Tag: Space Exploration

Firefly Aerospace’s first mission to the moon is poised to launch in the early morning hours on Jan. 15. The company’s Blue Ghost lunar lander is sharing a payload bay with another mission to the moon’s surface, the Resilience probe from private Japanese company ispace. The two are launching on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, scheduled to liftoff no earlier than Wednesday, at 1:11 a.m. ET (0611 GMT), from Launch Complex-39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Blue Ghost Mission 1, which Firefly has dubbed Ghost Riders in…

Japanese space exploration company ispace is all set to launch its second lunar lander early Wednesday morning (Jan. 15), but what will the spacecraft carry with it to the moon? The ispace Resilience lander will lift off atop of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida Wednesday at 1:11 a.m. EST (0611 GMT), with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander also on the flight. The dual moon mission is the first of an array of lunar launches planned for 2025. Resilience…

China’s state-owned main space contractor tested five different rocket engines on one day last week in preparation for future missions and projects. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) tested the engines at two sites in Beijing and Laiyuan County in Hebei Province, north China, on Jan. 2. One test-fired a new hydrogen-oxygen engine for the upper stage of an unspecified rocket for 100 seconds. It was conducted by the 101 Institute of CASC’s Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology. On Jan. 2, 2025, China tested five new rocket engines,…

Two private lunar landers are set to launch this week aboard the same rocket, kicking off a busy year of missions to the moon. A six-day window for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching the missions begins early Wednesday morning (Jan. 15), with liftoff scheduled for 1:11 a.m. EST (0611 GMT) from Launch Complex-39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The Falcon 9 will carry both landers to Earth orbit, where each will begin independent trajectories toward the moon. Ghost Riders in the Sky, the mission for Firefly…

SpaceX is ready to launch its first Starship flight of 2025, a mission that will test a new version of the world’s largest rocket. But if you’re hoping to watch the planned Jan. 13 launch live online, you’ll need to know when and where, and for that we’ve got you covered. After a successful fueling test late Friday, Jan. 10, SpaceX is on track to launch its Starship Flight 7 mission at 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT) on Monday, Jan. 13, from the company’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach…