NASA Space Flight

SpaceX is targeting 8:37 PM EST on Sunday, February 28 (01:37 UTC Monday, March 1) for the launch of the Starlink v1.0 L17 mission. Another batch of Starlink satellites will launch from historic LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center aboard a flight proven Falcon 9 booster. The 20th Starlink mission to date, this launch will loft another 60 satellites for SpaceX’s ever-growing Starlink satellite internet constellation. […]

Two astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are set to conduct a spacewalk to begin the process of increasing the station’s electrical power generation output.  The spacewalk, US EVA-71, will be conducted by NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Victor Glover, who officially began the sojourn at 06:12 EST (11:12 UTC). Solar array background: The ISS is equipped with eight Solar Array Wings (SAWs), each of […]

Russia will launch the first in a new series of weather satellites to aid forecasting over its high-latitude regions. The Arktika-M No.1 satellite, aboard a Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat rocket, will lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 12:55 local time (06:55 UTC) on Sunday bound for an elliptical Molniya orbit. The Arktika (Арктика, meaning “Arctic“) satellites will carry out a variety of missions to compliment other satellite constellations […]

The Indian Space Research Organisation is preparing for their first mission of 2021 with a flight of their Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) to deliver Brazil’s Amazônia-1 satellite, along with 18 co-passengers, into Sun-synchronous orbit. Liftoff from First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, India, is timed for Sunday, 28 February at 10:24 IST at the launch site — which is 04:54 […]

A problem with another one of the eight prevalves in the Artemis 1 Core Stage for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) has postponed a second test-firing to wrap up the Green Run campaign. The SLS Program’s first flight article has been installed in the B-2 Test Stand at the Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi since January 2020. After a liquid hydrogen prevalve was repaired in […]

After successfully touching down on the Martian surface on February 18, 2021, NASA teams have started the many checkouts required to begin operating the Perseverance rover. The mission touched down within five meters of their landing target (the landing target that was chosen by the terrain relative navigation system, not the pre-planned estimation), and several minutes later sent its first image of the Martian surface back […]

In large part, it is impossible to have escaped notice of a rather large debate swirling in the planetary community around a theorized super-Earth planet in the outer reaches of our solar system, the existence of which could be one possible explanation to several oddities observed in a very dynamic part of our galactic home. So where does current research, distant solar system observations, and searches […]

Three new satellites were launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Wednesday. The new satellites form part of the Group-3 of the Yaogan Weixing-31 mission. The launch took place at 02:22 UTC from Launch Pad 94 of the LC43 launch complex using the Long March-4C (Y32) rocket. Yaogan Weixing-31 Group-03 is composed of three satellites, with Chinese media referring to the new satellites to be […]

At the 47th Spaceport Summit, formerly known as Space Congress, the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Kennedy Space Center/45th Space Wing of the Space Force, and the FAA provided and overview and update on the Florida spaceport’s status and how it is preparing for an even busier schedule than it’s already looking at in 2021. Part of this discussion surrounded expansion possibilities and restrictions at the […]

Starship SN10’s wait for a launch date, following weather-related delays, could soon be over following an optimistic update from Chief Designer Elon Musk. SN10 first requires a Static Fire test – expected No Earlier Than (NET) Monday – ahead of being cleared for launch, which was expected last week before Texas was hit by severe weather. Over at the Production Site, SN11 and SN15 are being […]

Northrop Grumman will kick off their 2021 launch manifest with the flight of an Antares rocket delivering the Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Virginia at 12:36 EST (17:36 UTC) Saturday, 20 February 2021. The spacecraft is expected to rendezvous with the Station in two days, where it will be berthed to the […]

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft has been moved to its secondary launch window as it begins thermal and environmental testing. The new launch date of November 24, 2021 is a delay from an original target of July 21. DART is NASA’s first planetary defense demonstration, planned to change an asteroid’s orbit by a kinetic impact. DART is a simple technology demonstrator which will attempt […]

The day is here.  After years of hard work and labor, NASA has completed all possible steps and sequencing for the most complex landing ever attempted on another planet.  It is now up to the technology built and cared for over years by engineers and technicians on Earth to work exactly as planned. If all goes well, Perseverance will safely touchdown at Jezero Crater at an […]

