Every three Martian years (five and a half Earth years), these storms grow so large that they are visible from Earth and will engulf the entire planet for months. These storms pose a significant threat to robotic missions, generating electrostatic charges that can interfere with their electronics or cause dust to build up on their solar panels, preventing them from drawing enough power to remain operational.
Sun erupts with powerful X1.2 solar flare, causes radio blackouts (photo)
The sun fired off an X1.2-class solar flare on Friday (Jan. 3), triggering radio blackouts throughout parts of the South Atlantic ocean, Africa and South America.
