Space News & Blog Articles

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft docked at the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Astronauts on the International Space Station closed the hatch to Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft Tuesday, and ground teams used the lab’s robotic arm to inspect the capsule’s heat shield to clear the vehicle for undocking Wednesday and return to Earth for a late afternoon landing in New Mexico.

The Outpost Mars Demo-1 payload ready for launch on SpaceX’s Transporter 5 rideshare mission. Credit: Nanoracks

Nanoracks will fly an experiment with a small articulating robot arm on SpaceX’s Transporter 5 rideshare mission this week to demonstrate metal cutting in orbit, a test lasting just minutes that could advance in-space manufacturing technology to help convert used rocket stages into space habitats.

SpaceX’s Dragon Endurance spacecraft after splashdown May 6, with its heat shield displayed toward the camera. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

SpaceX’s next crew mission to the International Space Station, set for launch in September, will fly with a different heat shield structure than originally planned after a composite substrate failed in acceptance testing due to a “manufacturing defect,” NASA said Tuesday.

A Chinese Long March 2C rocket lifts off May 20 with three communications test satellites. Credit: CASC

A two-stage Chinese Long March 2C rocket launched Friday and delivered three communications test satellites into an orbit about 550 miles (880 kilometers) above Earth.

Pam Melroy, NASA’s deputy administrator, visits the Psyche spacecraft undergoing processing May 19 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA-JPL/Wes Kuykendall

The launch of NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission, which was set for Aug. 1 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, has been delayed to no earlier than Sept. 20 after ground teams discovered an issue during software testing on the spacecraft, officials said Monday.



NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, Russian cosmonaut Denis Matveev, and astronaut Bob Hines inside the Starliner spacecraft docked at the International Space Station. The instrumented mannequin, “Rosie the Rocketeer,” is in the commander’s seat wearing a Boeing spacesuit. Credit: NASA TV / Spaceflight Now

Astronauts on the International Space Station floated into Boeing’s Starliner capsule Saturday, becoming the first people to enter the spacecraft in orbit less than a day after it docked at the orbiting research complex for the first time.

Russian cosmonaut Sergey Korsakov captured this view of the Starliner spacecraft approaching the International Space Station. Credit: Sergey Korsakov / Roscosmos

Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule finally reached the International Space Station Friday night with a “nail-biting” rendezvous and docking, overcoming several technical glitches to accomplish a long-awaited objective for the spacecraft before NASA clears it to ferry astronauts to the research complex.

Live coverage of the unpiloted test flight of Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule on the Orbital Flight Test-2 mission. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket climbs off pad 41 with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Credit: Alex Polimeni / Spaceflight Now

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft thundered into orbit Thursday from Cape Canaveral aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, aiming to dock at the International Space Station on a years-late test flight to prove the capsule’s systems before flying astronauts.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission will launch Boeing’s human-rated Starliner spacecraft on its second unpiloted Orbital Flight Test. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket and Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule on their launch pad Wednesday at Cape Canaveral. Credit: Alex Polimeni / Spaceflight Now

United Launch Alliance rolled an Atlas 5 rocket to its launch pad Wednesday at Cape Canaveral, moving into the starting position for a critical unpiloted demo flight of Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule. Unlike the first Starliner test flight, the spacecraft’s launch abort system will be armed during the climb to space Thursday.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket transits the face of the sun moments after liftoff Wednesday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography

SpaceX’s third Starlink satellite delivery mission in five days departed Florida’s Space Coast just after sunrise Wednesday, adding 53 more mass-produced communications spacecraft to the company’s broadband internet network.

NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore speaks with reporters Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

The NASA astronauts training for the first crew missions on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft will be closely watching each step of the capsule’s unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station, set for blastoff Thursday from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas 5 rocket.

The aging shuttle-era spacesuits aboard the International Space Station have been declared “no-go” for operational, normally planned spacewalks pending analysis to determine what led to excess water getting into an astronaut’s helmet during a March excursion, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Starlink 4-18 mission launched SpaceX’s next batch of 53 Starlink broadband satellites. Follow us on Twitter.

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was hoisted on top of ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket May 4 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Credit: United Launch Alliance

Running years late, Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule program is poised for a crucial unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station set for launch Thursday, a do-over of an abbreviated 2019 demo mission that has cost the aerospace contractor nearly $600 million.

A spacecraft container is unloaded from a transport ship Saturday at Port Canaveral, Florida. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now

A transport ship delivered the SES 22 and Nilesat 301 geostationary communications satellites to Cape Canaveral over the weekend to prepare for two launches on SpaceX rockets in June, completing a trans-Atlantic journey from France originally planned on Russian-owned cargo planes.

The InSight lander’s seismometer instrument, covered by its wind and thermal shield, on the surface of Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s InSight lander operating on the surface of Mars has detected the most powerful seismic tremor ever measured on another planet, a “marsquake” estimated at magnitude 5, strong enough to reveal new insights about the deep Martian interior.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral on Saturday with the Starlink 4-15 mission. Credit: SpaceX

More than half of the spacecraft SpaceX needs to fill the company’s first-generation fleet of 4,408 Starlink satellites are now in orbit, following the addition of 106 new internet relay nodes launched on two Falcon 9 rockets Friday and Saturday.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Starlink 4-15 mission will launch SpaceX’s next batch of 53 Starlink broadband satellites. Follow us on Twitter.