NASA Space Flight

Virgin Orbit launched its fifth flight of the LauncherOne rocket, after scrubbing an attempt on Wednesday because the propellant temperature was deemed to be “slightly out of bounds”. That decision was made prior to the take-off of Cosmic Girl, the carrier aircraft. A nominal take off and launch occurred on Friday for the mission, named Straight Up, consisting of seven satellites from the US Space Force and NASA destined for low Earth orbit. Straight Up was Virgin Orbit’s first nighttime launch. The launch was procured by the Space Force’s Rocket Systems Launch Program, with payloads provided by the Space Test Program. […]

After a successful Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR), NASA Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) rolled back the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), which should be the last time this is performed before launch. The Artemis 1 vehicle will now undergo final readiness checks and launch preparations ahead of its debut flight planned for later this year. Currently, NASA is targeting the launch window between August 23 and September 6 for the launch of Artemis 1, but there is still work to be done before that first flight, which could impact the schedule going forward. The recent test […]

United Launch Alliance will now deploy a pair of Space Force technology demonstration payloads using its Atlas V rocket no earlier than Friday. The USSF-12 mission was due to liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Thursday, but persisting lightning storms in the area prevented a launch attempt throughout the entirety of a two-hour window. The USSF-12 mission is now due for liftoff during an identical two-hour window that opens at 6:00 PM EDT (22:00 UTC) on Friday. United States Space Force 12 (USSF-12) consists of two satellites that will help the Space Force to test and develop systems for future national security […]

United Launch Alliance will deploy a pair of Space Force technology demonstration payloads using its Atlas V rocket Thursday. The USSF-12 mission is due for liftoff from Cape Canaveral during a two-hour window that opens at 6:00 PM EDT (22:00 UTC). United States Space Force 12 (USSF-12) consists of two satellites that will help the Space Force to test and develop systems for future national security space missions. The Wide Field of View (WFOV) satellite will test an infrared sensor to be used on the next generation of missile detection satellites, while the USSF-12 Ring utilizes a free-flying propulsive EELV Secondary […]

India is set to launch its 55th Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) – in its Core Alone (CA) configuration – carrying nine payloads to a low Earth orbit (LEO). These include POEM, which will demonstrate using the fourth stage as a hosted payload bus. PSLV-C53 will launch from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on June 30, 2022, at 18:00 IST (12:30 UTC). This launch will be the second orbital launch for India in 2022. This launch will be the 15th launch of the PSLV-CA variant, the second dedicated mission by the NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), and the 16th […]

Virgin Orbit is expected to launch the fifth flight of the LauncherOne rocket as early as 10:00 PM PDT on June 29 (05:00 UTC on June 30). The mission, named Straight Up, consists of seven satellites from the US Space Force and NASA that are destined for low Earth orbit. Straight Up is Virgin Orbit’s first nighttime launch, with the launch window extending until 2:00 AM PDT (09:00 UTC). The launch was procured by the Space Force’s Rocket Systems Launch Program, with payloads provided by the Space Test Program. The USSF designation for the mission is STP-S28A. Two of the satellites […]

SpaceX is scheduled to launch the SES-22 communications satellite to geostationary transfer orbit on the 27th Falcon 9 launch of 2022. The launch is scheduled for Wednesday, June 29, at 5:04 PM EDT (21:04 UTC). This is the beginning of a two-hour and 10-minute launch window from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Falcon 9, booster 1073, will launch on an eastbound trajectory in the usual flight path for satellites launching to a geostationary transfer orbit from Florida. The first stage is scheduled to land on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic, […]

Rocket Lab is all set to launch the CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) satellite to the Moon. It’s the first official mission of NASA’s Artemis program that is seeking to permanently return humans to the surface of our nearest astronomical body. Launching onboard the Electron rocket, teams are currently targeting 5:55 AM EDT (09:55 UTC) on Tuesday, June 28, for the liftoff from Launch Complex 1B at Rocket Lab’s launch facility on Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand. This mission will make Electron the smallest rocket to launch a payload toward the Moon and the first lunar flight […]

China launched the Gaofen-12 03 mission on board a Chang Zheng 4C today at 15:46 UTC. The launch occurred from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC) in China and was confirmed to be a success minutes after liftoff. The satellite launched to a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO). Gaofen (meaning “high resolution”) is the name for remote sensing satellites that are part of the China High-definition Earth Observation System (CHEOS), which started in 2010 with the establishment of the Earth Observation System and Data Center of the China National Space Administration (EOSDC-CNSA). Originally the program was proposed in 2006 before being advanced to […]

SpaceX has entered the next phase of preparations to send Starship to orbit. Following the key milestone of passing the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) with a mitigated Finding Of No Significant Impact (FONSI), SpaceX rolled out Super Heavy Booster 7 to the Orbital Launch Site for a third time to begin its static fire test campaign which will set the stage for Starship’s first Orbital Test Flight – paired with Ship 24 – later this year.  SpaceX moved Super Heavy Booster 7 out of the Mega Bay on June 23, rolling out to the orbital launch site […]

A team of researchers using archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope, a joint venture between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), as well as other NASA observatories have observed a white dwarf consuming and destroying a planetary system — the first time an observation of such kind has been made. The white dwarf, a star leftover from another star that has stopped nuclear fusion and shed its outer layers, is consuming the system by pulling in both rocky-metallic and icy material from the outer and inner reaches of its planetary system. “We have never seen both of these kinds of […]

NASA got within several seconds of completing its practice launch day exercise June 20 with the Artemis 1 vehicle on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The fourth Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) test attempt got down to T-29 seconds in a single, consolidated run of the countdown’s final ten minutes with the integrated Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for Artemis 1 fully fueled and pressurized like it will be for launch. A different set of gaseous nitrogen supply and hydrogen leak issues pushed the final countdown to the end of a long day […]

The Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) has conducted its second launch of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV)-II rocket, also known as Nuri. This was Nuri’s return to flight after nearly reaching orbit on its previous mission. The rocket lifted off from Launch Complex-2 (LC-2) at the Naro Space Center on June 21 at 16:00 Korea Time (07:00 UTC). This launch was Nuri’s second demonstration flight and KARI’s fifth orbital launch attempt overall. On this flight, Nuri carried a 1.2 metric ton mass simulator, the 162.5 kg Performance Verification Satellite (PVSAT), four CubeSats, and a dummy CubeSat successfully to orbit. Rocket […]

