Tag: Launches & Spacecraft

NASA’s next special delivery to the International Space Station has a launch date, but it’s going to be one for early-birds. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch an uncrewed Dragon cargo ship packed with tons of supplies on Monday, April 21, from the historic Pad 39A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Liftoff is set for 4:15 a.m. EDT (0815 GMT), making it a predawn launch. “Along with food and essential equipment for the crew, Dragon is delivering a variety of experiments, including a demonstration of…

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A never-before-flown Falcon 9 rocket launched the newest round of Starlink internet satellites Monday (April 7), in an afternoon liftoff from the U.S. West Coast. The booster, likely the one designated B1091, was the second new rocket that SpaceX has launched so far this year, both of which supported Starlink missions. Monday’s flight, known as Starlink 11-11, lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 7:06 p.m. EDT (2306 GMT), lofting 27 Starlink satellites toward low Earth orbit (LEO). About eight minutes after liftoff, B1091 completed its descent…

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SpaceX sent another big batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit from Florida on Saturday night (April 5). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 Starlink craft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Saturday at 11:07 p.m. EDT (0307 GMT on Sunday, April 6). About eight minutes after launch, the rocket’s first stage came back to Earth for a landing on the SpaceX drone ship “Just Read the Instructions,” which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the 19th launch and landing for this particular booster,…

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SpaceX sent 27 of its Starlink internet satellites toward low Earth orbit from California this evening (April 3). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink craft lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base today at 9:02 p.m. EDT (6:02 p.m. local California time; 0102 GMT on April 4). A little over eight minutes later, the rocket’s first stage touched down on the SpaceX drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You,” which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean. It was the fifth launch and landing for this particular booster, according…

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SpinLaunch has unveiled its plans for a new broadband satellite constellation known as Meridian Space. The Meridian Space constellation will consist of small “microsatellites” that can be sent to low-Earth orbit with as many as 250 spacecraft on a single launch vehicle, according to SpinLaunch. The company received $12M in funding from Kongsberg NanoAvionics to help develop and commercialize the satellites, with a planned launch date of 2026 for its first on-orbit demonstrator. It’s unclear if SpinLaunch will be launching the demonstrator itself with its revolutionary rocket-flinging centrifuge or if…

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Amazon’s first big batch of Project Kuiper broadband satellites will lift off just a week from now, if all goes according to plan. A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket is scheduled to send 27 Project Kuiper satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO) on April 9, Amazon announced today (April 2). The Atlas V will lift off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station during a three-hour window that opens at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT). You’ll be able to watch it live when the time comes. This will…

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You know how the James Webb Space Telescope is said to be revolutionizing astronomy because it can study wavelengths hidden to human eyes? Well, those wavelengths lie in the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum — and on April 1, NASA announced its brand new infrared space telescope, SPHEREx, has officially opened its eyes to the cosmos as well. This first light, as it’s called, shows that all of the spacecraft’s systems are working just as expected. “Based on the images we are seeing, we can now say that the…

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SpaceX just launched the first-ever human spaceflight to circle Earth over its poles. The private Fram2 mission lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida today (March 31) at 9:46 p.m. EDT (0146 GMT on April 1), sending the Crew Dragon capsule “Resilience” into a polar orbit with a quartet of spaceflight rookies aboard. Fram2 is commanded Chun Wang of Malta, who is joined by vehicle commander Jannicke Mikkelsen from Norway, pilot Rabea Rogge of Germany, and Australian medical officer and…

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A dramatic drone video shows Isar Aerospace’s first orbital launch attempt, which ended with a fiery crash into the frigid sea about 30 seconds after liftoff. The Germany company’s first Spectrum rocket lifted off Sunday morning (March 30) from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway on the first-ever orbital launch attempt from European soil. Spectrum cleared the tower but suffered an anomaly shortly thereafter. The rocket flipped over and slammed into the ocean near the pad, sending an orange-tinted cloud high into a clear Arctic sky, as the video shows. Isar…

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The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has closed its investigation into Flight 7 of SpaceX’s huge Starship vehicle, which ended with a dramatic explosion over the Atlantic Ocean. Flight 7 sent Starship aloft from SpaceX‘s Starbase site in South Texas on Jan. 16. Things went well at first; Starship’s first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, came back to Starbase for a launch-tower landing about seven minutes after liftoff as planned. However, the giant rocket’s 171-foot-tall (52-meter) upper stage exploded high in the sky a few minutes later, sending debris raining…

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