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Program and prime contractor Boeing have a new framework in place to finish development of the next version of the new launch vehicle, called Block 1B. The biggest addition to the Block 1B SLS vehicle will be the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS), which completed its Critical Design Review (CDR) on December 18. The CDR milestone indicates the design of the larger, […]

From its first flight in November 1981, to the on-going evolution of the technology to take it from low Earth orbit out toward the Moon, the various Canadarms and their associated space robotic platforms have been an ever-present and critical element of human space exploration. Now, as the need to develop a more autonomous robotic system for the Lunar Gateway arrives for MDA of Canada, the […]

SpaceX will attempt to launch another set of 60 satellites for their Starlink internet constellation the night of Sunday, February 14 at 23:21 EST (04:21 UTC on February 15). This mission, Starlink v1.0 L19, will deliver its payloads into the initial shell of the constellation in a 53 degree inclination orbit. The weather forecast shows a 40% chance of favorable weather at liftoff with the primary […]

Roscosmos, the Russian owned space corporation, is ready to launch their next cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station.  The Progress MS-16 ship will launch from Site No. 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 04:45:06 UTC on 15 February (23:45:06 EST on 14 February). Unlike most Russian missions to the Station, this flight will not make use of the fast track or super […]

Following completion of certification testing in October 2020 of the computer system for the first launch of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, teams are now working on upgrades for future flights and vehicle configurations. The first SLS vehicle will be assembled at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida later this year, and a critical set of checkouts of the new rocket with its Orion […]

The Tianwen-1 orbiter, lander, and rover mission to Mars from the People’s Republic of China is set to make its arrival at the Red Planet around 12:00 UTC (07:00 EST) on Wednesday, 10 February. The arrival will culminate in an expected 16 minute burn of the craft’s engine to slow it down enough to be captured in Martian orbit to begin its multi-pronged scientific mission and […]

The United Arab Emirates will attempt to make history Tuesday, 9 February as they seek to become only the second nation in history to succeed in placing a spacecraft into Martian orbit on their very first attempt.  The Al-Amal probe, which translates to “Hope” in English, is set to begin its 27-minute Mars Orbit Insertion burn at 15:30 UTC, (10:30 Eastern time in the United States). […]

Data from NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft has revealed the unsurprising — yet previously not searched for — presence of Martian atmospheric ions preserved in the top layer of regolith on the planet’s innermost moon, Phobos. The announcement comes as an international fleet of Emirati, Chinese, and American spacecraft are set to begin arriving at Mars on Tuesday, 9 February for a variety […]

The three Raptor engines tasked with Starship’s third high altitude test flight have been installed into the aft of SN10. Pending acceptable results from an upcoming Static Fire test, SN10 will be tasked with repeating the flight of her deceased sisters, SN8 and SN9, before a landing attempt that will utilize a slightly different approach to the flip ahead of landing – allowing for redundancy in […]

In parallel with vehicle and test stand preparations for a second Green Run Hot-Fire test later in February, the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) Program and Core Stage prime contractor Boeing are reviewing rule changes for the full, eight-minute firing. The Core Stage hardware and software executed the first-ever final countdown, engine start, and “plus count” firing well past T0 in the first test on January […]

China launched another secretive Tongxin Jishu Shiyan Weixing (TJSW) satellite on 4 February. The launch took place at 15:36 UTC using the Chang Zheng-3B/G3 (known as the Long March 3B/G3 outside of China) launch vehicle from launch site LC3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. Originally, it was reported the launch would orbit a satellite on the Tianhui series and carrying a Synthetic Aperture Radar, or […]

SpaceX is targeting their Starlink v1.0 L18 flight, or 19th Starlink mission, for launch from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday, 4 February at 01:19 EST (06:19 UTC). This is scheduled to be followed by a second Starlink mission from nearby LC-39A just under 28 hours later, keeping SpaceX on track to achieve their planned 48 launches this year while the Eastern […]