Arianespace, ArianeGroup, and the European Space Agency (ESA) have launched their second flight of the year and the first for the veteran Ariane 5 rocket, which begins its trek toward retirement with the first of its five final planned missions. The mission lifted off from Kourou in French Guiana at 5:50 PM EDT (21:50 UTC) on June 22, partway into the 100-minute-long launch window. The two payload passengers are MEASAT-3d and GSAT-24, with a total combined mass of 10,849 kg. They were delivered into a targeted orbit of 250 x 35,786 km inclined 6° to the equator over the course of […]

This morning at 02:20 UTC, Kuaizhou-1A successfully returned to flight with the Tianxing-1 mission. The launch was conducted from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China. This mission comes after the GeeSAT-1A&1B mission, which launched in December 2021 on the same rocket configuration and failed. The payload went to a 275 x 292 km orbit, with an inclination of 96.8 degrees. The launch was confirmed to be a success by Chinese state media. The payload is called Tianxing-1 and is referred to as a test satellite. See Also Tianxing-1 Updates China Forum Section L2 Resources Click here to Join L2 It […]

A second launch out of China this week lifted off at 02:22 UTC from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center with three satellites of the Yaogan family aboard a Chang Zheng 2D. The satellites, called Yaogan 35 Group 2, are possibly related to another triplet of payloads that launched in November 2021 from the same spaceport on the same rocket. Yaogan Weixing means “Remote sensing satellite” and is a general name for military satellites of the Chinese government. They are used to perform multiple kinds of missions for the Chinese government, including remote sensing, surveillance, and other classified mission goals. They are […]

With Wet Dress Rehearsal successfully behind them, NASA will now roll the SLS rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for final launch preparations ahead of the historic Artemis 1 mission to send the Orion capsule on an uncrewed test flight around the Moon. While this milestone brings the SLS closer to launch, significant work remains inside of the VAB, where workers will perform launch configuration work, checkouts on the overall system, and fix the liquid hydrogen bleed line connection that leaked during the fourth and final Wet Dress Rehearsal on June 20. Current status In all, the Wet Dress […]

In May 2022, members of NASA’s InSight Mars lander team announced that power levels on the lander were diminishing and that they expected the lander to become inoperative by December 2022. However, InSight’s teams want to push the lander to do as much as possible in its final months and have chosen to operate the lander’s seismometer for longer than previously planned. Meanwhile, NASA’s Curiosity rover, closing in on its 10-year landing anniversary on Mars, continues to drive around Gale Crater and investigate interesting rock and surface formations — providing scientists with hints to what Mars’ ancient past may have looked […]

SpaceX will launch its Falcon 9 rocket on a secretive mission in the early hours of Sunday morning. Liftoff is planned for 12:27 AM EDT (04:27 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, with the rocket’s official mission being the deployment of a single replacement satellite for communications operator Globalstar. The Globalstar-2 FM15 spacecraft was manufactured by Thales Alenia Space as part of Globalstar’s second-generation constellation of low Earth orbit (LEO) communications satellites. While 24 of its sister craft were deployed between 2010 and 2013, it has remained on Earth until now as a ground […]

Germany’s SARah-1 military radar Earth observation satellite is set to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday. The launch, which will be the 25th flight of the Falcon 9 this year, is scheduled for 7:19 am Pacific Daylight Time (14:19 UTC) – less than 24 hours after Friday’s Starlink 4-19 launch from the Kennedy Space Center. Saturday’s launch will use flight-proven Falcon 9 booster 1071-3. This booster previously flew the NROL-87 and NROL-85 missions out of Vandenberg earlier in 2022, and the SARah-1 mission marks its third flight. SpaceX was awarded the contract to […]

SpaceX is ready to launch yet another 53 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. The liftoff is scheduled for 12:08 PM EDT (16:08 UTC) on Friday, June 17, from the historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This mission will mark SpaceX’s second launch of the month, its 24th launch of 2022, and the company’s 50th launch from Pad 39A. In addition to being the 100th reflight of a Falcon rocket, this mission will mark a record-setting 13th launch of the Falcon 9 booster B1060. If it lands successfully, it will be the company’s 50th consecutive successful […]

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is on its way back to Earth after a multi-year, successful mission to the Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) Bennu. The spacecraft is now bringing a sample of Bennu’s surface back for a drop-off at Earth before continuing with an extended mission. The prolonged mission is called OSIRIS-APEX and will see the craft intercept the asteroid Apophis shortly after that space body makes a very close approach to Earth, coming inside the geostationary orbital belt which resides at 35,786 km above sea level. OSIRS-REx, the story thus far OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) launched on September […]

The first of three flights to launch the TROPICS satellites for NASA is set for Sunday during a window from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM EDT (16:00 to 18:00 UTC). Astra’s LV0010 vehicle will launch from SLC-46 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, making the company’s seventh orbital launch attempt. If the pair of TROPICS spacecraft is successfully deployed into low Earth orbit, it will be Astra’s third successful orbital launch, and the first from Cape Canaveral. A 40% chance of favorable weather is forecasted by the 45th Weather Squadron for the opening of Sunday’s window — decreasing to 10% […]

In early June, the main body of NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper spacecraft completed construction and was shipped to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California soon after. The arrival of Europa Clipper’s main body marks a major milestone in the construction of the spacecraft and shows that the spacecraft and its teams are on track for a launch in 2024. “It’s an exciting time for the whole project team and a huge milestone. This delivery brings us one step closer to launch and the Europa Clipper science investigation,” said Europa Clipper project manager Jordan Evans of JPL. While the construction […]

Lockheed Martin has completed the first-time power-up of the Orion capsule for the Artemis 2 mission — the first Orion capsule that will be tasked with carrying humans. As work continues on that capsule, Lockheed Martin — the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft — provided updates on the other three capsules, and three European Service Modules, currently in various stages of their respective flows for Artemis missions 1, 2, and 3. Powering up Artemis 2’s Orion A significant milestone for all spacecraft is their very first power-up — a milestone the Orion capsule for Artemis 2 achieved the week of […]

