NASA Space Flight

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket completed another milestone on its way to launch with the Umbilical Release and Retract Test (URRT). The URRT was performed on the rocket on September 19 while it stood in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). During the test, the swing arms and T0 umbilicals at the base of the rocket were commanded to retract from the vehicle as they will during a standard SLS launch countdown. The test occurred on Mobile Launcher 1 (ML-1) and allowed ground teams to verify and validate the mechanisms, timings, and function of the umbilical release […]

The NASA VIPER rover – a precursor mission to human landings in the south polar region of the Moon, and a mission started in 2019 under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program – has had its landing site selected for its 2023 mission. The rover, known as the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, is now scheduled to land west of Nobile Crater in the lunar south polar region sometime in late 2023 after its launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. This mission, costing $660 million, is one of several that will launch to the Moon in the next two years […]

China successfully launched a Long March 7 from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center at 07:10 UTC (3:10 PM Beijing time), beginning its journey to the Chinese Space Station. The spacecraft then docked to the station just under seven hours later. This launch of the Tianzhou-3 spacecraft comes days after the successful return of the Shenzhou-12 crew, who landed on September 17. Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo spent 93 days in space and landed in the Gobi Desert, located in Inner Mongolia near the town of Dongfeng. The Tianzhou-3 spacecraft brings 5.6 tons of supplies up to the Tianhe core […]

The Inspiration4 mission, flown by Crew Dragon Resilience, is getting close to the end of its three-day mission. Resilience and its four crewmembers are scheduled to splash down off the coast of Florida as early as Saturday evening. Splashdown is currently planned for the Atlantic at 7:06 PM EDT (23:06 UTC). Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) have been filed for seven areas off of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of Florida for Saturday evening and a backup opportunity early Sunday morning. Return of Dragon Resilience Crew Dragon Resilience launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday and reached a near-circular orbit at […]

In recently published research using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers announced that they had found the first clear detection of a circumplanetary, moon-forming disk surrounding the exoplanet PDS 70c — a first in astrophysics. The circumplanetary disk, or CPD, has been seen in past research from other groups. However, due to the inability to tell the disk apart from its surrounding environment, the presence of the disk around PDS 70c could not be confirmed.  Until now. The CPD in question surrounds PDS 70c, a young exoplanet orbiting PDS 70, a 10 million-year-old K5 spectral type, low-mass T-Tauri star located […]

SpaceX’s engine testing facility on 4,300 acres of land in McGregor, Texas, just south of the city of Waco, is undergoing new development and testing related to the Raptor engine for Starship and Super Heavy. With five test bays, the facility will soon become a hub for Raptor 2 engine assembly, with a new factory now under construction. This is taking place as Merlin engine and stage testing related to upcoming Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy flights continues. The McGregor facility, originally the location of the Bluebonnet Ordnance Plant, was used during World War 2 to manufacture bombs. After the war, […]

SpaceX is preparing for the launch of the first-ever all-private orbital mission, Inspiration4. The first-of-its-kind flight will see four private astronauts take flight on a Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon for a three-day stay in Low Earth Orbit. The flight is part of a large fundraiser for St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital, a pediatric cancer hospital. Liftoff, from historic pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center, is scheduled for a launch window opening at 8:02 PM EDT on September 15 (00:02 UTC September 16). The window closes at 1:13 AM EDT (05:13 UTC). Inspiration4 was started and entirely funded by Jared Isaacman, […]

Arianespace and Starsem have launched 34 more internet communication satellites of the OneWeb constellation to a low Earth orbit (LEO). The launch occurred at 18:07:19 UTC (14:07:19 EDT) on Tuesday, September 14 from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat rocket.  OneWeb satellites 289 to 322 will be deployed into an initial 450 km orbit with an inclination of 84.7 degrees and will bring the total number of OneWebs in orbit to nearly 50% of the initial 648 satellite constellation. The payload The 34 OneWeb satellites on today’s mission carry a total launch mass of 5,510 […]

Spaceflight Inc has announced “GEO Pathfinder,” a rideshare mission to geostationary orbit that will use a lunar flyby. The mission will use a Sherpa EScape (Sherpa-ES) transfer vehicle, launched as a secondary payload with Intuitive Machines‘ IM-2 mission to the moon. The flight is scheduled for no earlier than Q4 2022 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Onboard Sherpa-ES will be a payload from GeoJump, a smallsat geostationary rideshare company, which will include an in-space fueling payload from Orbit Fab. See Also IM-2 Updates SpaceX Missions Section L2 SpaceX Section Click here to Join L2 “This mission will demonstrate our complete […]

On the evening of September 13, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, carrying a total of 51 second-generation Starlink satellites into orbit. This will be the first launch in support of deploying the second shell of Starlink satellites. The Falcon 9 is set to lift off from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 4-East (SLC-4E) at 8:55 PM Pacific time (03:55 UTC on September 14), with backup opportunities available on September 15 and 16. The Second Starlink Shell Monday’s launch, designated Starlink Group 2-1, is set to begin the second main stage of […]

With Booster 4 and Ship 20 reunited at the launch site, both vehicles will undergo proof testing and Static Fire tests before becoming an integrated stack for the second time. Unlike the earlier mate – which was for fit checks – the next joining of the Super Heavy and Starship will be for the orbital velocity test flight. First, both Ship 20 and Booster 4 require proof testing ahead of a Static Fire campaign to ready the vehicles for flight. These objectives will be carried out amid continued work at the Orbital Launch Site (OLS), which is being prepared for Booster […]

Two astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have begun a spacewalk to continue the process of outfitting the orbiting laboratory with new sets of solar arrays.  US EVA-77 — the first US spacewalk to not involve an American — will see Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut and current ISS Commander Aki Hoshide and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet build a support bracket onto which a future solar array will be mounted. Background The ISS’s Solar Array Wings (SAWs) produce all the electrical power required by the station.  The first SAW, on the P6 truss, was launched on […]

Following an unsuccessful sample collection attempt in early August, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has successfully drilled, collected, sealed, and stored two separate Martian surface samples. Both sample collections took place in the same week.  Additionally, new data from the samples show that the rock collected is likely volcanic and may contain bubbles of ancient water. Perseverance’s first successful samples In early August, Perseverance attempted to collect a sample from a rock located at the “Cratered Floor Fractured Rough” area in Jezero Crater. The rover successfully drilled a hole into the ground, but upon inspection of the sample tube, no surface sample […]