The Russian Aerospace Forces, itself a division of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, has launched a Lotos reconnaissance satellite to compliment their next-generation Liana SIGINT (signal intelligence) satellite system. Liftoff took place at around 20:45 UTC (15:45 EST) on Tuesday, 2 February 2021, from Site 43 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome – located 800 kilometers north of Moscow. This was the first orbital launch attempt […]

SpaceX has added a new private Crew Dragon mission to their growing human spaceflight manifest. The first all-civilian space mission, named Inspiration4, will be launched on a Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft as early as the fourth quarter of 2021. The flight will be led by Jared Isaacman, a tech entrepreneur and world record setting pilot. The mission is dedicated to fundraising […]

Starship SN9 is continuing to wait for clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ahead of her test flight, with a launch date now no earlier than Tuesday. Although the overall schedule delay is relatively short, pent-up production cadence saw SN10 jump at the opportunity to roll down Boca Chica’s Highway 4 late last week. This event marked the first-ever dual prototype Starship pad flow, with […]

The Chinese private space launch company i-Space (Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd.) developed Hyperbola-1 (Shian Quxian-1) rocket failed in its second launch on Monday in an attempt to orbit the small Fangzhou-2 (Ark-2) satellite. The launch took place at 08:15 UTC from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Available images from the launch show the vehicle in trouble after leaving the launch complex. Around the time of […]

NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover have begun their second EVA (extravehicular activity, or spacewalk)  outside the ISS in less than one week to continue upgrading the orbital outpost and accomplish miscellaneous tasks during US EVA-70. The duo performed a previous spacewalk last week dedicated largely to communications upgrades for the European Space Agency’s Columbus module. Today’s spacewalk will primarily focus on finishing new battery […]

As expected, but now official, NASA has announced the decision to redo the Green Run Hot-Fire test of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The Core Stage was fired for 67 seconds on January 16 in the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis before the test was ended early. The SLS Program, Core Stage prime contractor Boeing, and […]

The first-discovered triple-binary sextuple star system and a Sun-like star with five exoplanets orbiting within the distance of Mercury are just two recent examples of the extraordinary systems being investigated and discovered by scientist using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS. The joint NASA-Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) mission is the cornerstone of two recently presented discoveries that characterize two tantalizing systems and […]

China launched its second orbital mission in 2021, orbiting three new satellites from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Friday. The launch took place from Launch Pad 94 of the LC43 launch complex using the Long March-4C (Y31) rocket. The Yaogan Weixing-31 Group-02 mission comprises three satellites, with Chinese media referring to the new satellites to be used “for electromagnetic environment surveys and other related technology […]

Expedition 64 Flight Engineers and NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover are conducting a spacewalk on Wednesday, having been tasked with setting up a cable and antenna for the “Bartolomeo” payloads platform, configuring a Ka-band terminal for linkage to European ground stations and removing grapple fixture brackets in preparation for future power system upgrades. EVA-69 began at approximately 06:30 EST (11:30 UTC). This EVA (extravehicular […]

NASA’s Deep Space Network, commonly referred to as the DSN, has welcomed a new dish, Deep Space Station 56, to its family of powerful ground listening stations around the world. The now-operational 34-meter antenna joins the network’s Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex located 60 kilometers west of Madrid, Spain while other dishes within the network undergo critical upgrades. The new dish is part of an ongoing […]

SpaceX is preparing for their third launch of 2021 and the first of many planned Smallsat Rideshare Program missions, which are designed by the company to give small satellite operators the chance to launch together as a way to reduce cost on regularly scheduled flights to frequently used orbits. The flight, called Transporter-1, which will launch a record number of satellites on the same mission, is […]

It’s one of the greatest mysteries in solar physics.  Dubbed the coronal heating problem, the issue arises from the fact that the solar corona, or Sun’s atmosphere, is millions of degrees hotter than the layers directly below it. This goes against modeling that suggests the corona should be far cooler than the layers below it. Numerous theories have been proposed to explain the problem, but a […]

As the second SpaceX launch of the year, and the first of many Starlink missions scheduled to launch in 2021, the company launched the Starlink v1.0 L16 mission — the 16th launch of operational satellites and 17th Starlink flight overall. Liftoff occurred January 20th at 8:02 EST (13:02 UTC) from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center, marking the record eighth launch and landing of the same […]