SpaceX’s Starbase is heading into its latest phase of milestones for Starship, with the high likelihood the FAA is close to approving a critical checkpoint for its rapidly reusable launch vehicle, paving the way for the orbital launch attempt of Booster 7 with Ship 24. Both the Booster and the Ship are progressing towards Static Fire attempts this month, with Ship 24 passing cryogenic proof testing before heading back to the Production Site for its Raptors, and Booster 7 set to return to the launch site with all 33 of its Raptor 2s. Starship: See Also SpaceX Super Heavy/Starship Section L2 […]

SpaceX is readying its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket to launch the Nilesat-301 satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) on Wednesday. Lifting off from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Falcon 9 will embark on its first GTO mission of the year with a launch scheduled for 5:04 PM EDT (21:04 UTC) in a launch window that extends until 7:32 PM EDT (23:32 UTC). Weather within the overall window carries a 60% chance of GO conditions, with the main concerns being cumulus and anvil clouds (lightning — both triggered and natural). Flying this mission will be […]

The first integrated Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for NASA’s Artemis 1 lunar test flight is returning to Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida in hopes of finishing the last major test before its inaugural launch planned for later this year. Repairs and maintenance were performed in May, both in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at KSC and outside the space center at the Air Liquide nitrogen plant. Attempts in April to complete the Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) countdown demonstration test were delayed by multiple outages of gaseous nitrogen from the offsite plant […]

China plans to launch the Shenzhou 14 mission to their Tiangong space station on Sunday morning, June 5, at 02:44 UTC, which is 10:44 pm EDT on Saturday the 4th. The crewed launch of three taikonauts will take place from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China, with the Shenzhou spacecraft being taken to orbit by a Chang Zheng 2F (CZ-2F) rocket from a pad known as Space Launch Site 1. The Crew The Commander of the mission is Chen Dong, a veteran of the Shenzhou 11 mission in October 2016. Born December 12, 1978, Dong has a master’s degree in […]

Blue Origin’s New Shepard system for launching tourists and experiments on short, suborbital journeys into space is on the verge of flying its fifth crewed flight. After a delay last month to fix a backup system that was not meeting performance expectations, NS-21 is scheduled to launch on Saturday, June 4th at 8:00 AM Central Daylight Time (13:00 UTC). The launch will take place at the Blue Origin launch facility known as Launch Site One. The complex resides in the Jeff Bezos-owned Corn Ranch land parcel near Van Horn in the west Texas desert. The site has hosted twenty previous New […]

May 2022 was an eventful and important month for the future of the International Space Station as well as the Commercial Crew program designed to support it. The astronauts of the SpaceX Crew-3 mission returned to Earth aboard Crew Dragon Endurance after handing over operations to the recently arrived Crew-4 members. Also, the Boeing Starliner made its long-awaited first arrival at ISS. NASA is looking at extending the station program to 2030, while the ISS crewmembers worked their usual experiment and maintenance activities, even as geopolitical tensions intensified on the ground. May started with Crew-3 astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla […]

At 09:32:16 UTC, or 12:32:16 p.m. local time in Moscow (5:32:16 a.m. EDT), a Soyuz 2.1a rocket with the Progress MS-20 resupply craft will launch from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Progress MS-20 will then conduct a fast-track, two-orbit rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) before docking to the aft port on the Zvezda service module at approximately 13:03 UTC (09:03 a.m. EDT). The mission will be the 64th mission for the Soyuz 2.1a rocket (including its ST-A variant for Arianespace missions). It will also be the sixth mission for the launch vehicle in 2022, with Progress […]

China’s Chang Zheng 2C rocket has launched nine GeeSAT-1 navigation satellites Thursday as part of the Geely-01 constellation. After lifting off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 04:00 UTC (12:00 Beijing Time), the rocket successfully deployed its payload into Low Earth orbit. The GeeSAT-1 satellites were developed by Chinese commercial company Geespace, which describes them as the “first modular, high-resilience, high-performance, mass-produced low-orbit satellites in China”. The satellites are designed to provide centimeter-accurate positioning and connectivity for autonomous road vehicles. Geespace is a subsidiary of Geely Technology Group, which also owns Geely Automobile, the Chinese automotive company, as well as […]

It’s an ask never before attempted: Launch samples off the surface of another planet for return to Earth — using a rocket you first have to launch from Earth using a bigger rocket and then land on Mars.  Yet this is exactly the contract Lockheed Martin has won from NASA for their Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), a crucial part of the larger inter-agency Mars Sample Return effort from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) currently underway on the Red Planet with the Perseverance rover. But just how will Lockheed Martin accomplish this feat — as the rocket has to land […]

With over 21 years of service onboard the International Space Station, Canadarm2, along with Dextre and the OBSS (Orbiter Boom Sensor System), has served as a mission-critical tool in support of the construction of the orbital outpost and its ongoing maintenance. The robotic crew also serves as testbeds for innovative concepts to enable future space operations like on-orbit refueling and robotic arm AI technology. Now, as Canadarm’s developer, MDA, works toward developing Canadarm3 for the Lunar Gateway, the company is also looking closely at the Moon via a partnership with Lockheed Martin and General Motors to provide robotics for a new, […]

Over the past five months, the James Webb Space Telescope and the joint NASA, European Space Agency, and Canadian Space Agency teams behind the project have been working towards the completion of the observatory’s six-month-long commissioning phase at the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2 (L2). With the observatory’s mirrors recently completing alignment, Webb and its teams are preparing for the all-important and historic first image from the observatory. As teams continue to work towards completing commissioning, some of the first scientific research targets of Webb’s operational phase have been announced, including two strange and intriguing exoplanets that exhibit unique characteristics. After launching […]

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) is preparing to launch its Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), recently named Danuri. Danuri is South Korea’s first of many planned lunar missions in the coming future. This mission is developed and operated by KARI with contributions from NASA. A SpaceX Falcon 9 will launch Danuri on August 2, 2022. Danuri is the first step in KARI’s lunar exploration program. KARI was established in 1989 and became an independent organization in 1996. The institute launched its first sounding rocket in June 1993 with the single-stage Korea Sounding Rocket (KSR-I). Five years later, it launched its […]

The recent focus at Starbase has been Booster 7 and Ship 24. Booster 7 appears to have completed its series of cryogenic proof testing and is now being prepared for static fire tests. Ship 24, meanwhile, has rolled out to the launch site for its own cryogenic tests ahead of engine install, static fires, and once paired with a booster, the orbital flight test. Following its ambient and cryogenic testing last month, B7 returned to the Production Site for a replacement of its methane transfer tube which was crushed during testing. After all necessary repairs were made – primarily a new […]