SpaceX has been working for over seven years on the planning, production, and deployment of their Starlink satellite internet constellation, with the first regulatory filings dating back to 2014. Now heading into the latter stages of 2021, the company is nearing completion of the initial deployment for the constellation and preparing to expand its capabilities with extended geographic coverage and updated designs of both the satellites and ground equipment in their network. The “Better Than Nothing Beta Test” of the service has already shipped 100,000 user terminals to customers in 15 countries as SpaceX continues refining network operations. 100k terminals shipped!https://t.co/Q1VvqVmJ2i […]

At 19:59 UTC on September 9, a Soyuz 2.1v rocket launched from Site 43/4 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome carrying the Razbeg n°1 satellite for the Russian Ministry of Defense. The launch was originally scheduled for mid-July, but multiple launch attempts were canceled due to unknown circumstances, and the vehicle was rolled back to the integration facility prior to this launch attempt.  The Razbeg n°1 satellite is a small-sized military optical reconnaissance satellite. The payload was built by the Russian corporation NPP VNIIEM. Onboard the satellite is a camera which was built OAO Peleng, a company from Belarus. This camera has a […]

Thursday marked another successful mission in China’s busy 2021 launch manifest, this time lofting the Zhongxing-9B (ChinaSat-9B) into orbit on a Long March 3B from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. This satellite serves as a replacement to the Zhongxing-9A, launched in 2017 but inserted into a lower than planned orbit, and thus its operational life reduced. The nature of both satellites is for communications, specifically related to radio and television broadcasting. Built by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and operated by China Satcom, they are based upon the DFH-4 satellite bus and equipped with Ku-band antennas. The satellite […]

ISS Expedition 65 Flight Engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Pytor Dubrov have gone back outside the International Space Station for Russian EVA-50 on Thursday, the second in a series of up to 11 spacewalks planned to integrate the new Russian Nauka module onto the ISS. Novitskiy and Dubrov, in their Russian Orlan-MK spacesuits, opened that station’s Poisk airlock module hatch at 14:51 UTC / 10:51 EDT on September 9, officially beginning what is expected to be a 6.5-hour spacewalk to continue power and ethernet cable connections and installing handrails on Nauka. Additional tasks deferred from the previous EVA, Russian EVA-49 on Friday, […]

On Tuesday, September 7 China launched the second Gaofen-5 remote imagery satellite into a 705 km sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). The launch took place at 03:01 UTC on a Chang Zheng 4C and was conducted from Launch Complex 9 at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China. The first launch attempt on Monday was scrubbed due to an unknown reason. Gaofen-5’s purpose is hyperspectral observation of Earth’s environments to track environmental impacts, water quality, and atmospheric changes. The satellite bus is the SAST3000 and carries seven instruments that can observe the spectrum from infrared to ultraviolet and can measure atmospheric data in […]

Japan’s third-generation liquid hydrogen-powered rocket, H3, is nearing closer to its first launch. The H3 rocket is co-developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), succeeding the H-II family, which provided satellite launches and International Space Station cargo resupply missions for two decades. The H3 rocket is the third in Japan’s hydrogen-powered rocket family. The first was the H-I rocket used from 1986 to 1992. Then, the vehicle used an American-built Extended Long Tank Thor (ELTT) with either six or nine Caster-2 solid rocket boosters (SRBs). This was the first Japanese rocket to use a Japanese-built […]

Comets are famous for their expansive, colorful, and stunning tails of gas, ice, rock, and various other material. These tails occur as a comet’s icy nucleus is heated as it nears the Sun, releasing ice gases during a process called “outgassing.” Outgassing is not limited to comets, though. Some moons, such as Jupiter’s Ganymede, and other icy bodies in our solar system can be heated enough to release gases. So when scientists found an asteroid mainly composed of rock that was outgassing material, they were quite confused. Meet Phaethon, a near-Earth asteroid that was recently found to exhibit comet-like activity. Phaethon […]

ISS Expedition 65 Flight Engineers Oleg Novitsky and Pytor Dubrov have exited the International Space Station for Russian EVA-49, the first in a series of up to 11 spacewalks planned to fully integrate the new Russian Nauka module onto the ISS.  Novitsky and Dubrov donned their Russian Orlan-MKS model spacesuits and exited from the station’s Poisk airlock module at 14:41 UTC / 10:41 EDT on September 3 for an approximately 7-hour spacewalk. Inside the station, they are assisted on this EVA by NASA astronaut and Expedition 65 Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei. EVA-49 — the 242nd spacewalk in support of construction, […]

Firefly Aerospace is set to perform the first orbital flight of their small satellite launch vehicle, Alpha. The launch, designated as FLTA001, is currently targeted for no earlier than 6:00 PM PDT on September 2 (01:00 UTC on September 3) from Space Launch Complex 2 West at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The launch window extends until 10:00 PM PDT (05:00 UTC). If successful, Firefly will become the fifth company to develop and fly a privately-funded rocket to orbit, following Orbital ATK’s Pegasus (since acquired by Northrop Grumman), SpaceX’s Falcon 1, Rocket Lab’s Electron, and Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne. Firefly’s Alpha […]

On August 10, the S.S. Ellison Onizuka launched on an Antares 230+ rocket from Pad-0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. The NG-16 countdown was hampered with helium and ground computer issues leading up to the final T0 mark. But teams at Northrop Grumman were able to launch at the end of the launch window at 18:01:05 EDT, or 22:01:05 UTC, with Antares performing a better-than-expected ascent to orbit for the Cygnus spacecraft. Before launch: During the countdown, the launch team noted that a helium storage tank located adjacent to Pad-0A was leaking. “We monitor the pressures in all of those tanks, […]

At SpaceX Starbase, Booster 4 and Ship 20 continue processing operations for their test flight from a launch site that is now receiving its Mechazilla hardware. The Quick Disconnect (QD) arm was installed on the Launch Tower, with the two “chopstick” arms now in the final stages of fabrication ahead of joining the QD arm on the Tower. This will create the combined Mechazilla system to be used for stacking and catching the vehicles. Starbase Round-up: While the focus remains on Booster 4 and Ship 20’s path to launch, Starbase continues to provide reminders of what is yet to come. Extra […]

