Space News & Blog Articles

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Cruise ship under rocket’s flight path forces another SpaceX launch scrub

A Falcon 9 rocket stands on pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Sunday evening before a launch attempt with an Italian COSMO-SkyMed radar imaging satellite. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now

A cruise ship that ventured under the planned flight path of a Falcon 9 rocket near Cape Canaveral Sunday forced SpaceX to delay launch of an Italian Earth-imaging satellite for a fourth time, setting up the mission for another try just after sunset Monday.

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Falcon 9 rocket test fired before COSMO-SkyMed satellite launch

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Weather delays set up SpaceX for two weekend launches from Cape Canaveral

A Falcon 9 rocket stands on pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Friday evening with Italy’s CSG 2 radar satellite. Credit: SpaceX

A blanket of thick clouds over Cape Canaveral Friday forced SpaceX to delay liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket and an Italian radar remote sensing satellite until Saturday, setting up Florida’s Space Coast for launches on back to back days this weekend, with another SpaceX flight already booked on the range for Sunday.

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SpaceX cargo ship returns to Earth with spacesuit and science specimens

A SpaceX Cargo Dragon capsule undocks from the International Space Station on Jan. 23 with more than 4,900 pounds of hardware and scientific experiments. Credit: NASA

A SpaceX cargo ship splashed down under parachutes in the Gulf of Mexico this week, returning from the International Space Station after a 34-day mission with a spacesuit used for spacewalks and research specimens for distribution to scientists around the world.

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Live coverage: SpaceX counting down to launch of Italian radar satellite

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The mission will launch a radar remote sensing satellite for Italy’s COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation constellation. Follow us on Twitter.

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SpaceX gives converted Falcon Heavy side booster new life

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a booster stage converted from two previous Falcon Heavy missions, rolls through NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Dec. 8 toward its launch pad. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography

A converted SpaceX side booster that flew on two Falcon Heavy missions in 2019 will launch again Thursday as the first stage of a single-stick Falcon 9 rocket set to lift off from Cape Canaveral with an Italian radar imaging satellite.

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NASA to name astronauts this year for first Artemis moon mission

Artist’s concept of an Orion spacecraft at the moon. Credit: NASA

NASA will announce later this year the four astronauts who will slingshot around the far side of the moon on the Artemis lunar program’s first crew mission, currently scheduled for launch in 2024, the head of the agency’s human space exploration division recently said. The crew is expected to include three U.S. fliers and one Canadian astronaut.

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SpaceX ready to launch Italian radar remote sensing satellite

Artist’s illustration of a COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation satellite in orbit. Credit: ASI

SpaceX plans to launch an Italian Earth observation satellite with radar vision Thursday evening from Cape Canaveral on a twilight flight that could dazzle spectators with the ascent and descent of the reusable Falcon 9 booster over the Florida spaceport.

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Photos: Atlas 5 rocket flies on ULA’s first mission of 2022

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket took off Jan. 21 from Cape Canaveral, climbing off of launch pad 41 with thrust from its Russian-made RD-180 main engine and a single Northrop Grumman solid rocket booster to carry two U.S. military satellites into orbit.

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Webb reaches orbital destination a million miles from Earth

Artist’s illustration of the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA

The James Webb Space Telescope slipped into orbit around a point in space nearly a million miles from Earth Monday where it can capture light from the first stars and galaxies to form in the aftermath of the Big Bang.

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Astra fires up rocket for first time at Cape Canaveral

Astra’s small satellite launcher was test-fired at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 46 launch pad Saturday. Credit: Astra / John Kraus

Astra, a company seeking to carve out a segment of the growing small satellite launch market, test-fired its two-stage rocket at Cape Canaveral on Saturday in preparation for an upcoming demonstration flight for NASA.

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Watch live: Cargo Dragon capsule ready to depart space station



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Atlas 5 rocket delivers two military inspector satellites to high-altitude orbit

An Atlas 5 rocket, boosted by an RD-180 main engine and one strap-on solid rocket motor, lifts off from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with a pair of U.S. Space Force tracking satellites. Credit: Alex Polimeni / Spaceflight Now

Two satellites for a once-classified U.S. military program to track and inspect other spacecraft in orbit — a mission the Space Force’s top general equates to a “neighborhood watch” capability — lifted off from Cape Canaveral Friday on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.

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Webb closes in on destination with critical mirror alignment on tap

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

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Science mission begins for NASA’s new eye on the X-ray universe

Artist’s concept of the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. Credit: NASA

A NASA astronomy satellite that launched Dec. 9 from Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX rocket has started observing the X-ray universe, beginning a mission to study the nature of black holes and the super-dense skeletons left behind by exploded stars.

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Atlas 5 rocket rolls to launch pad for Space Force mission

An Atlas 5 rocket rolls out to pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with two GSSAP satellites for the U.S. Space Force. Credit: United Launch Alliance

Gearing up for its first mission of the year, United Launch Alliance rolled an Atlas 5 rocket to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Thursday, a day before liftoff with a pair of U.S. Space Force satellites on a flight that will debut a version of the Atlas 5 never used before.

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Live coverage: Atlas 5 rocket set for launch today from Cape Canaveral

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, known as USSF 8, will launch two U.S. Space Force satellites for the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

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ULA’s first launch of 2022 to debut unflown variant of Atlas 5 rocket

A promotional poster for the USSF-8 mission, showing the Atlas 5’s configuration with a single solid rocket booster and a 5.4-meter (17.7-foot) diameter payload fairing. Credit: United Launch Alliance

United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket has flown in 10 different configurations over 90 missions since 2002, each version optimized to haul satellites of a certain size and mass into space.

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Spacewalking cosmonauts activate space station’s newest Russian module

Cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov work outside the Prichal module Wednesday. Credit: NASA/Mark Vande Hei

Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov completed a 7-hour, 11-minute spacewalk Wednesday outside the International Space Station, preparing Russia’s new Prichal module for the arrival of the next Soyuz crew spacecraft in March.

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SpaceX launches 2,000th Starlink satellite

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket streaks into orbit with 49 more Starlink internet satellites. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography

A package of 49 Starlink satellites that rode a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit Tuesday night from Florida included the 2,000th spacecraft to launch into SpaceX’s broadband internet network.

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First Chinese space mission of 2022 rockets into orbit

A Chinese Long March 2D rocket lifts off with the Shiyan 13 satellite. Credit: CASC

China launched a Long March 2D rocket Monday with another classified satellite, deploying the spacecraft into a polar orbit on the first of more than 40 Chinese Long March rocket missions planned in 2022.

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