Tag: Launches & Spacecraft

Watching Starship come back to Earth last week was perhaps even more exciting than seeing it rise off the pad. SpaceX launched its Starship megarocket for the fourth time ever on June 6, sending the giant vehicle into space from its Starbase site in South Texas.  The flight plan called for both of Starship’s stages — the Super Heavy first-stage booster and the 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper stage, called Starship, or just Ship — to steer themselves back to Earth for ocean splashdowns. Super Heavy was supposed to come down in…

Europe’s new Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket is set to launch for the first time on July 9 after a series of delays.  The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Ariane 6 rocket, developed by ArianeGroup, will lift off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The date of the rocket‘s long-awaited inaugural flight was announced at the ILA Berlin air show on June 5; however, a specific launch time or window has not yet been released.  “Ariane 6 marks a new era of autonomous, versatile European space travel,” Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s director general,…

China’s reusable space plane has released another unknown object into Earth’s orbit.  The experimental orbital plane, named Shenlong, which means “divine dragon” in Chinese, has been in orbit for 168 days. Space activity tracker Jonathan McDowell first spotted the spacecraft’s recent activity on May 24. The new object has since been cataloged as 59884 (International designator 2023-195G) by the U.S. Space Force space domain awareness teams, SpaceNews reported.  “This object could be a subsatellite deployment, or it could be a piece of hardware ejected prior to end of mission and…

Another day, another Starlink launch. SpaceX launched yet another batch of its Starlink satellites to orbit late Friday (May 31). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 of the broadband craft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:37 p.m. EDT (0237 GMT on June 1) after a slight 26-minute delay due to weather. The Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth as planned about 8 minutes after launch, landing on the droneship called “A Shortfall of Gravitas” in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the 14th launch and landing…

Rocket Lab will launch the second of two cubesats for NASA’s PREFIRE climate change mission tonight (May 31), and you can watch the action live. An Electron rocket topped with the tiny satellite is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab‘s New Zealand site tonight at 11:00 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT and 3:00 p.m. New Zealand time on June 1). Rocket Lab will livestream the liftoff, beginning about 30 minutes before launch. Space.com will carry the feed if, as expected, Rocket Lab makes it available. Related: NASA’s twin spacecraft will…

SpaceX is set to launch yet another batch of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida this morning (May 27). A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to loft 23 Starlink spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 10:56 a.m. EDT (1456 GMT), with backup opportunities available until 11:30 a.m. EDT (1530 GMT). SpaceX will webcast the launch live via its X account, beginning about five minutes before the window opens. Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky The Falcon 9’s first stage…

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,…

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…