The arrival of Doug, the newest addition to the SpaceX recovery fleet, indicates further consolidation of the company’s rocket recovery operations. Although the launch cadence has slowed as SpaceX prepares the next generation of Starlink satellites, the fleet has been busy working on its next generation of recovery vessels to support what will hopefully be a busy last quarter of 2021. In March 2021, it was clear that SpaceX had given up on trying to catch fairing halves. The vents on the fairings were moved to further support scoop-from-water recoveries after it was determined that a scooped half was not only […]

The German startup Rocket Factory Augsburg, or RFA, has concluded another test of their RFA One rocket. In the test, the company performed a destructive cryogenic pressure test of their first stage prototype. The company has shown a video in which the prototype stage broke apart after it was fueled with cryogenic nitrogen to test the quality of the welds and determine the pressure at which the structure fails. The milestone is the latest for the company which is aiming to develop a reusable launch vehicle for small payloads. The first flight of RFA One is currently slated for late 2022, […]

On August 9, 2021, the joint ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft performed a flyby of Venus, coming within 7,995 km of the Venusian surface. Just 33 hours later, on August 10, the joint ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft flew by the planet, coming within 552 km of the surface. The historic double flyby was a result of the two spacecraft attempting to reduce their orbital energy while en route to their respective destinations. BepiColombo is traveling to Mercury, where it will study the planet in-depth, while Solar Orbiter is finishing its last flybys before entering the correct orbital inclination to best observe the Sun.  […]

At ~5:02 pm CDT on August 27, 2019, SpaceX successfully launched its Starhopper test vehicle on a 150-meter flight test. After ascending to 150-meters, Starhopper successfully landed at a landing pad ~160-meters away.  The 150-meter flight was the last of a long line of tests that Starhopper, the first vehicle in the Starship program, conducted. It was based on the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR, a previous name for Starship) 2018 design. Starhopper used a single Raptor engine and three non-retractable legs. After several static fires, a one-meter tethered hop, and several scrubs, Starhopper conducted a 20-meter hop on July 25, 2019. […]

SpaceX and NASA are gearing up for the launch of the CRS-23 (Commercial Resupply Services 23) mission to the International Space Station on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center.  Liftoff is scheduled for 03:37:22 EDT (07:37:22 UTC) on Saturday, August 28, 2021, from LC-39A. A backup launch opportunity is available on Sunday, August 29, 2021, at 03:14:48 EDT (07:14:48 UTC). CRS-23 marks the third SpaceX CRS mission under the CRS2 contract, and the third time a Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft will be used for a CRS mission. The 45th Weather Squadron at Space Launch Delta 45 currently predicts […]

Continuing the iterative path toward reaching orbit, Astra is preparing for its third orbital launch attempt. The first Rocket 3.3 vehicle, designated LV0006, is scheduled to lift off within a launch window that opens on Friday, August 27 at 2:00 PM PDT (21:00 UTC), with launch opportunities continuing through September 11. This will be Astra’s first launch with a payload onboard, albeit only a mass simulator. This test payload is part of the STP-27AD1 mission for the United States Space Force’s Space Test Program. The goal of the flight is to demonstrate Astra’s orbital launch capability. “We hope to learn a […]

A month after New Shepard’s first flight carrying people into space, a science flight without crew onboard is being prepared at the program’s launch site near Van Horn, Texas. The flight, the fourth of the year for the New Shepard program, was originally scheduled for August 25, 2021, but was delayed due to a payload integration issue. New Shepard flight NS-17 is scheduled to launch on Thursday, August 26th, at 08:35 CDT local time (13:35 UTC) on a suborbital trajectory with an apogee over 100 kilometers, the boundary to space as recognized by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. The launch trajectory will, […]

United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan pathfinder has rolled out to SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral for tank testing as part of a continuing campaign towards the rocket’s maiden flight. While this booster will not be the first to fly, it will have its pathfinder BE-4 engines replaced with flight engines once testing is complete in order to support a future Vulcan launch. The booster that is taking part in this testing arrived in Florida on ULA’s RocketShip in February 2021 and was rolled to the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF), where teams stacked the vehicle on the mobile launcher, after which ULA performed preliminary […]

At 15:41 UTC on August 24, a Chang Zheng 3B (internationally known as Long March 3B) successfully lifted off from LC-3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China. It is believed the launch vehicle carried the seventh Tongxin Jishu Shiyan Weixing (TJSW-7) satellite to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. The nature of TJSW satellites is not fully confirmed; however, official Chinese media outlines their purpose as “satellite communications, radio and television, data transmission and other services, and … related technical test verification.” More specifically, it is thought the TJSW series are used for Chinese military purposes, with this seventh spacecraft of the […]

Just over a month after its most recent launch, a Chinese Chang Zheng 2C rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia, successfully carrying three new Chinese satellites into polar orbits around Earth.  Although very little public information has been released about the rocket’s payloads, it is believed to consist of two Integrated Experimental Satellite (known natively as Ronghe Shiyan Weixing – RSX) spacecraft as well as a communications test satellite. Flight plan After several delays, which pushed the launch back from early August, the Chang Zheng 2C and its Yuanzheng-1 upper stage were successfully rolled out […]

Just weeks from launch, SpaceX has started final preparations for the crewed Inspiration4 (I4) mission. I4 will be the first free flight Crew Dragon mission and the first orbital, all private crewed mission. I4 will also be the first worldwide crewed flight that will not dock with a space station since the final Hubble servicing mission on STS-125 in May 2009. SpaceX is currently targeting the morning of September 15 to launch the flight-proven Crew Dragon Resilience (C207) atop a flight-proven Falcon 9 Block 5 (B1062-3) from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Crew The crew of Inspiration4 is one […]

Following the iconic first view of a fully integrated Starship stack during fit checks on the Orbital Launch Site (OLS) mount, both Ship 20 and Booster 4 are being prepared for testing ahead of the milestone orbital launch attempt. Ship 20 has returned to the launch site, taking up suborbital Pad B ahead of proof testing objectives, while Booster 4 is undergoing final closeout work inside the High Bay. The pre-launch campaign is ongoing while SpaceX makes preemptive moves on the future, with modifications to future Starships designs and the preparations to increase production cadence with a second, much larger, High […]