SpaceX has acquired two former oil drilling rigs to serve as these floating spaceports. Named Phobos and Deimos, after the two moons of Mars, they are currently undergoing modifications to support Starship launch operations. SpaceX has long been hinting at future floating launch and landing sites for their Starship launch system. The super heavy lift launch vehicle will have a large blast danger area and pose noise concerns […]

China launched the third Tiantong-1 mobile communications satellite on Thursday. The launch took place at 16:25 UTC using the Long March-3B/G2 – Chang Zheng-3B/G2 (Y74) rocket from the LC2 Launch Complex at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Sichuan province. The satellite is an S-band mobile communication satellite developed by the Chinese Academy of Space Technology and operated by China SatCom. As the previous satellites in the […]

As the second SpaceX launch of the year, and the first of many Starlink missions scheduled to launch in 2021, the company is set to launch the Starlink v1.0 L16 mission — the 16th launch of operational satellites and 17th Starlink flight overall. Liftoff is currently scheduled for January 19th at 8:23 EST (13:23 UTC) from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center. This mission was originally […]

Starship SN9 has made a quick recovery from engine issues suffered during last week’s trio of Static Fire testing, placing the possibility a launch could occur this week. Providing SN9 and her two replaced engines perform without issue during one final Static Fire test on Monday, SN9 will have passed all the hardware requirements to allow SpaceX to set a launch date  – expected to be […]

After an eight month stand down to resolve issues revealed during the first mission of Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket, the company is targeting Sunday, January 17 for their second orbital launch attempt. The air-launched LauncherOne rocket will attempt to carry ten CubeSats to orbit for NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program. The four hour launch window opens at 10:00 PST (18:00 UTC). Backup launch dates […]

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) program and Core Stage prime contractor Boeing are finally ready for the big moment of the rocket’s Green Run campaign and the biggest moment in the 10-year old program, a static firing of the stage. After a year of test cases at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, visits from hurricanes, and waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, an eight-minute long, flight-duration […]

Rocket Lab is set to start its busiest year with the dedicated launch of a micro-satellite aboard their Electron rocket for OHB Group. Named “Another One Leaves The Crust,” the mission is set to launch at 02:38 EST (07:38 UTC) on Saturday, January 16 from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1A on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula.  Due to mission requirements, the daily launch window is only seven […]

Blue Origin has scheduled flight 14 of the New Shepard rocket for Thursday, January 14. Liftoff from Launch Site One in West Texas is targeted for no earlier than 09:45 CST (15:45 UTC). While no official launch window has been announced, airspace restrictions for the launch last until 15:00 CST (21:00 UTC) on January 17. The capsule on this flight features new upgrades as Blue Origin […]

On 14 November 2014, a bright flash flagged the All Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae, or ASAS-SN — a global network of 20 telescopes managed at Ohio State University in the U.S.  The flash originated in galaxy ESO 253-3, located 570 million light-years away. The sudden burst of energy was examined by astronomers and categorized as a likely supernova and assigned the event designation ASASSN-14ko.  Six […]

More than four and a half years after arriving in orbit of Jupiter, NASA’s Juno mission continues to excel at its primary goal of answering outstanding questions about the Jovian system, something highlighted in a recent science release detailing a much drier region of the planet’s upper atmosphere than previously predicted. Meanwhile, with the spacecraft in good condition, NASA has officially granted a second — and […]

The CRS-21 automated cargo Dragon v2, the first-of-its-kind for the v2 class designed and developed by SpaceX, was to depart the International Space Station after performing an automated undocking from the orbital laboratory today ahead of splashdown in Florida 12 hours later. After a confusing series of messages that first gave approval and clearance to undock, less than two minutes before the undocking process was to […]

The Hubble Space Telescope has successfully measured the highly eccentric and distant orbit of an exoplanet circling a double star system 336 light years from Earth. The new exoplanet information is potentially important much closer to home as scientists search for the proposed Planet Nine in our solar system. Meanwhile, NASA has selected four small astrophysics mission concepts for further study as part of the experimental […]