After successfully rendezvousing and docking with the International Space Station (ISS), Boeing’s Starliner is now headed back to Earth after a six-day-long mission in low Earth orbit. The spacecraft autonomously undocked from the forward-facing port at the Harmony module of the ISS at 2:36 p.m. today, wrapping up its stay at the orbiting laboratory. Boeing and NASA teams are currently targeting 6:49 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, May 26, 2022, for the spacecraft’s return to Earth at White Sands Space Harbor at the US Army’s White Sands Missile Range Facility in New Mexico. If for some reason the teams cannot proceed with […]

At 18:27 UTC (2:27 p.m. EDT) on May 25, SpaceX is scheduled to launch yet another Falcon 9 rocket. Lifting off from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Falcon 9 will carry several dozen payloads to a sun-synchronous orbit for the Transporter-5 rideshare mission. The flight will feature a somewhat rare return to launch site (RTLS) landing, with the first stage touching down at Landing Zone-1 at Cape Canaveral. Transporter-5 is the fifth dedicated rideshare mission for SpaceX. These rideshare missions are intended to compete with other smallsat launch companies in the aerospace industry such as Astra […]

A day into its OFT-2 mission, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station for the first time. Starliner’s docking, which marks a major milestone in Boeing’s demonstration flight for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, occurred at 8:28 PM EDT on Friday (00:28 UTC on Saturday). The Orbital Test Flight 2 (OFT-2) mission is the second uncrewed test flight of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner capsule, which was necessary due to the failure of the original OFT mission to complete its objectives in 2019. Starliner successfully lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Thursday, atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V […]

China launched three payloads onboard a Chang Zheng 2C rocket today at 10:30 UTC and confirmed the success of the launch an hour later. For this flight, the additional Yuanzheng-1S third stage was used. The launch was conducted from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC) and the rocket flew to a low Earth orbit (LEO). So far no details were released about the payloads, and only minimal information is out regarding the purpose of the three payloads. Two of the satellites are developed by Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co. Ltd. The main operational area of this company is remote sensing satellites, […]

Nine months after valve issues caused its previous launch attempt to be scrubbed, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft stands ready to carry out its Orbital Flight Test 2 mission which will lift off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket Thursday. OFT-2 is set to depart Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral at 6:54:36 p.m. EDT (22:54 UTC), bound for the International Space Station (ISS). Orbital Flight Test 2, or OFT-2, is a repeat of Starliner’s 2019 OFT mission, now also known retrospectively as OFT-1. An uncrewed test of the Starliner spacecraft, developed by Boeing for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP), […]

Just over three weeks after Russia launched the Kosmos 2555 spacecraft for the Russian military onboard an Angara 1.2 rocket, the country has now launched the Bars-M military surveillance satellite. The Soyuz 1.2a lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome and placed the payload into a Sun-synchronous orbit. Liftoff occurred at 08:03 UTC on May 19. This was the 5th military launch by Russia in the past few months, an amount not seen by the country for quite some time. The Bars-M series is the third generation of Russia’s topographic surveillance satellites used to provide imagery of the Earth’s surface mainly for […]

SpaceX is set to launch its 47th Starlink mission with the Starlink Group 4-18 mission. Starlink Group 4-18 will launch on a flight-proven Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The launch will take place on May 18 at 6:20 am EDT during a single-second instantaneous launch window. Starlink Group 4-18 will be the 21st SpaceX launch and 14th Starlink mission of 2022. 4-18 is also the last of three missions to launch within five days. Space Launch Delta 45 has predicted a 20% chance of violating weather constraints, and the same in case of […]

In late April, Perseverance and Ingenuity arrived at the edge of Jezero Crater’s ancient river delta — an area of the crater that was likely once formed by flowing water, and a major focus of the Mars 2020 mission. Perseverance‘s arrival at the delta marked the beginning of the rover’s second science campaign in the crater, officially kicking off on sol 407 of the mission. “The delta at Jezero Crater promises to be a veritable geologic feast and one of the best locations on Mars to look for signs of past microscopic life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of NASA’s […]

NASA’s Artemis 1 flight vehicle remains in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida while work to investigate and fix problems found in April at the launch pad continues. A series of issues were discovered during three attempts to perform the Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) while the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket were out at Launch Pad 39B. While the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) program and prime launch processing contractor Jacobs are troubleshooting issues with connections from the Mobile Launcher to the vehicle in the VAB, they are also working with gaseous […]

SpaceX is set to launch its twentieth Falcon 9 rocket of the year with a batch of Starlink satellites to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) on the Starlink Group 4-15 mission. Liftoff is scheduled to occur on Saturday, May 14 at 4:40:50pm EDT (20:40:50 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida. The Falcon 9 for this mission is of special interest as it uses a new booster, B1073-1, something not seen until now on a Starlink mission. Weather is predicted to have a 70% probability of go conditions during the primary launch window […]

SpaceX is preparing for its third back-to-back Starlink mission in barely a fortnight Friday. Falcon 9 is due to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 3:07 PM PDT (22:07 UTC) to add another 53 satellites to SpaceX’s low Earth orbit communications constellation, bringing the total launched to over 2,500. The Starlink Group 4-13 launch continues a run of Starlink launches that has seen three missions in just over 14 days, using all of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch pads at Cape Canaveral, the Kennedy Space Center, and now Vandenberg. Two further launches, using both of the East coast pads again, […]

i-Space, a private Chinese launch provider, attempted to return to flight with the Hyperbola-1 (SQX-1) vehicle early Friday morning. The Hyperbola-1 has had a troubling past, failing to deliver its payloads to orbit, now, on three of its four flights. Onboard the rocket was the Jilin-1 Mofang-01A(R), a replacement satellite for the Jilin Mofang-01A, which launched on the previous flight of the Hyperbola-1 and ultimately failed to reach its intended orbit. While official reports as of publication do not mention a reason for the failure, it is understood that shortly after stage separation, the second stage failed to ignite. The Jilin-1 […]