The European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos are preparing for the 2022 launch of the next mission in their joint ExoMars program, which is currently undergoing final testing before shipment to Kazakhstan for a launch in September next year.  The 2022 astrobiology mission will see the long-awaited Rosalind Franklin rover land on Mars with the help of the Russian Kazachok lander. The lander will also perform experiments on the Martian surface after deploying Rosalind Franklin as the two craft work together to search for signs of past life on the Red Planet. ExoMars 2022 in final testing After construction delays, missed […]

The crew of Shenzhou-12 has conducted the second spacewalk of the mission, and the second spacewalk of the new Chinese Space Station’s lifetime. The extravehicular activity (EVA) comes two months into their planned 90-day mission in low Earth orbit. Mission commander Nie Haisheng and first operator Liu Boming exited the Tianhe core module at 00:38 UTC on Friday, August 20. The goals of the EVA included the installation of a new panoramic camera (known as Panoramic Camera D) as well as a backup thermal control pump. Second operator Tang Hongbo stayed inside the station to support the two spacewalkers, similar to […]

In collaboration with Starsem and Roscosmos, Arianespace will launch 34 internet communication satellites aboard a Soyuz 2.1b for the OneWeb 9 mission. The flight marks the 8th operational launch of OneWeb satellites and will bring the total number in orbit to 288: 48% of the 600 satellites required for global coverage with an additional 48 on-orbit spares for a total phase one constellation size of up to 648 satellites. The launch is scheduled for Thursday, August 19 at 22:23 UTC (18:23 EDT) from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. For this mission, the Soyuz 2.1b is equipped with a […]

China has launched a Long March/Chang Zheng-4B from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 22:32 UTC on August 18 carrying the second group of Tianhui 2 satellites into orbit. The Tianhui 2 series are a quasi-secretive group of Earth observation satellites designed to monitor Earth’s surface. They are constructed by Dong Feng Hong and operated by the People’s Liberation Army. Believed to have 5 meter resolution across the visible and infrared spectrum, little else is known about these satellites. The first group of Tianhui 2 craft were launched from Taiyuan on April 29, 2021 into a 521 x 524 km orbit inclined 97.5 […]

The Vega rocket is being prepared for the nineteenth launch of Europe’s small lift vehicle, the second Vega launch of 2021, as well as the seventh Arianespace mission of the year. Arianespace flight VV19 is scheduled to liftoff from the ELV launch pad at the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana on Monday, August 16, at 10:47 PM local time (01:47 UTC on August 17). On board is the 922 kg Pleiades-Neo 4 Earth observation satellite, part of a four satellite constellation of upgraded Pleiades spacecraft to be built and operated by Airbus Defence and Space to provide Earth imagery for […]

As the Artemis 1 SLS vehicle prepares to take its place on LC-39B later this year for its first round of pad testing ahead of its debut mission, the Space Launch System (SLS) and Artemis program represent yet another major alteration to the LC-39 area of the Kennedy Space Center, originally designed to meet President Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s. Since Apollo, complex 39 has transformed itself to suit the needs of a changing space program, going on to serve space station operations, the meeting of the Soviet Union and the […]

Intuitive Machines (IM) has selected SpaceX to launch their third mission to the Moon. Named IM-3, the company’s Nova-C lander will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a rideshare mission currently targeted for the first quarter of 2024, following two Nova-C missions in 2022. IM is one of four Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) providers preparing for robotic Moon landings as part of NASA’s Artemis program. The missions will carry scientific payloads for both NASA and other commercial customers starting in 2022 in order to prepare for crewed landings. Intuitive Machines The Nova-C lunar lander will have the ability […]

After a 36 hour phasing profile, the S.S. Ellison Onizuka cargo ship, part of Northrop Grumman’s NG-16 mission, has arrived at the International Space Station (ISS).  Safely in the grip of Canadarm2, Cygnus will now be attached to the nadir port of the Unity (Node-1) module for the multi-month cargo delivery and removal process. Speaking before the berthing, Northrop Grumman’s Frank DeMauro discussed future Cygnus missions to the station as well as non-ISS uses for the craft — which has become more than just a cargo transport vehicle and has already seen its technology incorporated into the HALO habitation module for […]

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will make its first launch in almost six months Thursday, with a GSLV Mk. II rocket launching the EOS-03 satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit. Liftoff from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre is scheduled for 05:43 local time (00:13 UTC on August 12). Thursday’s launch — heavily delayed due to circumstances mostly beyond ISRO’s control — will mark the first flight of the GSLV Mk. II since December 2018 and the 14th overall flight across the GSLV Mk. I and Mk. II family. EOS-03 Originally named Geo Imaging Satellite (GISAT) -1, the Earth Observation Satellite 03 […]

Northrop Grumman is in the final stages of preparation for the launch of the NG-16 Cygnus cargo vehicle, the S.S. Ellison Onizuka, to the International Space Station at 17:56:05 EDT / 21:56:05 UTC from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Island flight facility in Virginia. The mission will deliver 3,729 kg of crew equipment, science experiments, food, and station hardware, with a scheduled arrival at the orbital lab on Thursday, August 12. Preparations for the flight began years ago when NASA officially granted authorization for Northrop Grumman to begin long-lead procurement for vital elements of the cargo and service module […]

After stacking the stages of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for NASA’s Artemis 1 mission in June and July, EGS and TOSC powered up the Core Stage for the first time in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on August 6. The initial power up was a significant milestone in pre-launch processing, marking the beginning of the systematic checkouts of the vehicle and ground systems that will be used for the first launch on Artemis 1. Just prior to powering up the Core Stage, the four umbilicals that connect ground services from the […]

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover recently attempted its first-ever sample collection of the Martian surface on August 6. However, data shows that while the rover’s drill successfully drilled into the surface, no regolith was collected in the sample tube. Meanwhile, as Perseverance was preparing for the sample collection event, a team of researchers using ESA’s Mars Express orbiter found evidence that previously thought of lakes of water underneath Mars’ south pole might actually be made of clay. Perseverance’s sample collection failure On August 6, Perseverance’s 2-meter robotic arm lowered to the Martian surface, where a drill located at the end of the […]