SpaceX will begin the global launch year with the flight of Türksat 5A, a Turkish communications satellite. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket is slated to occur from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida during a 4-hour launch window that opens on 7 January at 20:28 EST (8 January at 01:28 UTC). The payload: Türksat 5A The only passenger aboard the flight […]

After a period of over three months in which the spacecraft was berthed to the nadir (Earth-facing) port of the International Space Station’s Unity module, the 14th Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft vacated the vicinity of the orbital outpost on Wednesday after being unberthed and released from the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSMRS), also known as Canadarm2. Release occurred at 10:11 am Eastern time (15:11 UTC), […]

With Starship SN8’s test flight still fresh in the memory, SN9 is set to complete an accelerated pad flow with a Static Fire test and launch this coming week. A triple Raptor Static Fire test is tracking early this week. Pending acceptable test results, the launch of SN9 could take place just a few days later. Meanwhile, Starship SN10 is now an integrated stack inside the […]

In their most active year to date, SpaceX reached a number of reuse milestones, further pursuing their goal of rapid reuse. SpaceX flew boosters on fifth, sixth, and seventh flights for the first time this year, and also significantly decreased the turnaround time of boosters, with the quickest turnaround of just under 51 days. Not only is this a record for SpaceX, it also beats Space […]

Hot-fire tests of new RS-25 engine components will resume in 2021 to certify a new manufacturing process during production. Over one hour of engine run-time is planned for the Retrofit 2 series to test an expanded set of new engine parts that serve to achieve a primary objective of the production restart program: improving affordability by applying modern manufacturing technologies like additive manufacturing, also called “3-D […]

Despite a worldwide pandemic which affected agencies around the world, 2020 featured many significant achievements in spaceflight. In total, 114 orbital launches were attempted, including deep space missions like Solar Orbiter, three missions to Mars, and the Chinese Chang’e 5 lunar sample return mission. Also this year, the United States regained domestic crew launch capability with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, and SpaceX launched hundreds of new […]

The 114th and final orbital launch of 2020 will see a Soyuz ST-A rocket loft the CSO-2 Earth observation satellite for the French Ministry of Defence. Liftoff is expected at 16:42:07 UTC (11:42:07 EST) on 29 December from the ELS (Ensemble de Lancement Soyouz) launchpad at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, an overseas department of France. The Payload The only passenger on the 10th […]

Starship SN9 is currently tracking an early New Years’ launch, providing the upcoming test series clears the path for what will be a similar flight to SN8, albeit aiming for a “softer” landing. With the vehicle on the launch mount, the first test will involve cryoproofing as early as Monday, ahead of a three engine Static Fire test. Should the trio of Raptors – and their […]

China launched a new remote sensing satellite on December 27 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The launch of Yaogan Weixing-33(R) took place at 15:44 UTC from the LC43/94 launch complex using the Long March-4C (Y35) – Chang Zheng-4C – rocket. Weather conditions at launch were extremely cold, bringing great challenges to the launch preparations. The launch team reviewed various winter launch safeguard measures for this […]

Commercial spaceflight companies are preparing to enter a new market: suborbital flights from one place to another on Earth. Aiming for fast transportation for passengers and cargo, these systems are being developed by a combination of established companies, such as SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, and new ones like Astra. Technical and business challenges lie ahead for this new frontier, and an important piece is the coming […]

NASA partially completed the Green Run Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) test of the Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage on the second attempt in the B-2 Test Stand at the Stennis Space Center. The test was again conducted in secrecy on 20 December, and the test team was able to fill the rocket stage with its liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid hydrogen (LH2) propellants for the […]

After planning began in 2016 for a small, multi-user launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Launch Complex 48 is now ready to support small to medium lift launch vehicles. The complex is the first new launch pad built at Kennedy since the 1960s when the much larger LC-39A and B pads, which have hosted the Apollo Saturn IB and V rockets, Space Shuttles, Ares […]

China debuted the new Long March-8 – Chang Zheng-8 – launch vehicle out of Wenchang on Tuesday. This vehicle marks China’s move towards a reusable launch vehicle, with the recovery of the first stage and side boosters planned for a latter variant. Loaded with a cargo of nine satellites, the first (Y1) Long March-8 (LM-8) was successfully launched at 04:00 UTC from the LC201 Launch Complex […]

