The timeline below covers major countdown activities planned during the NASA’s wet dress rehearsal for the Artemis 1 mission. The wet dress rehearsal will include loading of more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the Space Launch System moon rocket on launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket stands on pad 39B Sunday, moments after NASA scrubbed a planned cryogenic fueling test. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
NASA launch controllers called off plans to load super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the first fully-assembled Space Launch System moon rocket Sunday, giving time for ground teams to troubleshoot problems with fans used to ventilate the giant rocket’s mobile launch structure at the Kennedy Space Center.
Live coverage of the wet dress rehearsal for the Space Launch System on NASA’s Artemis 1 mission. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
Rocket Lab’s Electron launcher streaks into the night sky over New Zealand with two BlackSky imaging satellites. Credit: Rocket Lab / Joseph Baxter
Two microsatellites for BlackSky launched Saturday from New Zealand, riding a Rocket Lab launch vehicle into orbit to join a fleet of commercial eyes supplying imagery to military and civilian users.
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1A on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand carrying two small BlackSky Earth observation satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.
Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle during a countdown rehearsal earlier this week. Credit: Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab will launch a mission from New Zealand on Saturday to place two more small optical imaging satellites into orbit for BlackSky, the U.S. remote sensing company.
NASA’s Space Launch System on launch pad 39B. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
NASA commenced a two-day countdown dress rehearsal for the agency’s huge Space Launch System moon rocket Friday, with clocks ticking down to a critical milestone Sunday, when the heavy-lifter will be fueled and pressurized on the launch pad for the first time.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket climbs into clouds over Cape Canaveral to begin the Transporter 4 mission. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX launched a German environmental mapping satellite and 39 co-passenger spacecraft Friday, dodging thunderstorms near Cape Canaveral that threatened to keep the Falcon 9 rocket on the ground.
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The Transporter 4 mission will launch 40 small payloads from customers around the world. Follow us on Twitter.
The EnMAP spacecraft at its factory in Bremen, Germany. Credit: OHB/H. von der Fecht
A $330 million German hyperspectral Earth-imaging satellite will hitch a ride to orbit from Cape Canaveral with 39 smaller commercial payloads on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket set for blastoff Friday.
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.
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