Tag: Launches & Spacecraft

SpaceX has regained its stride after a failure earlier this month. The company launched two missions on Sunday morning (July 28), lofting batches of its Starlink internet satellites from both coasts atop Falcon 9 rockets less than five hours apart.  The two liftoffs came about 24 hours after a Saturday morning (July 27) Falcon 9 launch, which was the vehicle’s return-to-flight mission after a July 11 failure. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 23 Starlink satellites from Florida on July 28, 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX) Sunday’s first launch occurred at…

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The Chinese company iSpace’s launch-success rate has dipped below 50% once again.  iSpace’s seventh Hyperbola-1 rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert on Wednesday (July 10) at 7:40 p.m. EDT (2340 GMT; 7:40 a.m. on July 11 Beijing time), carrying an undisclosed payload toward Earth orbit. But the solid-fueled launcher didn’t make it. “The first, second and third stages of the rocket flew normally, but the fourth stage worked abnormally, and the launch mission failed,” iSpace wrote in an update on Wednesday night. (Translation…

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A highly anticipated NASA astrobiology mission is troubleshooting a serious issue just months before its planned liftoff. The Europa Clipper spacecraft is scheduled to launch this October atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The robotic explorer will embark upon a $5 billion mission to assess the potential of Europa, an ice-covered ocean moon of Jupiter, to support life as we know it. But that launch date, and the probe’s ability to carry out its ambitious mission, may now be in peril: Mission team members have discovered a problem with Clipper’s…

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The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is requiring an investigation into the recent anomaly suffered by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The issue occurred on Thursday night (July 11), during the launch of 20 Starlink internet satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Falcon 9‘s upper-stage engine failed to complete its second burn as planned, and the spacecraft were deployed into a lower-than-intended orbit as a result, according to SpaceX. SpaceX is looking into the nature and cause of the anomaly, under the supervision of the FAA. “The…

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SpaceX plans to launch 20 more of its Starlink satellites tonight (July 10), including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off tonight from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base, during a four-hour window that opens at 10 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. local California time; 0200 GMT on July 11). SpaceX will livestream the action via its X account; coverage will begin about 15 minutes before launch. The Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth tonight, if all goes according to…

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A new SpaceX video gives us a glimpse of the future — the very near future, perhaps. Late last week, Elon Musk‘s company posted on X a 60-second animation showing Super Heavy — the first stage of SpaceX’s giant new Starship rocket — coming back down to Earth after a liftoff.  SpaceX has made rocket landings relatively routine, commonly bringing back the first stages of its workhorse Falcon 9 and powerful Falcon Heavy vehicles. But the touchdown in the animation is different: It’s a midair catch performed by the “chopstick” arms of…

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Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket will fly for the fifth time ever early Tuesday morning (July 2), and you can watch the action live. The mission, which Firefly calls “Noise of Summer,” is scheduled to launch from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base at 12:03 a.m. EDT (0403 GMT; 9:03 p.m. on July 1 local California time). Firefly will host a launch webcast with NASASpaceflight.com, beginning 30 minutes before liftoff. Space.com will carry it here and on our home page, courtesy of Firefly and NASASpaceflight. “Noise of Summer” will send eight cubesats…

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