Tag: Launches & Spacecraft

Update for 12:15 a.m. ET on March 15: Firefly has called off the planned March 15 liftoff attempt due to an issue with the launch range. No new target date has been announced. Firefly Aerospace will launch its Alpha rocket for the sixth time ever on Saturday morning (March 15), and you can watch the action live. Alpha is scheduled to lift off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday during a 52-minute window that opens at 9:25 a.m. EDT (1325 GMT; 6:25 a.m. local California time). Firefly will…

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Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has assumed the top job at an ambitious launch startup. Schmidt, who led Google from 2001 to 2011, has been named CEO at Relativity Space, a California company that’s building a rocket to compete with SpaceX and other major players in the launch industry. Schmidt, who’s worth about $33 billion, has also made a “significant” financial investment in Relativity Space, according to The New York Times, which broke the story on Monday (March 10). Former CEO & Chairman of Google Eric Schmidt speaks at Chainlink’s…

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SpaceX’s latest Starship to attempt to reach space exploded nine minutes after its launch this week, leaving a trail of debris in its wake. Airports in Florida were forced to halt flights as the threat from impacts extended south to the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands. Now the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is again requiring SpaceX to perform a mishap investigation into what led its eighth Starship test flight to end with a loss of the vehicle. The rocket launched toward space Thursday (March 7) from SpaceX’s Starbase facility…

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Starship put on a show for skywatchers yet again — but not the way that SpaceX would have liked. SpaceX launched the eighth test flight of Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, from its Starbase site in South Texas on Thursday evening (March 6). Starship‘s huge first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, came back to Starbase for a launch-tower catch about seven minutes after liftoff as planned. But the vehicle’s 171-foot-tall (52 meters) upper stage — called Starship or just Ship — experienced a serious problem shortly…

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US Space Operations Command recently unveiled a new motto: “Semper Venator,” Latin for “Always the hunter.” In a new video featuring a score of crunchy metal guitars and a thumping drumbeat under spacy orchestral notes, the short video begins with a nod to the Orion constellation, named after a hunter from Greek mythology. The rest of the video is a montage of U.S. Space Force members carrying out their duties. The U.S. Space Force was established in 2019. The following year, on Oct. 21, the fledgling military branch activated Space…

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The private Athena lunar lander is on its way to the moon. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off shortly after sunset this evening (Feb. 26), carrying Athena and NASA’s ride-along Lunar Trailblazer orbiter aloft against a darkening sky here at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Athena — which was built by the Houston-based spaceflight company Intuitive Machines — carries 10 NASA science instruments, many of which are designed to hunt for signs of water ice. Lunar Trailblazer will do similar work from its higher perch.…

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A propellant leak was to blame for the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket crashing to Earth over Europe last week, SpaceX says. The Falcon 9 launched on Feb. 1 from California, carrying 22 Starlink internet satellites to low Earth orbit as planned. SpaceX usually de-orbits Falcon 9 upper stages after their deployment work is done, bringing the hardware down in a controlled fashion over unpopulated areas. That didn’t happen on this particular mission, however. The Falcon 9 upper stage stayed aloft until Feb. 19, when it fell to…

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Firefly Aerospace is primed for a lunar landing attempt on Sunday (March 2) following a series of successful maneuvers in lunar orbit. The company’s Blue Ghost lander entered lunar orbit on Feb. 13, after launching atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 15. It has since been lowering its orbit in preparation for a moon landing and is now all set for the upcoming attempt. “Blue Ghost’s third and final lunar orbit maneuver is complete! Early this morning, our #GhostRiders performed a 16-second burn with our RCS thrusters to…

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SpaceX launched another set of its Starlink internet satellites from southern California on Saturday evening (Feb 22). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Station at 8:38 p.m. EST (5:38 p.m. local time or 0138 GMT Feb. 23). The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocketrests on the deck of a drone ship shortly after launching 22 Starlink internet satellites to orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Feb. 22, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX via X) As to plan, the…

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SpaceX launched another set of its Starlink internet satellites from southern California on Saturday evening (Feb 22). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Station at 8:38 p.m. EST (5:38 p.m. local time or 0138 GMT Feb. 23). As to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage came back to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff. It touched down on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You,” which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean. (Image credit: SpaceX via X) It was the…

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