Space News & Blog Articles

Live coverage of the Expedition 66 mission on the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei in his Russian Sokol launch and entry spacesuit. Credit: NASA

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, launched by Russia to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft last April, returns this week to a world torn by war in Ukraine and escalating superpower tension as he closes out a 355-day stay in orbit, the longest single flight by a U.S. astronaut.

The waning gibbous moon as viewed from the International Space Station on Jan. 21. Credit: NASA

The White House’s fiscal year 2023 budget request for NASA totals $26 billion, including $7.5 billion for the agency’s Artemis moon program, a boost over this year’s budget to help pay for development of a second human-rated lander to ferry astronauts to the lunar surface.

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, pilot Bob Hines, commander Kjell Lindgren, and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti pose with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX’s fourth human-rated Crew Dragon spacecraft has been named “Freedom” by the first team of astronauts who will ride it into orbit next month.

Pilot Larry Connor and commander Mike Lopez-Alegria (left and right) during training inside a SpaceX simulator. Credit: Axiom Space / SpaceX

NASA officials gave the green light Friday for the first all-commercial astronaut launch to the International Space Station on a SpaceX rocket as soon as April 3. But the astronaut launch could be delayed a day, or longer, to give priority to a countdown test for NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket on a neighboring launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center.

Live views of launch pad 39B and updates on preparations for the inaugural launch of NASA’s Space Launch System Moon rocket on the Artemis 1 test flight.

A Soyuz rocket lifts off Tuesday with a Russian military satellite. Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense

A Russian Soyuz rocket delivered a military communications satellite to orbit Tuesday in the first space launch for Russia’s military since forces invaded Ukraine last month.

A Long March 4C rocket lifts off with the Yaogan 34-02 satellite. Credit: CASC

China launched a classified military remote sensing satellite March 17 on a Long March 4C rocket. The three-stage rocket placed the Yaogan 34-02 satellite into an orbit at an altitude of 680 miles (1,100 kilometers).

Credit: Alex Polimeni / Spaceflight Now

The first 322-foot-tall (98-meter) Space Launch System moon rocket arrived on launch pad 39B Friday after an overnight trek from the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.



NASA’s Space Launch System rolls eastbound toward pad 39B. Credit: Alex Polimeni / Spaceflight Now

NASA’s powerful new moon rocket, standing more than 30 stories tall, arrived on the launch pad early Friday for the first time at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ready for a series of checkouts culminating in fueling test and simulated countdown in early April.

Two astronauts floated outside the International Space Station Wednesday for a spacewalk to install refurbished ammonia jumpers in the lab’s cooling system, to replace a high-definition camera and to make power and data connections on a European instrument platform.

A Falcon 9 rocket climbs away from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with 53 more Starlink internet satellites. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now

SpaceX flew one of its Falcon 9 rocket boosters for a record 12th time early Saturday, delivering 53 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit and closing out the first quarter of 2022 with 11 missions.

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

A Falcon 9 rocket takes off from Cape Canaveral in January. Credit: SpaceX

OneWeb said Monday it has reached an agreement with SpaceX to resume launching the company’s satellite internet constellation later this year, just 18 days after suspending launches on Russian Soyuz rockets.

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 4-12 mission will launch SpaceX’s next batch of 53 Starlink broadband satellites. Follow us on Twitter.

Live coverage of the Expedition 66 mission on the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

Russian cosmonauts Sergey Korsakov, Oleg Artemyev, and Denis Matveev during a training session inside their Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft. Credit: Roscosmos

Three cosmonauts set to kick off a six-and-a-half month expedition in orbit will launch Friday on Russia’s first mission to the International Space Station since the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

SpaceX raised a Falcon 9 rocket vertical Thursday night at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now

SpaceX raised a veteran Falcon 9 booster vertical on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral late Thursday, ready for a record-setting 12th mission Friday night with 53 more Starlink internet satellites.

The Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building. Credit: NASA

NASA will roll the Space Launch System, a heavy-duty rocket designed to send astronauts to the moon, out of the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday evening. A crawler-transporter originally built more than 50 years ago for the Apollo program will haul the towering rocket to its launch pad for a countdown dress rehearsal.

Astra’s Rocket 3.3 lifts off from Tuesday from Alaska. Credit: Astra

Astra’s small satellite launcher returned to flight Tuesday and delivered an unspecified number of small satellites into orbit after a successful liftoff from Alaska, helping clear the way for a series of three launches for NASA in the coming months at Cape Canaveral.