Tag: Launches & Spacecraft

China is set to launch its next robotic moon mission on Friday (May 3), and you can watch the action live. A Long March 5 rocket carrying the Chang’e 6 lunar far side sample return mission is scheduled to launch between 5:17 a.m. EDT (0917 GMT) and 6:18 a.m. EDT (1018 GMT) on Friday. The mission will take off from China’s Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the tropical island province of Hainan, off the southeastern coast of mainland China. You can watch the action live here when the time comes,…

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Shaping an ambitious and steady space agenda for Europe requires not only diplomatic aplomb but also a firm grounding in science and engineering. Indeed, those attributes are must-haves in working with the 22 member states of the European Space Agency (ESA).  Josef Aschbacher is ESA’s director general, taking on that role in March 2021. He is responsible for evolving Europe’s space infrastructure, from rockets and spacecraft performing Earth observation, navigation, and telecommunication duties to robotic planetary exploration, as well as the ESA astronauts serving aboard the International Space Station. “It’s…

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Refresh 2024-04-26T19:42:30.435Z 1st Starliner astronauts finish dress rehearsal before May 6 launch NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams finished a big dress rehearsal before their historic launch upon Boeing Starliner no earlier than May 6, agency officials said Friday (April 26) hours after the rehearsal finished. “Wilmore and Williams completed a series of launch day milestones including suiting up, working in a flight deck simulator, and operating the same software that will be used during the launch,” NASA officials wrote in a blog post on Friday (April 26). The…

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China will launch its latest set of crewmembers to Tiangong space station today (April 25), and you can watch the action live. The three-astronaut Shenzhou 18 mission is scheduled to lift off atop a Long March 2F rocket from China’s Jiuquan spaceport at 8:59 a.m. EDT (1259 GMT; 8:59 p.m. Beijing time) on April 25. Watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of Chinese broadcaster CCTV. Coverage is expected to begin around 5:45 a.m. EDT (0945 GMT). Related: China rolls out rocket for next astronaut mission to Tiangong space station…

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China is all set to send its next crew to its Tiangong space station. The Shenzhou 18 spacecraft currently sits atop a Long March 2F rocket, on its pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The rocket was transferred 0.93 miles (1.5 kilometers) by rail from the vertical integration building to the pad on April 17, according to China’s human spaceflight agency (CMSA). CMSA said Shenzhou 18 will be launched at an appropriate time in the near future. However, airspace closure notices indicate the launch to the Tiangong Space Station is…

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We’ll have to wait at least one more day to see the swan song of United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) powerful Delta IV Heavy rocket. The Delta IV Heavy was supposed to launch for the final time this afternoon (March 28), sending a U.S. spy satellite skyward from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. But the attempt was scrubbed with just under four minutes left in the countdown “due to an issue with the gaseous nitrogen pipeline which provides pneumatic pressure to the launch vehicle systems,” ULA wrote in an…

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SpaceX plans to launch another batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit tonight (March 18). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off tonight from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base during a nearly four-hour window that opens at 10:28 p.m. EDT (0228 GMT on March 19). You can watch the action live via SpaceX’s account on X, beginning about five minutes before the window opens. Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky If all goes according to…

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