NASA, Boeing, and ULA teams, along with international partners, have finished the agency Flight Readiness Review (FRR) ahead of the Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2) for Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Following the valve issues that scrubbed OFT-2’s launch attempt in August of 2021 and the communication and software issues that caused Boeing’s first OFT mission to end prematurely, Boeing hopes to demonstrate the physical and software changes made to the spacecraft on this mission. Despite being uncrewed, OFT-2 is an end-to-end simulation of a crewed launch–including arming the abort system. Lifting off from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space […]

China plans to launch the Tianzhou 4 cargo resupply mission on Monday, May 9 at 17:56 UTC (13:56 EDT) to the Tiangong space station. The Tianzhou spacecraft will fly on a Chang Zheng 7 rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan, China, to an approximate 389.5 x 395 km orbit with an inclination of 41.58 degrees. The Tiangong space station is currently unoccupied, with the Shenzhou 13 mission undocking after its six-month stay on April 15. A new crew of three will follow Tianzhou 4 to the station in early June, with the final two module additions to the […]

60 years ago, on May 8, 1962, Atlas-LV3C Centaur-A – designated Atlas Centaur-1 (AC-1) – lifted off from the newly-constructed Launch Complex-36A (LC-36A). AC-1 was the first flight test of the hydrogen-powered Centaur upper stage. Since the maiden flight of Centaur, the stage has flown on several different rocket families across six decades. Centaur has launched military, commercial, and science missions allowing access to every planetary body in the solar system and even beyond. As of early May 2022, 263 flight-capable Centaur upper stages have flown and continue to operate on the Atlas V rocket. Soon new variants of the Centaur […]

On 7 May 1992, Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off on her first voyage at 23:40 UTC from Pad-B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Her target: Intelsat VI F-3 (now known as Intelsat 603). The goal: rendezvous with, repair, and re-release the satellite. In the now-30 years since that mission, on-orbit satellite repair and servicing have largely languished — save for the five Hubble servicing missions Endeavour and the Shuttle fleet would conduct after STS-49. Northrop Grumman now aims to change that in 2024 when their new Mission Robotic Vehicle and Mission Extension Pods begin launching to perform on-orbit satellite […]

30 years after Intelsat VI rescue, Northrop Grumman aims to make in-space servicing a permanent reality On 7 May 1992, Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off on her first voyage at 23:40 UTC from Pad-B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Her target: Intelsat VI F-3 (now known as Intelsat 603). The goal: rendezvous with, repair, and re-release the satellite. In the now-30 years since that mission, on-orbit satellite repair and servicing have largely languished — save for the five Hubble servicing missions Endeavour and the Shuttle fleet would conduct after STS-49. Northrop Grumman now aims to change that in 2024 […]

April marked Expedition 67’s first full month aboard the International Space Station, with the outpost’s crew receiving visitors in the form of the Axiom-1 mission before Crew Dragon Freedom arrived at the end of the month to begin a crew rotation on the US Orbital Segment. On the Russian side of the station, work to commission the Nauka module continued with a pair of spacewalks aimed at activating the module’s European Robotic Arm. On top of this, the crew carried out their daily duties, conducting research and carrying out tasks to keep the station operational. Visiting Vehicles and Spacewalks Two SpaceX […]

SpaceX is set to launch 53 internet communication satellites to low Earth orbit on the Starlink Group 4-17 mission. With liftoff scheduled for 09:42 UTC (5:42 AM EDT), the Falcon 9 will launch from historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A). This mission will mark SpaceX’s 18th mission of 2022, marking a pace of one Falcon 9 launch every seven days. In the event of a scrub, there is a backup window less than 24 hours later on May 7. The 53 Starlink satellites will be placed into an initial 53.22-degree inclination, 285 km by 308 km low Earth Orbit. In a process […]

It’s been a whole year since the last launch out of Starbase, Texas – as SpaceX continues to lay the groundwork for the orbital launch attempt. Somewhat a victim of their own success, the achievement of SN15’s test flight removed the need for additional “hops,” with Chief Designer Elon Musk opting to go all-in on taking Starship orbital – requiring vast amounts of work. Despite the lack of launches since, numerous test objectives have been achieved to set the stage for the full-stack launch, hopefully aligning with the final competition of paperwork to greenlight the attempt. Starship SN15: See Also SpaceX […]

A Cheng Zhang 2D (also known as the Long March 2D) has successfully lifted off from Launch Pad 9 in Taiyuan, China at 10:38 AM Beijing time (02:38 UTC) Thursday, carrying a commercial Jilin-1 Wideband-01C spacecraft and seven other Jilin satellites (HR-03D) satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit. The Jilin-1 constellation, now consisting of 50 Earth observation satellites since its first launch in 2015, is China’s first-ever commercial remote-sensing satellite system. The system is operated by Chang Guang Satellite Technology Corporation, also known as Charming Globe, a commercial spinoff of the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics, and Physics in the northeast […]

Crew Dragon Endurance has departed from the International Space Station (ISS) as its Crew-3 mission comes to an end. Endurance is carrying astronauts Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, Tom Marshburn, and Matthias Maurer back to Earth after nearly six months in orbit. Endurance undocked from the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony Module at 05:20 UTC (01:20AM EDT) on Thursday. It is now in the process of conducting a series of burns to lower its orbit ahead of reentry, with its splashdown scheduled for Friday at 04:43 UTC (00:43AM EDT) off the coast of Florida. Launched on November 11, 2021, from historic […]

After announcing plans to recover and reuse the first stage of the company’s Electron rocket back in 2019, the California-based rocket company is now ready to attempt mid-air recovery for the very first time. The “There and Back Again” mission is set to launch in a launch window that opens at 22:35 UTC on May 2, delivering 34 payloads to a sun-synchronous orbit of 520km. The mission was originally scheduled to launch on April 19 but has been repeatedly delayed to wait for favorable weather for the experimental recovery attempt. The Mission The “There and Back Again” mission is set to […]

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) has launched the 13th Chang Zheng 11 (CZ-11) to deliver five Jilin-1 Gaofen Earth observation satellites to a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO). This launch is the third CZ-11 (CZ-11H) to be launched from an offshore launch platform off the coast of China. CZ-11H Y3 launched on April 30 at 03:30 UTC from the Tai Rui launch platform just offshore of China. This was the 13th launch from China in 2022 and the 418th overall launch of the Chang Zheng series of rockets. CZ-11 is the first and only all-solid Chang Zheng rocket currently in […]