New Zealand is now set to host the first launch of the Artemis Program, as Rocket Lab is now planning to launch the CAPSTONE mission from their operational launch pad at Launch Complex 1 on the Māhia Peninsula. This is the first lunar mission for Rocket Lab, currently scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter of 2021. “Flexible isn’t a word usually used to describe lunar missions but operating two launch complexes gives us the freedom to select a site that best meets mission requirements and schedule,” said Rocket Lab CEO and Co-Founder, Peter Beck. See Also Electron Flight 21 UPDATES […]

China’s space program successfully launched the Zhongxing-2E mission on Thursday, August 5. This is the third Chinese mission of the week, after a Hyperbola-1 launch by the private company iSpace which failed to open the payload fairing, and Wednesday’s surprise launch of a Long March 6. The Zhongxing-2E satellite, operated by China Satellite Communications, launched at 16:30 UTC onboard a Long March 3B/E rocket, or Chang Zheng 3B/E, from Launch Complex 2 (LA-2) of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern China. It is the desired launch site of the country´s space program for launches beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). China […]

Without previous warning or announcement, China’s space agency launched two satellites from Launch Complex 16 at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on Wednesday, August 4. The two payloads, called “KL-Beta-A” and “KL-Beta-B,” launched on a Chang Zheng 6 rocket into a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) at 11:01 UTC.  This marked the 27th launch from China in 2021 and came just hours after the failed launch of a Hyperbola-1 rocket on August 3 and before the planned launch of a Chang Zheng 3 B/E rocket on August 5. KL-Beta-A and KL-Beta-B were built by the Shanghai Institute for Microsatellite Innovation of the Chinese […]

iSpace, a private Chinese launch service provider, made an attempt to Return to Flight (RTF) with their Hyperbola-1 (SQX-1) vehicle on Tuesday August 3. This RTF mission was in response to Hyperbola-1’s second ever mission, which suffered a failure during ascent in February resulting in the loss of the payload and mission. Tuesday’s flight attempt marked the vehicle’s third ever launch, and whilst it’s believed the flight progressed further than the previous anomaly, there is a growing consensus that the latter stages of the mission were not successful.  The vehicle took off from Site 95B at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center […]

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft will begin its second uncrewed Orbital Test Flight, called OFT-2, with launch aboard United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket. Liftoff from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is expected Tuesday, 3 August at 13:20:18 EDT / 17:20:18 UTC. After liftoff, Starliner will perform a one-day series of test maneuvers in orbit as it prepares for a scheduled docking to the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday, 4 August at 13:37 EDT / 17:37UTC. Starliner overview Orbital Flight Test 2 is a repeat of the OFT mission flown at the end of 2019. Due to issues encountered in the […]

In a marked increase to the already-impressive production cadence at SpaceX Starbase, it’s all hands on deck with Booster 4 and Ship 20 preparations ahead of the duo being sent to the launch site. Booster 4 was stacked on Sunday, with all 29 Raptors installed by Monday morning. While the orbital launch attempt is not imminent, the duo is expected to undergo a series of ground testing objectives, including multiple Static Fire tests for the booster. This will also provide time to complete the final elements of the Orbital Launch Site (OLS), from which the duo will conduct the milestone test […]

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-East/17 has suffered another major issue while in orbit, as NOAA aims to replace the problematic satellite with GOES-T. GOES-17 is the second satellite in NOAA’s GOES-R program, a replacement to the aging GOES-N satellites.  The GOES satellite constellation is NASA, NOAA’s weather constellation to provide 24/7 weather observation of the US.  Current GOES program The GOES-R program began operations with the launch of the GOES-R satellite in November 2016 on an Atlas V 541 rocket. The Atlas V successfully carried GOES-R to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). After deploying […]

Close to one year after its last flight, the Ariane 5 ECA is about to return to service with its first launch of 2021 scheduled to lift off at 21:00 UTC on Friday, July 30. The sixth overall mission for Arianespace this year follows a rework of the payload fairing due to vibration issues that could have endangered payloads. On board the mission, named VA254, are two communications satellites bound for geostationary transfer orbit. This flight is the first of two that will precede the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope as early as this November. The JWST program found […]

A Chinese Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia at 04:01 UTC today, July 29, carrying Tianhui 1-04, the fourth in China’s series of Tianhui 1 Earth observation satellites, into Low Earth Orbit. The launch marked the 25th orbital launch attempt from China this year and the sixth in the month of July. The Long March 2D‘s four YF-21C engines ignited shortly before liftoff, providing the launch vehicle with 2,962 kN of thrust, allowing the carrier rocket to loft the approximately 1,000 kg satellite into a 97.3 degree inclined Sun-Synchronous Orbit, around 490 […]

Russia’s Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) Nauka, meaning “science,” has defied the odds to successfully dock to the ISS after a long and arduous journey dating back over 20 years and a problematic propulsion system after launch which had threatened the success of the mission.  The docking was not without issue, with Russian cosmonauts noting that Nauka wasn’t on the correct course less than an hour before docking; however, a retro burn quickly corrected the issue. After also troubleshooting an issue with the TORU manual docking system, which was used for the final seconds of the module’s approach, Nauka successfully docked to […]

Rocket Lab is preparing for the 21st flight of their Electron small satellite launch vehicle, which is set to return to flight following a mission failure over two months ago. The launch will carry a satellite for the United States Space Force on a dedicated trip . The launch window for Electron opens at 06:00 UTC on 29 July and lasts two hours. Launch opportunities continue for 12 days into early August if the launch is delayed for any reason. Electron is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab‘s LC-1A launch site on Mahia Peninsula, located on the Eastern Coast of […]

On July 24, 2021, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter successfully completed its 10th and most daring flight on the red planet — a major milestone for the Ingenuity mission. The helicopter, originally expected to only perform five flights on Mars, continues to assist the Perseverance rover as hoped. Meanwhile, Perseverance itself recently began full science operations at Jezero Crater. Rover teams are finalizing testing onboard the science platform and beginning the search for signs of life on Mars. Ingenuity’s operational history Ingenuity landed on Mars on February 18, 2021 attached to the underside of the Perseverance rover and protected by a debris […]

On Friday, July 23, NASA announced that SpaceX was the winner of a commercial procurement to launch the Europa Clipper mission, which will closely study the icy Galilean moon of Jupiter in search of signs of life and/or ongoing geological activity. The mission is due to launch no earlier than October 2024. SpaceX’s heavy-lift Falcon Heavy rocket, which has been flown three times since its debut in February 2018 and currently maintains a 100% launch success record, was the vehicle of choice to launch Europa Clipper. A source selection document released this week revealed that Falcon Heavy was selected over one […]