SpaceX Boca Chica is now transitioning towards the next launch campaign, with Starship SN9 expected to roll to the launch pad this week. There remains a slim chance SN9 will be ready to launch before the end of the year, repeating the flight profile that almost saw SN8 return in one piece. SN9’s campaign comes ahead of an untold number of launches in 2021, with a […]

Arianespace, contracted through OneWeb, will use a Russian Soyuz 2.1b rocket with a Fregat upper stage to place 36 new OneWeb satellites into orbit for the British government.  The move will resume OneWeb launch operations after the company itself went bankrupt earlier this year. Liftoff is timed for an instantaneous opportunity at 07:26:26 EST (12:26:26 UTC) on Friday, 18 December from Site 1S at the Vostochny […]

In order to round off a record-breaking and historic launch manifest for 2020, SpaceX will conduct its second dedicated launch for the United States National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) on Thursday, with a flight-proven Falcon 9 carrying out the NROL-108 mission. Liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) is set to occur within a three-hour window, with the opening of the launch period scheduled […]

The Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO, is preparing for their second launch of 2020 using their workhorse rocket: the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, or PSLV.  The mission will carry the CMS-01 replacement communications satellite to orbit on Thursday, 17 December at 10:11 UTC, or 05:11 EST.  The launch is scheduled to occur locally at 15:41 IST (Indian Standard Time) from the Second Launch Pad at the […]

To date, only Americans have travelled to the Moon.  On Artemis 2, that will change when the Canadian Space Agency sends one of its four astronauts on the first-ever crewed flight of NASA’s Orion capsule and the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on a near two week test flight around the Moon. The as yet un-assigned crewmember will become the first Canadian to travel to lunar […]

Rocket Lab is preparing for the 17th flight of their small satellite launcher vehicle, Electron.  The mission is named “The Owl’s Night Begins” after the only payload onboard: StriX-α. Liftoff is set for 10:09 UTC (05:09 EST; 23:09 local time) on 15 December 2020 from Launch Complex 1A on the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand. The launch follows an announcement on 11 December that qualification of […]

After a six-year pause, Russia has resumed flight tests of its next-generation Angara rocket with a demonstration mission from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on Monday. The Angara-5 vehicle lifted off at 08:50 Moscow Time (05:50 UTC), carrying an inert payload bound for a near-geosynchronous orbit. (Lead photo via Roscosmos) Monday’s launch marked the third flight of the Angara rocket, the second test of the heaviest configuration, Angara-5, […]

Virgin Galactic was to perform their first human spaceflight of their VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo vehicle from Spaceport America, just south of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, today. The spaceship and crew took off at 10:24 EST (15:24 UTC) firmly attached to their WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft from the runway at Spaceport America. The combined aircraft climbed to altitude before Unity was released at 11:15 EST (16:15 UTC). […]

Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage Green Run team members are working on new procedures to supply liquid oxygen (LOX) to the vehicle at lower temperatures in the next Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) attempt. The first attempt on December 7 at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi was scrubbed because the temperature of the LOX was a few degrees higher than design requirements as it entered […]

Just three months after their first try at reaching orbit fell short, Astra has returned to the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska. The improved Rocket 3.2 launch vehicle is scheduled to make its own attempt on Friday, December 11, in a window from 11:00 to 14:00 PST (19:00 to 22:00 UTC). The launch will carry no payload, just like Rocket 3.1 in September. The goal […]

Just five days after the CRS-21 mission, SpaceX is gearing up for the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket with the SiriusXM-7 (SXM-7) high power broadcasting satellite. The Falcon 9 will loft SXM-7 to a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) on Friday, 11 December, from Space Launch Complex (SLC)-40, at 11:21 EST (16:21 UTC) during a two-hour launch window. The SXM-7 mission will continue to break records […]

United Launch Alliance is proceeding through countdown operations for the launch of their Delta IV Heavy rocket with a classified National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) payload, code named NROL-44. Liftoff is targeted for 18:15 EST (23:15 UTC) on Thursday, 10 December — with the overall launch window extending until 22:30 EST (03:30 UTC) that same night. The flight will mark the first Delta IV mission since the […]