Russia’s Angara 1.2 rocket has launched a payload for the Russian Aerospace Forces, the VKS RF. This is Angara 1.2’s first operational flight, after one suborbital test flight to verify that all systems worked and three test flights of the Angara-A5 variant to prove its ability to launch payloads to a geostationary orbit. Not much is known about the mission, with the identity of the payload yet to be uncovered and multiple potential payloads possibly onboard the rocket. All that is known is that the spacecraft has been designated Kosmos 2555 after successfully deploying from the rocket. The most likely payload […]

China has successfully launched a pair of Commercial Earth observation satellites to a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO). Liftoff occurred at 04:11:33 UTC, from Launch Area 4 of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The rocket for today’s payload was a Chang Zheng 2C. This was one of initially two planned launches for April 29, but a Chang Zheng 11 sea launch slipped to no earlier than April 30. The satellites are called Siwei-01/02 and are operated by the China Siwei Survey and Mapping Technology Co. Ltd. They are a company based in Beijing that produces and operates mapping technology and instruments. They are […]

SpaceX will make its seventeenth launch of the year on Friday to put another batch of Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. A Falcon 9 rocket will carry out the Starlink Group 4-16 mission, which is scheduled for liftoff at 5:27:10 pm EDT (21:27 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Friday’s launch is expected to see SpaceX break several turnaround records with its flight-proven Falcon 9 booster and its launch and recovery infrastructure. The rocket for this mission will conduct its usual 35-minute-long automated countdown sequence from fueling to liftoff, before flying […]

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has entered a new phase of its commissioning process as NASA announces that the observatory has completed its mirror alignment and focusing process and is ready to move into the instrument calibration ahead of full science operations later this year. “These remarkable test images from a successfully aligned telescope demonstrate what people across countries and continents can achieve when there is a bold scientific vision to explore the universe,” said Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope element manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. To discuss this milestone, NASASpaceflight spoke with Charlie Atkinson, Chief Engineer for […]

On April 28, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev will venture outside the International Space Station in the second planned spacewalk to activate the European Robotic Arm (ERA). This follows last week’s spacewalk, where astronauts removed covers from the arm and installed a control panel. Today’s spacewalk is known as VKD-53 and will begin at 14:25 UTC or 17:25 local time in Moscow. Both Artemyev and Matveev will spend around six hours and 45 minutes outside the ISS. This spacewalk will see the first movement of the ERA as it is maneuvered out of launch position. VKD-53 Spacewalk: Prior to […]

After a successful launch, Crew Dragon C212 Freedom docked to the International Space Station (ISS) at 23:37 UTC Thursday (7:37 pm EDT on Tuesday). Flying the SpaceX Crew-4 mission, Dragon was launched on Wednesday and took a little over 16 hours to rendezvous with the orbiting laboratory. Crew-4, also known as United States Crew Vehicle (USCV)-4 is the fourth operational Crew Dragon mission as a part of the Commercial Crew Program (CCP). Like the other operational Crew Dragon missions, Dragon is carrying a crew of four astronauts into space. This mission includes NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins […]

The fourth SpaceX Commercial Crew rotation mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled to launch on Wednesday, April 27 at 0352 Eastern Daylight Time (0752 UTC), using Falcon 9 B1067-4 for the first flight of Crew Dragon C212, also known as Freedom. Crew-4, the seventh flight of the Crew Dragon vehicle with people on board, will fly three NASA and one ESA astronaut to the ISS for a scheduled six-month tour aboard the veteran space station, the oldest modules of which are close to their 24th year in orbit. The Crew-4 spacecraft will be commanded by Kjell Lindgren, flying […]

In recent weeks, two teams of researchers released studies identifying the strange characteristics of an exoplanet using the joint NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope. Specifically, one study found one exoplanet to be intensely forming at an extreme distance from its parent star and doing so in an unconventional way. Additionally, NASA announced a massive milestone in exoplanet research: 5,000 total exoplanets have been discovered by NASA, ESA, and other government agencies and private companies. AB Aurigae b: forming differently In the Auriga constellation 531 light-years away, a young Herbig Ae star hosts a massive protoplanetary disk. Named […]

NASA’s Artemis 1 flight vehicle is headed back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) after a month at Launch Pad 39B attempting to complete the final test before its first launch. The Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR), a countdown demonstration test with the integrated Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for Artemis 1 loaded with propellant, was attempted three times in April, but a hydrogen leak on the Mobile Launcher and unreliable gaseous nitrogen (GN2) service finally pulled the plug on staying at the launch pad. The service structures for Orion and SLS are […]

The first all-private astronaut mission to visit the International Space Station (ISS), Axiom-1, is set for its return to Earth. Crew Dragon Endeavour is due to undock from the station’s Node 2 zenith (or space-facing) docking port at around 00:55 UTC Monday (8:55 PM EDT Sunday), with reentry and landing off the coast of Florida currently targeted for 17:06 UTC Monday (1:06 PM EDT). As Axiom-1 and its crew complete their mission and prepare for landing, NASA’s Crew-4 astronauts and SpaceX continue to prepare for the launch of Crew Dragon Freedom to the ISS. Axiom-1 Return Following a launch to the ISS […]

Booster 7 has been returned to the High Bay after undergoing two ambient tests and a cryogenic test at the orbital launch site. Teams have, in the meantime, continued progress on the construction of Booster 8, while welcoming new Raptor 2 engines to Starbase in support of the eventual orbital test flight for Starship and Super Heavy. At the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, SpaceX has begun construction of their east coast production facility, and groundwork for the Starship launch pad at LC-39A has continued. Construction in Starbase Ship 24’s nosecone has had its payload bay attached and has been prepared […]

SpaceX is set to launch its 15th Falcon 9 of the year, lofting another batch of 53 Starlink satellites on the Starlink Group 4-14 mission. Liftoff is currently scheduled to occur on April 21 at 1:51 PM EDT (17:51 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida.  As is traditional these days, the Falcon 9 for this mission will feature a flight-proven booster, B1060. This booster is flying for the 12th time, being the second one in the fleet to achieve that – and just one month after B1051 became the first one […]