NASA and Lockheed Martin are another step closer to the launch of their Lucy Trojan Explorer mission, with the craft completing its pre-shipment review ahead of transportation to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in August. Lucy will be the first mission of its kind, set to explore several asteroids in Jupiter’s L4 and L5 Lagrange points. The craft is targeted to launch on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 rocket no earlier than October 16, 2021 at 05:35 EDT from SLC-41. The Lucy interplanetary spacecraft is part of NASA’s Discovery program. Originally proposed in May 2014, Lucy […]

After nearly 20 years in orbit serving as a docking port and airlock for the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS), the Pirs module — also called Stykovochny Otsek 1, or Docking Compartment 1 (DC-1) — will become the first habitable element of the station to be decommissioned and permanently removed from the orbital complex.  Under the plan, Pirs will be undocked from the nadir port of the Zvezda service module at 06:56 EDT / 10:56 UTC on Monday, July 26 ahead of a fiery destruction in Earth’s atmosphere at 10:51 EDT / 14:51 UTC later that day. Pirs’ […]

Selected as a finalist alongside three other missions for NASA’s next Discovery program missions in February 2020, the Jet Propulsion Lab’s VERITAS mission was chosen by NASA as one of the agency’s next two planetary research missions on June 2, 2021. VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy), like the European Space Agency’s recently announced EnVision mission, will use a set of specially designed instruments and radars to fully map the surface of Venus in high definition. A full, high definition map of Venus’ surface will allow scientists to understand Venus’ past, present, and future tectonic, geologic, volcanic, interior, […]

NASA and Boeing have finished the agency Flight Readiness Review (FRR) for the second Orbital Flight Test (OFT-2) of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. OFT-2 will demonstrate the changes made to the Starliner spacecraft following the first OFT mission, which was conducted in December 2019. Flight Readiness Review OFT-2 is the third flight of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner, following the pad abort test and the first OFT mission. This mission will demonstrate the changes made to Starliner after the partial failure of the first OFT mission, which was cut short due to multiple software issues during flight. After undergoing many changes, Boeing […]

The launch campaign for NASA’s Artemis 1 test flight will be punctuated by critical and unique tests to support both pre-launch checkouts of this first-flight vehicle and long-term design objectives. Launch preparations are progressing towards the first power-up of the Artemis 1 Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which will allow the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) launch team to begin digital diagnostics. The Integrated Test and Checkout (ITCO) of the flight and ground systems will include special engineering tests for the Orion and SLS Programs. Up to this point, mathematical models were used to analyze and predict how the different systems would […]

Good things come to those (modules) that wait.  On July 21, at 14:58:21 UTC (10:58:21 EDT), a Proton-M rocket is due to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to take the first Russian ISS module in 11 years to orbit.  The moment marks a major milestone for Roscosmos, which was originally slated to launch the module in 2007. After launch and orbit insertion, the module, MLM-U Nauka, will perform an eight day phase to the Station for an automated docking on July 29 to the nadir docking port of the Zvezda service module, a port currently occupied by the Pirs module. Nauka – […]

The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour vehicle has swapped docking ports aboard the International Space Station in preparation for the upcoming Starliner OFT-2 mission. The 45-minute maneuver began at 10:45 UTC with undocking from the forward port of the Harmony module. After undocking, Endeavour backed away from the ISS to a distance of 220 meters before maneuvering towards the Zenith port for re-docking. Endeavour docked back to the ISS at 11:35 UTC. Aboard Dragon for the maneuver will be SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur of NASA, Thomas Pesquet of the ESA, and Aki Hoshide of JAXA. All crew must be aboard Dragon […]

Blue Origin is set to fly a crew of four on board a New Shepard rocket on a 11 minute long suborbital spaceflight. It will be the first time humans fly on board the vehicle, which is making its sixteenth flight since its debut in April 2015. Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark will be aboard the crew capsule for the flight, along with 82-year old Wally Funk, who is an accomplished female pilot, instructor, and air accident investigator, and a member of what was unofficially known as the “Mercury 13”, a group of women that passed the […]

Following a rigorous test campaign with the Starship prototype vehicles, SpaceX has turned its immediate attention to the booster that will loft its interplanetary spacecraft to new heights. Booster 3, the first prototype Super Heavy to roll to the launch site, is set to conduct a three-engine Static Fire test as early as Monday. The testing at the suborbital site will clear the path for Booster 4 – already being stacked in the High Bay – to take up residence at the Orbital Launch Site (OLS), an area that continues to undergo preparations, including the installation of the final section of […]

In addition to supporting the upcoming first launch of NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on the uncrewed Artemis 1 lunar test flight, Stages prime contractor Boeing is lining up the rockets that will support following missions. That work, taking place at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans, is now expanding to include structures for the third and fourth Core Stages as well as the first Exploration Upper Stage (EUS). The lingering COVID-19 pandemic is still affecting internal SLS schedules; recently, a supplier for internal parts critical to finishing the engine section for Core Stage-2 was closed for […]

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) launched a Long March/Chang Zheng 2C rocket on July 19 at 00:19 UTC (8:19 AM Beijing time) from LC-3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The launch carried three Yaogan-30 remote sensing satellites and the Tianqi-15 communications satellite. In addition to successfully delivering the satellites to orbit, the launch also included an experimental attempt to recover the rocket’s payload fairings. The previous launch of Yaogan-30 satellites, known as Yaogan-30 Group 09, occurred on June 18, on another Chang Zheng 2C  from Xichang’s LC-3.  The launch vehicle is known as the Chang Zheng 2C […]

NASA teams have successfully resurrected the iconic Hubble Space Telescope after it first experienced problems with an onboard computer on June 13 and suspended all science operations. The telescope is now fully operational and the switch to the backup hardware — which included powering on the backup payload computer — was performed successfully on July 16. With all its science instruments back online, the collection of science data resumed on July 17.  “Hubble is an icon, giving us incredible insight into the cosmos over the past three decades,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “I’m proud of the Hubble team, from current […]

