Space News & Blog Articles

Firefly Aerospace launches its sixth Alpha rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base on April 29, 2025. Image: Trevor Mahlmann / Firefly Aerospace

Firefly Aerospace may soon bring its Alpha rockets to the coast of Japan.

The X-37B on the runway at Vandenberg Space Force Base following its landing there on March 7, 2025. Image: U.S. Space Force.

Update Aug. 20, 12:56 p.m. EDT: Added additional information from the 45th Weather Squadron.

File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch the Starlink 7-14 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is set to launch its 100th Falcon 9 rocket of the year on Monday morning. The flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base will carry another batch of Starlink optimized V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit.

SpaceX’s Ship 37 performs a static fire test with all six of its Raptor engines as part of prelaunch testing ahead of the Flight 10 mission for the Starship program. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is once again gearing up for a launch of its massive Starship rocket from southern Texas. On Friday, it announced plans for the tenth flight of the fully integrated, two-stage rocket as soon as Sunday, Aug. 24, from its headquarters in Starbase.

File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is preparing to launch a batch of 28 of its Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit minutes before sunrise on Thursday morning.

United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket roared off the pad at Space Launch Complex 41 to begin the USSF-106 mission for the U.S. Space Force. This was the first national security launch using a Vulcan rocket and the 101st national security mission for ULA. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

United Launch Alliance fired off it’s first fully operational Vulcan rocket Tuesday, boosting two military satellites into space in the first Space Force-sanctioned flight of a new launcher that eventually will replace the company’s Atlas 5 and already-retired Deltas.

A United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ahead of the launch of the USSF-106 mission. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now

More than four months after it was certified to fly national security payloads for the United States government, United Launch Alliance is on the cusp of launching just such a mission with its Vulcan rocket.

A Falcon 9 stands ready to launch 24 Kuiper satellites from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Image: SpaceX.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 will make another attempt Sunday to launch 24 satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet service after three earlier attempts were scrubbed.

The SpaceX Dragon Endurance splashes down in the waters of the Pacific Ocean near the coast of San Diego, California. Image: NASA

Two NASA astronauts, a Japanese flier and a Russian cosmonaut plunged back to Earth Saturday, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego to wrap up a five-month mission.

Astronaut James A. Lovell Jr., Apollo 13 mission commander, reads a newspaper account of the safe recovery of the problem plagued mission. Lovell is on board the USS Iwo Jima, prime recovery ship for Apollo 13, which was on a course headed for Pago Pago. From Pago Pago the astronauts flew to Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, where they were presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard M. Nixon. Other Apollo 13 crew members were astronauts John L. Swigert Jr., command module pilot, and Fred W. Haise Jr., lunar module pilot. Image: NASA

James ‘Jim’ Lovell, one of the last seven surviving Apollo astronauts died on Thursday, Aug. 7, at the age of 97. A veteran of four spaceflights at the dawn of America’s human spaceflight program, he flew two missions in the Gemini program and then served on the crews of Apollo 8 and the ill-fated Apollo 13.

File: A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch a Starlink mission. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is gearing up for its first Falcon 9 rocket launch from the West Coast in nine days with a mission to deliver 24 optimized Starlink V2 Mini satellites into a polar, low Earth orbit.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) hoists the USSF-106 mission payload atop the Vulcan rocket in the Government Vertical Integration Facility (VIF-G) adjacent to Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This will be Vulcan’s first national security mission for the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command (SSC). Image: United Launch Alliance

United Launch Alliance is on the cusp of a significant milestone for its Vulcan rocket. The 202-foot-tall (61 m) launch vehicle is poised to take flight on its first national security mission as soon as Tuesday, August 12.

SpaceX Falcon 9 payload fairings, containing 24 of Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites, rolls out of Amazon’s payload processing facility at Space Florida’s Launch and Landing Facility on Monday, Aug. 5, 2025. The satellites will launch on the KF-02 mission, the second Falcon 9 flight carrying these broadband satellites into low Earth orbit. Image: Amazon

Amazon is back at the launch pad once again with more of its Project Kuiper broadband internet satellites. The tech giant is getting a lift to space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket set to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday.

File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

SpaceX will pass another milestone in rocket reuse when it launches a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the overnight hours of Monday, Aug. 4. The mission, dubbed Starlink 10-30, features the company’s 450th launch of a flight-proven booster.

Falcon 9 carrying Crew Dragon Endeavour, dodged storm clouds to launch a new crew to the International Space Station on Aug. 1, 2025. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.

Weather threatened to delay the Crew-11 mission for a second time, but the launch team was able to “thread the clouds” and a four-person crew lifted off on a journey to the International Space Station.

A Falcon 9 rocket climbs away from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the Starlink 13-4 mission. Image: SpaceX.

Some classified satellites might have hitched a ride with 19 Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX from the company’s West Coast launch site on Thursday.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, topped with Crew Dragon Endeavour, stands at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The rocket will launch the Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now

A group of astronauts and a cosmonaut originally slated to fly on other missions are finally getting their ticket to ride. The quartet, led by NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, will head to the International Space Station beginning with a launch scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is preparing to launch its next batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station shortly before midnight on Tuesday.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, topped with the Crew Dragon Endeavour, is pictured at sunset on Sunday, July 27, 2025. It will launch the Crew-11 mission, which is schedule to liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, July 31, 2025. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is preparing for a mid-afternoon demonstration on Monday to verify the health of the Falcon 9 rocket that will carry four humans up to the International Space Station this week. The three astronauts and one cosmonaut of the mission, dubbed Crew-11, will carry out a long-duration stay onboard the orbiting outpost with liftoff planned for Thursday, July 31.

File: A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch a Starlink mission. Image: SpaceX

Update July 26, 12:56 a.m.: The Falcon 9 booster landed on the droneship.

The three astronauts and cosmonaut of the SpaceX Crew-11 mission descend from a Gulfstream jet at Space Florida’s Launch and Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. From bottom to top: Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), NASA astronaut Mike Fincke and NASA astronaut Zena Cardman. Image: John Pisani/Spaceflight Now

The next four souls who will fly to the International Space Station touched down in Florida on a sweltering and humid Saturday afternoon.