Astrobotic, a Pittsburg-based lunar lander company, has fully assembled the test model for its largest lunar lander in development, the Griffin. A medium-class lander, Griffin is designed to deliver up to 625 kilograms to the lunar surface and survive for 14 days while providing communications and power to the payload if required. The fully loaded Griffin Structural Test Model (STM) weighs more than 6,000 kilograms (13,000 lb), making it the largest lunar lander since the Apollo program. “The STM’s deck was hollowed out from a single 12ft x 12ft aluminum sheet and has more than 2,500 bolts securing the primary structure […]

Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev will carry out a spacewalk on Monday to prepare the International Space Station’s new European Robotic Arm for use. The cosmonauts are expected to exit the Poisk module’s airlock at around 14:25 UTC and will spend over six and a half hours working outside the station to complete their objectives. Monday’s spacewalk, or extra-vehicular activity (EVA), will be the first since Expedition 67 began aboard the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of March. Designated Russian Segment EVA 52 (or RS VKD #52 – vnekorabelnaya deyatelnost – in Russian), it marks the 52nd […]

SpaceX will launch a pair of ocean surveillance satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office on Sunday for the NROL-85 mission. The satellite duo is slated for liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 6:13 AM PDT (13:13 UTC). A flight-proven Falcon 9 will be used to deliver the satellites into orbit, while the first stage returns to Vandenberg for a landing. NRO Launch 85 (NROL-85) is the fourth dedicated Falcon 9 mission that SpaceX will carry out for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The NRO is responsible for operating the United States’ fleet of intelligence-gathering satellites. Like most NRO missions, many […]

A Chang Zheng 4C has launched from Launch Complex 9 (LC-9) at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China at 2:16 AM local time on April 16 (18:16 UTC on April 15) with the Daqi-1 environmental monitoring satellite. The Chang Zheng 4C (also known as Long March 4C) is a small to medium-sized satellite launch vehicle which the Chinese program has frequently used to fly Earth observation satellites. The CZ-4C has been in service since 2006 with 41 successes (including today) out of 43 attempts. The Daqi-1 mission, like many other CZ-4C launches, flew from the Taiyuan launch center in north-central […]

The Chinese Shenzhou-13 spacecraft and its crew of three taikonauts ended their six-month mission with a return to Earth on Saturday, 16 April after completing the first long-duration stay aboard the Chinese Space Station. The spacecraft undocked and began the trip home on Friday, 15 April, ahead of reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. Touchdown occurred at the Dongfeng Landing Site in China’s Inner Mongolia region, located only a handful of kilometers away from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Complex. Shenzhou-13 was the eighth crewed mission for the Chinese human spaceflight program, which started with the successful flight of Yang Liwei aboard Shenzhou-5 in October […]

China has successfully launched the ChinaSat 6D satellite into geostationary transfer orbit Friday via their Chang Zheng 3B/E rocket. The launch took place at 12:05 UTC (20:05 local time) from Launch Complex 2 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The ChinaSat 6D satellite, also known as Zhongxing 6D, was deployed into orbit by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT). The Chang Zheng 3B/E (CZ-3B/E) – or Long March 3B/E – rocket is the most powerful of the Chang Zheng 3 series of rockets that China uses for most of its geostationary satellite launches. ChinaSat 6D was built by the state-owned China […]

NASA is trying again at a third attempt on April 14 to complete the Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) test on its Artemis 1 vehicle. The integrated Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for Artemis 1 will be launched by the agency’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) program from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on a mission to the Moon. After two attempts to load the cryogenic stages on the SLS launch vehicle with liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid hydrogen (LH2) were scrubbed on April 3 and 4, the third attempt was postponed by the failure of a check […]

The European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Euclid space telescope has moved closer to launch after prime contractor Thales Alenia Space mated the spacecraft’s service module and payload module. Euclid will aim to study the “dark universe” through visible-light and near-infrared astronomy. The mission had been slated to launch no earlier than the first quarter of 2023, but this is now expected to be delayed due to an enforced change of launch vehicle. Euclid is the latest mission in the European Space Agency’s Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program. This program encompasses all of ESA’s space science missions and is the successor to the earlier Horizon […]

Crew Dragon Endeavour has successfully docked to the Node-2 zenith port — otherwise called the Harmony space-facing port — at 8:29 am EDT (12:29 UTC) after launching at 11:17 am EDT (15:17 UTC) the previous day. Docking was delayed for nearly 45 minutes due to an issue with a video uplink to the ISS while holding at Waypoint 2. The Axiom-1 crew’s arrival at the orbital outpost marks the start of an intense eight-day period of science for the four crew members as they temporarily live and work on the ISS (International Space Station) alongside the station’s current complement of 11 […]

SpaceX and Axiom Space are set to launch the AX-1 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, April 8, 2022, at 11:17:11 am EDST / 15:17:11 UTC from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The first private crewed mission to the station will use the Crew Dragon Endeavour, flying its third mission, and will remain docked to the ISS for 8 days out of the planned 10-day flight.  The Crew Dragon Endeavour will make its third trip to the space station on this mission following the Demo-2 flight with Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley that returned the […]

A Soyuz 2.1b rocket has successfully launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, carrying a Lotos electronic signals intelligence satellite into orbit for the Russian military. Liftoff took place at 11:20 UTC from Plesetsk’s Site 43 on a northeastern trajectory. Lotos-S1 number 5 was deployed into Low Earth Orbit with a separation apogee of approximately 900 km and an inclination of 67 degrees. The spacecraft will utilize its onboard propulsion to circularize its orbit over the coming weeks, before becoming fully operational for use by the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS). See Also Lotos-S-5 Updates Russian Forum Section L2 Russian Section Click here to […]

Amazon’s announcement of three launch contracts totaling 83 flights split across Ariane 6, Vulcan, and New Glenn represents the largest commercial launch block buy in history and will unite Arianespace, United Launch Alliance, and Blue Origin in a multi-year effort to deploy the Kuiper internet constellation. The contracts represent unique challenges to some providers and opportunities for others to continue filling out the manifest offered by these heavy-lift rockets. The contracted missions are in addition to the nine operational Kuiper launches already announced for the Atlas V rocket. The first two test satellites are also not included in the above figures […]

China launched another Gaofen satellite Thursday morning to a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO). The launch was carried out on a Chang Zheng 4C from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China. The liftoff time was confirmed to be 7:47 AM local time on April 7 (23:47 UTC on April 6). The destination of today’s mission is a 738 x 745 km orbit with an inclination of 98.4°. The Gaofen 3 satellites were developed and constructed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST). CASt is part of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), which is the primary state-owned contractor for […]