The final mission in the Space Shuttle Program, STS-135, was launched ten years ago on July 8, 2011, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Several members of the immediate and extended launch team that gave Shuttle Atlantis and her four-person crew a final space send-off gathered again on the tenth anniversary of the STS-135 launch to practice the choreography necessary to launch the Artemis 1 Orion/Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle for the first time. A few of the veterans of hundreds of countdowns in the KSC Launch Control Center spoke with NASASpaceflight about some of their Shuttle history and how […]

On the morning of July 15, SpaceX’s long awaited droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas sailed into Port Canaveral, Florida. The vessel will bring the number of Florida-based droneships back to two following the relocation of Of Course I Still Love You to the west coast, allowing for more frequent launches of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. Origins of ASOG Teased by Elon Musk as far back as 2018, the drone ship was planned “to support high flight rates for F9 and dual ocean landings for FH side boosters.” Two more cryptic tweets in the next 3 years kept speculation alive until […]

After years of development, suborbital space tourism looks ready to lift off after Virgin Galactic successfully launched its first fully-crewed suborbital mission to space on July 11 following several prior crewed suborbital tests. The Unity 22 mission came just days before Blue Origin is scheduled to make its first passenger suborbital mission no earlier than Tuesday, July 20 using its New Shepard system.  Both companies have been developing suborbital spacecraft for over a decade, with the ultimate goal of carrying paying customers to the edge of space and back along with an added commitment to take science experiments along on some but […]

On June 10, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that they had selected their next mission to Venus — EnVision. The mission, set to operate alongside NASA’s newly announced DAVINCI+ and VERITAS missions, will study Earth’s sister planet in extreme detail.  Selected as the agency’s fifth medium-class mission in their Cosmic Vision program, EnVision will use a suite of specially designed radars and instruments to map the surface of Venus and understand how the planet evolved so much differently from Earth. Additionally, EnVision hopes to answer questions regarding Venus’ past, present, and future geologic and tectonic activity, and how it may […]

SpaceX is readying for the first static firing of Raptor engines connected to the base of a Super Heavy booster, known as Booster 3.  The test is a critical step in verifying and validating Super Heavy’s initial design for the first series of test boosters, including Booster 4, which is expected to launch Ship 20 on the Starship system’s first orbital flight attempt later this year. The static fire is currently expected no earlier than Wednesday, 14 July, and will mark the first time SpaceX attempts to put a Super Heavy booster through a full ground test campaign.  With a new […]

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) program and booster element prime contractor Northrop Grumman are developing an upgrade to the current Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs). The SLS Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) program is in the detailed design phase prior to firing its first ground-test development motor in 2024, followed by a preliminary design review for the boosters that will inaugurate the SLS Block 2 vehicle. The new solid rocket motor design retains the form and fit of the current motor, but incorporates modern production technology, composite cases, and a new solid propellant formula. NASA SLS and Northrop Grumman are working […]

Seventeen years after Sir Richard Branson watched SpaceShipOne win the Ansari X-Prize, the English entrepreneur and billionaire is about to fly aboard a successor vehicle known as SpaceShipTwo as part of a crew of six people, the others being Virgin Galactic employees, in a suborbital flight to space. The flight, known as the Unity 22 Mission, is currently scheduled for no earlier than Sunday July 11, in a window opening at 8:30 AM MDT (14:30 UTC) due to overnight weather from Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The SpaceShipTwo vehicle, VSS Unity, will be slung under the purpose-built mothership […]

China successfully launched a Chang Zheng 6 rocket from LC-16 at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 11:59 UTC (7:59 PM Beijing time) on Friday July 9.  This launch is the sixth launch of the Chang Zheng 6 (CZ-6), also known as the Long March 6, and the 379th launch of a Long March rocket. This mission is known as Ningxia-1 Group 2, carrying five remote sensing satellites for Ningxia Jingui Information Technology Company. This is also the fourth Chinese launch in the past seven days. A CZ-2D first launched from Taiyuan on Saturday July 3 carrying five satellites. This was […]

NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) and prime launch processing contractor Jacobs hoisted the in-space stage for the Artemis 1 Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle into High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and placed it on top of the stack, that is resting on Mobile Launcher-1, on July 6. Stacking of the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), which will send an Orion spacecraft to the Moon on Artemis 1, comes a week after the interstage Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter (LVSA) was securely mated to the SLS Core Stage below. The stacking work for Artemis […]

Ten years ago, on 8 July 2011, two, four-segment Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) came to life on LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center, propelling the orbiter Atlantis and her four person crew upwards toward space on the 135th and final Space Shuttle mission. It marked the 269th and 270th flight firings of an SRB for the Shuttle program and the 265th and 266th and final recoveries of the iconic rocket motors, which always flew in pairs — not just in terms of a full booster stack but for each individual motor segment as well that was paired with a “propellant twin” […]

The SpaceX CRS-22 mission is coming to a close, with Cargo Dragon having departed the International Space Station on Thursday, July 8 after a series of weather delays. NASA and SpaceX teams continued to monitor weather at the landing zones ahead of a successful undocking at 10:45 AM EDT (14:45 UTC). Splashdown is slated for Friday evening at approximately 11:30 PM EDT (03:30 UTC), in a landing zone off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico. The mission began with liftoff from historic LC-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 3. Two days later, the […]

The joint NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has passed its critical final mission analysis review — clearing the way for a late 2021 launch from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana on an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket.  With this review completed, Arianespace and JWST teams can now begin final launch preparations. With a launch readiness date of October 31, 2021, Webb will soon be transported to French Guiana where it will be mated with its designated Ariane 5 rocket. The mission analysis review, carried out by Arianespace and ESA, confirms that all launch systems — such as the […]

The Chinese Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) launched their fifth Tianlian 1 series tracking data and relay communications satellite from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in central China. The Long March 3C/E launch vehicle carrying the spacecraft lifted off from it’s launch pad at Xichang at 15:53 UTC on Tuesday, July 6. The Long March 3C/E lifted off from Launch Complex 2 at Xichang, with the rocket’s first stage providing the 2,400 kg payload with approximately 2,960 kN of trust from it’s four Y4-21C engines. An extra 740 kN of trust was provided by the twin side mounted YF-25 engine […]

The first Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage is now being readied for the program’s first launch at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), but the large rocket’s first stop on the way to liftoff was the once-in-a-generation Green Run verification campaign. The vehicle spent over a year in the B-2 position of the B Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where prime contractor Boeing performed an exhaustive checkout of their first build. The Green Run was expected to take most of 2020, but outside events added to the challenge for the Stennis team handling the big stage. Hurricanes […]

