A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket climbs into the sky over Vandenberg Space Force Base to begin the Starlink 4-13 mission. Credit: Gene Blevins / LA Daily News
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Friday afternoon from California’s Central Coast with another batch 53 Starlink internet satellites, pushing the total number of spacecraft launched in the network above 2,500, including testbeds and prototypes already cycled out of the network.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft descends under parachutes on Dec. 22, 2019, at the conclusion of the Orbital Flight Test-1 mission. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
Members of NASA’s independent safety advisory panel on Thursday cautioned the space agency not to rush toward a crew test flight of Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft, and voiced concerns about final certification of the capsule’s parachutes and Boeing staffing levels on the program.
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with 53 Starlink internet satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
File photo of a Hyperbola 1 rocket undergoing launch preparations. Credit: i-Space
A small satellite launcher developed by the Chinese startup iSpace failed to place its Earth observing payload into orbit Friday, the third consecutive failure for the company’s Hyperbola 1 rocket.
File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket on the SLC-4E launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Credit: National Reconnaissance Office
Weather permitting, SpaceX teams in California and Florida plan to launch two Falcon 9 rockets Friday and Saturday, each hauling 53 more Starlink satellites to join the company’s global broadband network.
GOES-18 full disk GeoColor image from May 5, 2022. This type of imagery combines data from multiple ABI channels to approximate what the human eye would see from space. Credit: NOAA
NOAA released the first imagery from the new GOES-18 weather satellite that launched March 1 from Cape Canaveral, and confirmed the spacecraft’s main camera doesn’t suffer the same cooling system problem that caused degraded vision in an earlier satellite.
Artist’s illustration of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in orbit. Credit: Boeing
NASA officials cleared Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule for launch next week in a flight readiness review Wednesday, moving a step closer toward a critical unpiloted demonstration flight to attempt docking at the International Space Station and check off other test objectives left unaccomplished on a problem-plagued mission two-and-a-half years ago.
File photo of two Russian-built RD-181 engines powering an Antares rocket off its launch pad in Virginia. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
Northrop Grumman says it has a backup plan to fulfill the company’s contract to resupply to the International Space Station if the war in Ukraine continues to disrupt the supply of Russian engines and Ukrainian booster cores for the company’s Antares rocket.
The P120C first stage for the inaugural Vega C launch was transferred to the launch pad in French Guiana on April 15. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace
Europe’s new Vega C launcher is on track for its inaugural flight from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, during the second half of June, according to officials managing final phases of integration.
A Long March 2D rocket lifts off with eight Jilin 1 Earth-imaging satellites. Credit: CASC
China launched eight more microsatellites for the Jilin 1 high-resolution Earth observation constellation May 4, five days after a separate mission deployed five similar Jilin 1 payloads into orbit.
Artist’s concept of a crew member performing a spacewalk outside of a Crew Dragon spacecraft. Credit: SpaceX / Polaris Program
The four-person crew who will fly on the all-private Polaris Dawn mission — set to include the first commercial spacewalk and the debut of SpaceX’s extravehicular spacesuit — will begin training this month for their ride on a Dragon spacecraft to an altitude more than three times higher than the International Space Station.
A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off to begin the Starlink 4-17 mission. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center at first light Friday with 53 Starlink internet satellites, completing an all-nighter of space operations just five hours after returning four astronauts to a splashdown off the west coast of Florida.
SpaceX’s recovery team prepares to lift the Dragon Endurance spacecraft from the Gulf of Mexico early Friday. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
Four astronauts returned to Earth from the International Space Station early Friday with a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida, the sixth crew launch or landing in support of the station program in fewer than 50 days.
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 4-17 mission will launch SpaceX’s next batch of 53 Starlink broadband satellites. Follow us on Twitter.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands on pad 39A Thursday. Credit: Spaceflight Now
SpaceX raised a Falcon 9 rocket vertical on pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center Thursday, ready for a pre-sunrise blastoff Friday with 53 more Starlink internet satellites, using a booster stage flying for a record-tying 12th time.
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA/Isaac Watson
A U.S. military cargo plane delivered NASA’s Psyche spacecraft from California to the Kennedy Space Center last week, starting a three-month campaign to ready the asteroid explorer for liftoff on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in August.
ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, pilot Tom Marshburn, commander Raja Chari, and mission specialist Kayla Barron try on their SpaceX pressure suits before departing the International Space Station after a six-month expedition. Credit: NASA
Three NASA astronauts and a European Space Agency mission specialist left the International Space Station early Thursday aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule, heading for splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida to wrap up a 176-day expedition in orbit.
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