SpaceX is continuing to make progress with its prototype Starship vehicles, with Booster 7 undergoing a full cryoproofing test on Monday night. The move to the latest iteration of Super Heavy marks the end of service for Booster 4 and Ship 20, which has conducted numerous ground test objectives. Ship 24 – likely to pair up with Booster 7 – is also being prepared at the Production site, along with multiple additional vehicles, such as Booster 8, which is being stacked inside the High Bay. Booster 4’s last test – SpaceX moves on to Booster 7 See Also SpaceX Super Heavy/Starship […]

With the arrival of SLS and Orion at Pad-B on March 18, engineers and technicians have been busy making final preparations for Sunday’s critical last design verification test: the Wet Dress Rehearsal, or WDR.  The WDR will validate the vehicle’s readiness for flight as well as all elements of the new Mobile Launcher and pad propellant system upgrades for LC-39B’s liquid hydrogen storage and disposal systems — a multi-year process undertaken by NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems team. Wet Dress Rehearsal The test marks a significant milestone as NASA works towards launching SLS on Artemis 1 and is the first (and last) time […]

The International Space Station (ISS) and its astronauts had a busy March as teams performed spacewalks, welcomed new crewmembers, said goodbye to those returning to Earth, and prepared for the arrival of the first private mission to the iconic orbital outpost. All the while, groundbreaking science research was being performed using the space station’s many labs and instruments. The International Space Station Expedition 66 crew — consisting of astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Matthias Maurer, and Kayla Barron, and cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, joined later in the month by Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov — […]

Rocket Lab is ready to launch two satellites for BlackSky on the 25th flight of its Electron rocket. The mission is scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex-1A (LC-1A) at Rocket Lab’s launch site on the Mahia peninsula in New Zealand at 12:41 UTC on Saturday (1:41 AM local time on Saturday). California-based Rocket Lab has begun a tradition of giving each of its Electron missions a nickname. In accordance with this, Saturday’s launch is named “Without Mission a Beat.” The flight will launch a pair of high-resolution imaging satellites for BlackSky. These are the 16 and 17 Block 2 satellites […]

SpaceX is set to launch Transporter-4, the fourth dedicated smallsat rideshare mission under their rideshare program. Transporter-4 – with its batch of 40 payloads – is set to launch on a flight-proven Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) on April 1 at 12:24 pm EDT (16:24 UTC). Transporter-4 will be SpaceX’s 12th overall flight, second Transporter mission, and the fifth launch from SLC-40 of the year. Space Launch Delta 45 predicts a 70% chance of violation of the weather constraints on April 1st. The weather improves to a 50% chance of violation on […]

Blue Origin is poised to send another crew of six to space with the launch of their fourth crewed mission in the company’s history. The flight will take place from Blue Origin’s West Texas facility in Van Horn, with liftoff scheduled for Thursday, March 31 no earlier than 8:30 AM CDT (13:30 UTC). The NS-20 mission will utilize Blue Origin’s fully reusable suborbital New Shepard launch system, designed to ferry payloads and people to just beyond the 100-kilometer Kármán Line – the conceptual international boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space – before returning them safely to the ground. The New Shepard […]

China successfully launched three Tianping-2 satellites from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Wednesday morning using the Chang Zheng 11 rocket. The information surrounding the payload of Tianping-2 satellites is not comprehensive, however, they are built by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC). Three individual satellites, Tianping-2 A, Tianping-2 B, and Tianping-2 C, were successfully inserted into Earth orbit and will perform atmospheric research, data collection, forecasting, and modeling. Wednesday’s launch marked the first time Tianping-2 satellites have flown, and as such, it is not known whether there will be any additions to the three now in orbit. Liftoff […]

At 07:21 UTC on March 30, Soyuz MS-19 will undock from the International Space Station (ISS) and subsequently land on the Kazakh Steppe around 11:29 UTC later that day. This will conclude a five-month mission for the spacecraft, and the second-ever one-year mission by an American astronaut. The landing crew of Soyuz MS-19 consists of Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov – serving as the commander – and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos as well as American astronaut Mark Vande Hei of NASA. Both Dubrov and Vande Hei launched on Soyuz MS-18 on April 9, 2021, and have had long-term stays at the ISS. […]

China successfully debuted one of its new generation vehicles on Tuesday when the Chang Zheng 6A successfully lifted off at 09:50 UTC (5:50 am EDT) from a brand new launch pad at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC).  The rocket lifted the Pujiang-2 satellite and the Tiankun-2 payload to a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). This is the second payload called “Pujiang,” with the first launching on a CZ-11 back in September 2015. Today’s payload serves a slightly different purpose than the first one, as it will be used for scientific research and land and resources surveillance.  The first Pujiang satellite was used […]

Cape Canaveral has been at the heart of America’s space program since the very beginning. A hub for rocketry research and development in its early days, the Cape served as a test center not just for spaceflight and research but also for the US missile development programs. With so many projects, the landscape was littered with launch complexes, and along the eastern coastline, the iconic “missile row” of Atlas and Titan launch complexes dominated the skyline. Many of the Cape’s launch facilities have long since fallen silent, but with newcomers Firefly and Relativity preparing for their first launches from Cape Canaveral, […]

On March 26, 2022, the joint European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft successfully completed its first close pass through the Sun’s corona, bringing the spacecraft’s specially-designed collection of instruments closer to the Sun than ever before. During the close pass, called perihelion, all ten of Solar Orbiter’s instruments operated simultaneously, working together to gather important, never-before-seen data. The flyby brought Solar Orbiter less than one-third of the distance from the Sun to the Earth. Solar Orbiter’s historic perihelion Solar Orbiter launched on February 9, 2020, atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. Since being released by […]

With the James Webb Space Telescope continuing its commissioning phase, NASA is already looking ahead to its next major space observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Currently scheduled to launch in 2027, Roman will observe the universe to answer crucial questions needed for the complete understanding of our universe, especially in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics. According to a new study published by a team of researchers from the University of Arizona, Roman will be able to use one of its onboard instruments to measure a specific kind of space dust littered around the habitable zones […]