On Wednesday, China launched a double satellite mission intended for research in electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational waves. The launch took place from the Xichang Satellite Center, Sichuan province, at 20:15 UTC using a Long March-11 – Chang Zheng-11 – launch vehicle. According to the National Space Science Center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Gravitational Wave High-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-Sky Monitor (GECAM) mission is […]

The first attempt to conduct a Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage was scrubbed on Monday, December 7 near the beginning of the operation. The test team ran into problems early in the process of loading liquid oxygen (LOX) from the Stennis facilities into the stage. As the WDR cannot be completed without fully loading the LOX tank, the test […]

SpaceX’s Starship Prototype test program is set to make its next leap forward as early as Tuesday, with SN8 tasked with a 12.5 Kilometer test flight – and a landing attempt – at the company’s facilities in Boca Chica, Texas. The window opens at 9 am Central. Successfully landing Starship SN8 has but a slim chance of being achieved. However, data from the flight – and […]

Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage prime contractor Boeing plans to conduct a critical propellant loading and countdown demonstration test December 7 with the Artemis 1 flight article in the B-2 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi. As the name implies, the Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) is a full rehearsal of the countdown for the final test, an eight-minute long Hot-Fire of […]

China launched the Gaofen-14 surveying and mapping satellite on Saturday. The launch took place at 03:58 UTC using a Long March-3B/G5 (Chang Zheng-3B/G5) from the LC3 Launch Complex at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. This was the first use of the G5 version of the Long March-3B that features a longer fairing. Not much is known about the new Gaofen-14 satellite. It was previously stated that […]

Hayabusa2’s sample return capsule is expected to land in Woomera, Australia in a 10 minute window that runs from 12:47 to 12:57 EST (17:47 to 17:57 UTC) today, 5 December — or 6 December local time at Woomera. The craft is returning not just asteroid surface material, but subsurface material (at first) as well, and will be met by Japanese scientists after completing its six-year mission […]

SpaceX is preparing to launch their 21st contracted Cargo resupply flight to the International Space Station (ISS), marking the first flight of Cargo Dragon 2, the company’s new and upgraded un-crewed cargo spacecraft. The Commercial Resupply Services-21 (CRS-21) mission is scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex-39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center on 5 December 2020 at 16:39 UTC (11:39 EST) ahead of an approximately […]

The NASA Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) program at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida is prepared to continue integration of the vehicle for the Artemis 1 lunar mission, but space agency and contractor management for the EGS, Orion, and Space Launch System (SLS) programs are monitoring the status of hardware elements that will be needed to complete the process for a launch scheduled for November 2021. […]

Most rocket launches culminate with liquid-fueled upper stage engines turning off at exactly the precise millisecond a host of parameters — such as flight path angle, orbital inclination, apogee, and perigee — are all met simultaneously. So then how do solid propellant upper stages like those used on the Antares, Pegasus, and Minotaur fleets from Northrop Grumman perform those same types of mission-precise orbital insertions when […]

The Russian Aerospace Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a mission to deliver three Gonets-M communications satellites into a 1,400 km near-polar orbit. The flight, launched on a Soyuz 2.1b rocket with a Fregat upper stage, lifted off at 01:14:36 UTC on Thursday, 3 December (20:14:36 EST on Wednesday, 2 December) from Site No. 43/3 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northeastern Russia. […]

The Russian Aerospace Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are in final launch preparations for a mission to deliver three Gonets-M communications satellites into a 1,400 km near-polar orbit. The flight, launching on a Soyuz 2.1b rocket with a Fregat upper stage, is set to liftoff at 01:14:36 UTC on Thursday, 3 December (20:14:36 EST on Wednesday, 2 December) from Site No. 43/3 […]

Arianespace will use — with Russia’s support — a Soyuz ST-A rocket to launch a joint military and civilian Earth imaging satellite for the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces from the Guiana Space Centre near Kourou, French Guiana. Liftoff of the Falcon Eye 2 satellite is set to occur at 20:33:28 EST on Tuesday, 1 December (01:33:28 UTC on Wednesday, 2 December) to ensure the satellite […]

