Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX, said Friday the company’s huge new Starship rocket could be ready for its first orbital test launch from South Texas as soon as November, but the schedule comes with two big uncertainties that may push the launch to next year.
The 74,000-pound Orion spacecraft was lifted inside the Vehicle Assembly Building this week, and mounted to the top of the Space Launch System. Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux
With NASA’s powerful new 322-foot-tall moon rocket fully stacked at Kennedy Space Center, managers said Friday that Feb. 12 is the soonest the unpiloted Artemis 1 mission could blast off toward lunar orbit, a date that hinges on the outcome of a critical fueling test on the launch pad in January.
An Ariane 5 rocket on its launch pad Thursday night in Kourou, French Guiana. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/JM Guillon
Arianespace delayed the launch from French Guiana of a European Ariane 5 rocket with two geostationary communications satellites Friday to conduct more checks of ground support equipment at the spaceport.
The Progress MS-17 spacecraft approaches the International space Station for docking Friday. Credit: Roscosmos
A Russian Progress supply ship docked with the new Nauka lab module at the International Space Station Friday, completing a 29-hour free flight after detaching from a different port at the complex.
A view inside Rocket Lab’s factory in New Zealand, where Electron boosters are lined up in an assembly facility. The rockets with red markings are tagged for recovery missions. Credit: Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab said this week that its next mission, set for launch Nov. 10 after delays caused by a coronavirus lockdown in New Zealand, will include the company’s third booster recovery experiment. For the first time, Rocket Lab plans to have a helicopter in the downrange recovery zone to observe the descending booster in preparation for future mid-air catch attempts.
The Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 1 mission is lowered on top of its Space Launch System rocket Oct. 20 inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building. Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux
Technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center worked overnight Wednesday to tighten 360 bolts connecting the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 1 moon mission to the first Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket, hours after a crane hoisted the deep space capsule atop the booster inside the Vehicle Assembly Building.
South Korea’s first domestically produced satellite launcher failed to reach orbit on its inaugural test flight Thursday. A preliminary review of data indicated the rocket’s third stage shut down early, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: South Korea’s science ministry will stream the Nuri rocket launch live beginning at 1:30 a.m. EDT (0530 GMT) Thursday, Oct. 21.
The DART spacecraft is moved into a shipping container last month at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman
A small spacecraft built for a NASA asteroid defense experiment arrived at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California earlier this month and is ready for fueling, one of the final milestones before liftoff in November on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The James Webb Space Telescope is seen inside the S5C payload processing facility Oct. 15 at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn
Engineers removed the James Webb Space Telescope from its intercontinental shipping container in South America last week, and kicked off a final pre-launch comprehensive electrical systems test Monday ahead of blastoff in December on an Ariane 5 rocket, NASA’s program manager said.
Artist’s illustration of the final phase of deploying the solar arrays on NASA’s Lucy spacecraft. Credit: NASA
A NASA official said Monday there is “widespread optimism” that a solar array snag discovered on the Lucy asteroid probe after its launch over the weekend will not jeopardize the spacecraft’s 12-year exploration mission.
A Long March 2D rocket blasts off with China’s Xihe solar research satellite. Credit: CASC
China successfully launched a half-ton scientific research satellite Oct. 14 to study the violent and sudden physical processes behind solar flares, joining 10 other small payloads on a Long March 2D rocket that also tested grid fins to help guide the expendable booster away from populated areas during its fall back to Earth.
The Shenzhou 13 crew — Ye Guangfu, Zhai Zhigang, and Wang Yaping — float inside the Tianhe core module of the Chinese space station. Credit: CMSA
Three astronauts floated into the living quarters of China’s space station Friday, hours after launching from a military-run spaceport in the Gobi Desert, moving in for a six-month mission to prepare the outpost for expansion next year.
Live coverage of the Expedition 65 mission on the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket provided the ride to space for NASA’s Lucy asteroid probe. Credit: United Launch Alliance
Bound for a pristine population of ancient asteroids, a NASA science probe named Lucy took off from Cape Canaveral before dawn Saturday and rocketed into space on top of an Atlas 5 launcher to begin a 12-year, $981 million mission seeking out clues about the early solar system.
The final Atlas rocket assigned to launch a solar system exploration mission is set for liftoff before dawn Saturday. NASA’s Lucy asteroid mission is mounted on top of the rocket awaiting launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
About an hour after launch Saturday, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will start the delicate process of opening its circular, fan-shaped solar arrays — the largest ever on a deep space probe — to power the asteroid explorer’s 12-year journey into the outer solar system.
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of an Atlas 5 rocket with NASA’s Lucy mission, a robotic explorer to study the Trojan asteroids in the outer solar system. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.
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