For the first time, a spacecraft has lifted off with a flight attendant aboard, but there will be no drink service during the flight. Marina Vasilevskaya, who also served as a flight instructor for Belavia Airlines in her home country of Belarus, traded her attendant uniform for a Russian Sokol pressure suit to become the first Belarusian woman to fly into space. On Saturday (March 23), she launched on Russia’s Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft with cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos and NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson on a mission to the…
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Dying SpaceX rocket creates glowing, galaxy-like spiral in the middle of the Northern Lights
A massive swirl of bright white light seemingly appeared from out of nowhere in the night sky above the Arctic last week, briefly upstaging a vibrant aurora display that spanned thousands of miles. The ethereal, galaxy-shaped light show was caused by an illuminated cloud of frozen fuel that was dumped in space by a SpaceX rocket, which released dozens of satellites into low-Earth orbit. Astronomers call this rare phenomenon a “SpaceX spiral,” and expect them to become a much more common sight in the future. Related: Eerie blue spiral in…
Read MoreChina launches satellite to support future moon missions (video)
China launched a satellite toward the moon this week to help support the country’s lunar ambitions. On Tuesday (March 19), a Long March 8 rocket took off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the southern Chinese island of Hainan carrying the Queqiao-2 satellite. The spacecraft is what’s known as a relay satellite, meaning it will help pass messages back and forth between China’s Chang’e moon spacecraft, as well as other vehicles on the lunar surface, and mission controllers on Earth. Queqiao-2 is intended for a highly elliptical orbit around…
Read MoreSpaceX launching 22 Starlink satellites from California tonight
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…
Read MoreFAA grants license for SpaceX’s March 14 Starship launch
Starship’s third-ever test flight is officially on for Thursday morning (March 14). The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced today (March 13) that it has awarded a launch license for the mission. “The FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy and financial responsibility requirements,” the agency wrote in a post on X this afternoon. Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, is scheduled to lift off on Thursday from SpaceX’s Starbase site in South Texas during a 110-minute window that opens at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT).…
Read MoreWatch Rocket Lab launch a commercial radar-imaging satellite on March 12
Rocket Lab will launch a commercial radar-imaging satellite on Tuesday morning (March 12), and you can watch the action live. An Electron rocket topped with one of Japanese company Synspective’s Strix-3 satellites is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab‘s New Zealand launch site on Tuesday during an hour-long window that opens at 10:13 a.m. EDT (1413 GMT; 3:13 a.m. local New Zealand time on March 13). You can watch the event here at Space.com, courtesy of Rocket Lab, or directly via the company’s website. Coverage is expected to start…
Read MoreSpaceX to launch 23 Starlink satellites from California tonight in 2nd leg of spaceflight doubleheader
SpaceX will launch 23 more of its Starlink internet satellites from California tonight (March 10), in the second leg of a planned spaceflight doubleheader. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base during a 3.5-hour window that opens tonight at 10:13 p.m. EDT (0213 GMT on March 11). It will be the second Starlink mission in a little over three hours, if all goes according to plan; the company earlier launched 23 of the broadband craft from Florida’s Space Coast…
Read MoreSpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites from Florida
SpaceX launched 23 of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida on Sunday (March 10). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 GMT). Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lands on the droneship “Just Read the Instructions” stationed in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday, March 10, 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX via X) The Falcon 9’s first stage came back to…
Read MoreSpaceX fuels up massive Starship megarocket in test for 3rd launch (photos)
SpaceX’s next Starship to fly has passed a critical fueling test, setting the stage for a highly anticipated third launch attempt of the world’s biggest rocket. The gleaming, stainless-steel Starship rocket and its Super Heavy booster, which together stand 400 feet tall (122 meters), were filled with more than 10 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen propellant during the recent launch dress rehearsal, which was performed at SpaceX’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in southern Texas. “Starship Flight 3 preparing for launch,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote…
Read MoreNASA’s ice-hunting VIPER moon rover getting ready to slither to the launch pad
NASA’s next moon rover is one step closer to starting its lunar mission. The rolling robot, known as VIPER (“Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover”), is set to launch toward the moon later this year. And it just notched a milestone along that path. “All of VIPER’s flight instruments are installed, and the rover is more than 80% built!” VIPER Project Manager Dan Andrews wrote in a NASA blog post on Wednesday (Feb. 28). “This is a major accomplishment and shows the great progress being made by the dedicated VIPER…
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