Space News & Blog Articles

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The Falcon 9 rocket will launch Eutelsat’s Hotbird 13F geostationary communications satellites. Follow us on Twitter.

Eutelsat’s Hotbird 13F communications satellite. Credit: Airbus

The first in a new line of Airbus-built communications satellites is stowed for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Friday night from Cape Canaveral, ready for a mission to beam hundreds of TV channels to Eutelsat customers across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Live coverage of the undocking, re-entry, and splashdown of NASA’s Crew-4 mission at the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket inside the Vehicle Assembly Building. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

The next launch attempt for the NASA’s Artemis 1 moon rocket is scheduled just after midnight Nov. 14 after a hydrogen leak and Hurricane Ian thwarted tries to launch the unpiloted test flight to the moon in August and September, space agency officials announced this week.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Oct. 13 with weather delay.

Akiko and Dennis Tito at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas. Credit: SpaceX

Dennis Tito, an 82-year-old aerospace engineer-turned-financial analyst who paid Russia $20 million for a trip to the International Space Station in 2001, is working with SpaceX on plans to take his wife on what amounts to a belated honeymoon voyage to the moon.

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket blazes by the nearly full moon seconds after launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with the Galaxy 33 and 34 communications satellites. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography

SpaceX launched a pair of four-ton Intelsat communications spacecraft from Cape Canaveral at twilight Saturday evening, two days later than planned after back-to-back scrubs, on the third flight of a Falcon 9 rocket this week.

Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle lifts off from New Zealand the GAzelle satellite. Credit: Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab launched an Electron rocket Friday from its privately-run spaceport in New Zealand, boosting a 260-pound satellite into orbit on a $64 million NOAA-funded mission to relay environmental data from remote weather stations and help track global wildlife movements.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1B on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand with the GAzelle radar remote sensing satellite for the Japanese company Synspective. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

SpaceX’s Dragon Endurance spacecraft on final approach to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TV / Spaceflight Now

SpaceX’s four-person Dragon Endurance crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station Thursday, delivering U.S., Japanese, and Russian crew members to the complex and replacing four astronauts scheduled to conclude their long-duration science mission next week.

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The Falcon 9 rocket will launch Intelsat’s Galaxy 33 and Galaxy 34 geostationary communications satellites. Follow us on Twitter.

The Galaxy 33 and Galaxy 34 (top and bottom) satellites stacked in launch configuration at SpaceX’s payload processing facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Credit: Intelsat

For the third time in 31 hours, SpaceX is poised to fire a Falcon 9 rocket into space Thursday, this time on a mission from Cape Canaveral with two commercial Intelsat television broadcasting satellites heading for geostationary orbit as part of a multibillion-dollar program to clear C-band frequencies for 5G wireless services.

A Falcon 9 rocket climbs above a fog layer over Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, to begin the Starlink 4-29 mission. Credit: SpaceX

Seven hours after a Falcon 9 launcher carried a four-person crew into orbit from Florida, SpaceX sent aloft another Falcon 9 from a foggy California spaceport Wednesday evening with 52 more Starlink internet satellites, setting a new record for the shortest interval between two flights of SpaceX’s workhorse rocket.

SpaceX’s second Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from pad 39A on April 11, 2019, with the Arabsat 6A communications satellite. Credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Spaceflight Now

More than three years after SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket last blazed a path into orbit, the 28-engine launcher is finally set to fly again as soon as Oct. 28 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a long-delayed national security mission for the U.S. Space Force, a military spokesperson said.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon Endurance spacecraft, carrying a crew of four, depart NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday heading for the International Space Station. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography

Two NASA astronauts, a veteran Japanese space flier, and the first Russian cosmonaut to launch on a U.S. spacecraft since 2002 soared into orbit Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, in what could signal an easing of tension between NASA and the new leadership of the Russian space agency.

The timeline below covers major vehicle and crew activities during the Crew-5 countdown and rendezvous with the International Space Station. All times assume liftoff of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 12:00:57 p.m. EDT (1600:57 GMT) on Oct. 5. All times in Eastern Daylight Time (GMT-4).

Live coverage of the countdown and flight of SpaceX’s Crew-5 mission carrying NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina on a flight to the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina during training at SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Credit: SpaceX

Cosmonaut Anna Kikina will become the first Russian crew member to launch on a U.S. spacecraft since 2002 when she straps into a seat aboard SpaceX’s Dragon Endurance capsule Wednesday for a flight to the International Space Station, opening a new chapter in the U.S.-Russian partnership in orbit that a senior Russian space agency official hopes can be extended past the current end date of 2024, despite souring relations on Earth.

United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket climbs off pad 41 Tuesday at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with the SES 20 and SES 21 television broadcasting satellites. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography

Running a few days late after a delay caused by Hurricane Ian, an Atlas 5 rocket built by United Launch Alliance thundered off a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Tuesday and soared to an altitude of nearly 22,000 miles to deploy two commercial television broadcasting satellites for the commercial operator SES.