China has successfully launched a new polar weather satellite, Fengyun 3E.  Liftoff of the mission took place at 23:28 UTC on 4 July 2021 from launch site SLS-2 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center using a Chang Zheng 4C rocket. The launch was the second in as many days for China and successfully placed Fengyun 3E into a Sun-Synchronous Orbit at 808 km in altitude, inclined 98.8 degrees to the equator. Fengyun 3E satellite Fengyun 3E is part of the overall Fengyun 3 family of polar weather satellites, the second generation of such observatories for China. Operated by the China Meteorological […]

Juno, NASA’s flagship mission to Jupiter, marks five years at the solar system’s largest planet today, having been in space for nearly 10 years since its launch. Juno quickly became one of NASA’s most scientifically important missions upon its arrival, with its Ultraviolet Spectrograph and Advanced Stellar Compass instruments used to reveal many unique scientific phenomena at Jupiter and throughout the solar system. Recently, two teams published research highlighting the mystery of the solar system’s zodiacal light and the origins of Jupiter’s auroral dawn storms using the Juno’s instruments. Juno’s changed mission While the science Juno has returned has provided tremendous […]

Taikonauts Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo have successfully conducted the second ever Chinese Extravehicular Activity (EVA), or spacewalk, and the first in a series to support of the construction of the newly launched Chinese Space Station (CSS). The EVA began on July 4 at 00:11 UTC and completed at 06:57 UTC, for a total duration of six hours and 46 minutes. This duration is more typical of the regular spacewalks conducted outside the International Space Station (ISS) compared to China’s first EVA on Shenzhou 7, which lasted only 22 minutes. Liu and Tang launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on […]

Following a test campaign focused on SpaceX’s Starship vehicle, the Super Heavy booster is now taking up the mantle of testing at the Starbase launch site. Booster 3 rolled out of the High Bay on Thursday, taking the trip down Highway 4 before being placed on suborbital Pad A’s modified mount for a series of ground testing objectives. The tests will pave the way for Booster 4, already in the opening stages of stacking in the High Bay, which will be hosted at the under-construction Orbital Launch Site (OLS) with Starship 20 for a full-stack ride into space later this year. […]

At 02:51 UTC, or 10:51 AM Beijing time on Saturday, July 3, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) successfully launched a Chang Zheng 2D rocket from LC-9 at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, carrying five satellites into Sun Synchronous Orbit. The launch is the beginning of what is expected to be a busy launch period for the Chinese space program. The Chang Zheng 2D (CZ-2D) rocket for this mission launched from LC-9, under the power of four YF-21C engines. These engines run on unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) and dinitrogen tetroxide (N2O4), which are toxic, hypergolic fuels.  The CZ-2D flew on […]

The eighth delivery of OneWeb satellites into Earth orbit is set for a 12:48 UTC launch on Thursday, July 1 from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia. Continuing the effort of building an internet constellation, this launch is particularly important in enabling OneWeb to offer full connectivity to areas north of 50 degrees latitude by increasing the constellation’s total strength to 248 operational satellites plus six test satellites. In doing so, Thursday’s launch will conclude the company’s ‘Five to 50’ goal, not only referencing the Arctic connectivity achievement but also how these last five missions to do so have all occurred on-time […]

On the morning of June 30, 1971, near sunrise on the steppes of Kazakhstan, recovery crews prepared to receive the crew of Soyuz 11, which had completed a successful 24-day mission to the world’s first space station: Salyut 1. The Soviet leadership and public were eager to welcome cosmonauts Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev home after they broke the world spaceflight endurance record of 18 days, set a year earlier by their countrymen aboard Soyuz 9. The Soyuz 11 descent module’s parachute system started to deploy as planned, at approximately 10 kilometers in altitude, and the main parachute deployed […]

Small satellite launch company Virgin Orbit is set to launch it’s LauncherOne rocket on its first operational flight since wrapping up its flight test program earlier this year. Launch is scheduled for a window from 6:00 to 8:00 AM PDT (13:00 to 15:00 UTC) on June 30, with backup windows available though July. LauncherOne Flight Three, also known as “Tubular Bells Part One” in reference to the first track on the first album released by Richard Branson’s record label, Virgin Records, marks the first operational flight of LauncherOne, the rocket having previously flown two demonstration flights in May 2020 and January […]

Roscosmos is preparing for the launch of their next resupply mission to the International Space Station, Progress MS-17.  The launch is scheduled to occur at 23:27 UTC on June 29 from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. A Soyuz 2.1a launch vehicle will be used to launch the Progress MS-17 spacecraft. The mission is known to NASA as Progress 78P, as Progress MS-17 is the 78th Russian resupply mission to the ISS.  Pre-launch preparations In early March 2020, the Progress MS-17 spacecraft arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome after traveling from the RSC Energia manufacturer by rail. On March 11, […]

SpaceX is preparing to launch the Transporter 2 mission on Tuesday, June 29 at 14:56 EDT (18:56 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This is the second dedicated rideshare flight organized by SpaceX and will carry 88 spacecraft to an approximately 525 km altitude sun synchronous orbit (SSO). The launch weather forecast shows an 80% chance of acceptable weather with the primary concerns being violation of launch criteria due to cumulus clouds and anvil clouds. The first stage of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle for this flight is booster B1060, making its eighth flight. […]

Final securing of the Space Launch System (SLS) Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter (LVSA) to the Core Stage for Artemis 1 in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida was slowed down by issues discovered when workers started bolting the two elements together. NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) and prime launch processing contractor Jacobs lifted the LVSA by crane up on top of the SLS Core on June 22 with mating expected to be finished that night; however, hard-mate was not completed for several days. While the stacking procedures were delayed, other work in parallel tracks […]

United Launch Alliance (ULA), Boeing, and NASA have all started their final preparations for the second Orbital Flight Test (OFT-2) for the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. OFT-2 will demonstrate all of the changes made to the Starliner spacecraft following the partial failure on the first OFT mission in December 2019. Preparations are also underway for the Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT), including the delivery of the Atlas V rocket to Cape Canaveral, Florida. Changes made from OFT On the morning of December 20, 2019, an Atlas V N22 launched from Space Launch Complex 41 with the Calypso Starliner spacecraft (also known as […]