Eight days after launching from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in southern China, the nation’s Chang’e 5 mission has landed at Mons Rümker on the Moon to collect approximately 2 kg of material for near-immediate return to Earth. The Chang’e 5 lander began final descent at 09:58 EST (14:58 UTC) with an expected touchdown 15 minutes later at 10:13 EST (15:13 UTC). All broadcasts of the […]

It’s a constant of the universe.  Dark matter – a key ingredient for the formation and evolution of galaxies is present in whatever galaxy is observed. That is until NGC 1052-DF2 was discovered – a galaxy missing most of its dark matter.  A year later, galaxy NGC 1052-DF4 was discovered 45 million light years from Earth… and it too was missing most of its dark matter. […]

Arianespace is preparing to use — with Russia’s support — a Soyuz ST-A rocket to launch a joint military and civilian Earth imaging satellite for the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces from the Guiana Space Centre near Kourou, French Guiana. The Falcon Eye 2 satellite for the United Arab Emirates has a single-second launch window at 20:33:28 EST on Sunday, 29 November (01:33:28 UTC on Monday, […]

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan plans to launch an H-IIA rocket on Sunday, 29 November to deploy a top secret communications satellite to support the country’s reconnaissance and scientific programs. Liftoff is scheduled for a two-hour window opening at 16:25 local time (07:25 UTC or 02:25 EST) from the Tanegashima Space Center. The payload The Optical Data Relay Satellite payload aboard this mission will be used […]

NASA Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) and prime test and operations contractor (TOSC) Jacobs started assembling the Artemis 1 vehicle on its Mobile Launcher this week in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Placement of the two aft assemblies of the Space Launch System (SLS) solid rocket boosters (SRB) on Mobile Launcher-1 (ML-1) in VAB High Bay 3 begins the […]

The Liquid Engines Office for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Program is planning a busy schedule of test campaigns next year in parallel with efforts to complete preparations for the vehicle’s first launch. Existing Aerojet Rocketdyne hydrogen-oxygen engine designs and hardware will be used for the SLS core and upper stages, but both the space agency and the prime contractor for the RS-25 and RL10 engines […]

Following a slightly convoluted engine testing campaign, Starship SN8 is set to finalize its pre-flight requirements with a triple Raptor Static Fire test on Tuesday. Should this test go to plan, the path will be cleared for SN8 to conduct a test flight to 15 km (50,000 ft) as soon as November 30. This three-engine firing is expected to be the final major test ahead of […]

The Chang’e 5 lunar orbiter, lander, and sample collection return vehicle is on its sea-side launch pad at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Center in Wenchang, Hainan province, People’s Republic of China. The mission will launch on a Chang Zheng 5 heavy lift rocket, with liftoff expected within a 50 minute launch window that extends from 20:25 to 21:15 UTC (16:25 to 17:15 EST) on 23 November.  […]

Just over a day after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried the American-European Sentinel-6A oceanography satellite into orbit from the U.S. West Coast, SpaceX has returned its focus to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, ahead of the Falcon 9 rocket’s 100th launch. With the Starlink V1.0 L15 mission (or the 16th flight of Starlink), SpaceX’s latest batch of 60 satellites are scheduled to […]

Fresh off their second crewed launch for NASA, SpaceX has temporarily shifted focus on launches to the U.S. West Coast, where a Falcon 9 rocket is waiting to launch the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich oceanography satellite in cooperation with NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the European Space Agency, and various other partners. Launch is scheduled from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Air […]

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Program rescheduled the final two tests that will culminate the Core Stage Green Run campaign for December after successfully repairing one of the liquid hydrogen (LH2) prevalves inside the engine section of the stage. The Wet Dress Rehearsal is now targeted for the week of December 7, and if that goes well the Hot-Fire test of the stage could occur two […]

Rocket Lab is preparing to launch its sixth mission of 2020 — a launch which the company calls its “most diverse mission yet,” with 30 satellites onboard and a launch broadcast that will raise money for the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Starship children’s hospital. Electron will blast off from LC-1A on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula.  The launch is targeted for the opening of the window […]