Space Flight

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has gone to war with the FAA after the agency denied the company permission to launch its SN9 prototype deep space rocket as scheduled on Jan. 28. The agency issued a last-minute notice about five hours before the scheduled launch and said it was rescheduled until the following day. The delay […]

NASA is observing its annual Day of Remembrance on Thursday, paying tribute to “members of the NASA family who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery.” As part of the event, NASA acting administrator Steve Jurczyk will lead a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Virginia’s Arlington […]

SpaceX set a new record for payloads on Sunday with the successful delivery of 143 small satellites to various orbits. The Falcon 9 launched from Cape Canaveral at 7 a.m. on Sunday and within an hour it was shedding tiny satellites. On board were 133 spacecraft for missions varying from personal locator beacon detection to […]

A planned eight-minute burn of NASA’s Artemis program rocket boosters on Saturday was cut short after little more than a minute but NASA officials are still upbeat about the test. “This is not a failure,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “This is a test, and we tested today in a way that is meaningful where […]

Citing delays related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has pushed back the time frame for the first mission using its Dream Chaser spaceplane. Formerly scheduled for late 2021, the company now expects the Dream Chaser to make its initial flight to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2022. The cargo mission […]

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced last week that his company is making plans to attempt to catch its reusable Super Heavy rocket with the arm of the launch tower. Currently in development, the Super Heavy is the first stage of the company’s Starship system. While SpaceX hasn’t yet tried anything quite like the launch tower […]

It would appear an engine swap is next for Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity suborbital spacecraft after an aborted test flight from its new spaceport near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. “The ignition sequence for the rocket motor did not complete,” the company tweeted after the early-morning flight. “Vehicle and crew are in great shape. We […]

SpaceX’s latest Starship prototype exploded during landing following a successful high-altitude flight test on Wednesday. The uncrewed prototype, serial number 8 (SN8), flew for 6 minutes 42 seconds, completing a series of planned maneuvers and returning to the landing pad before the crash. The test took place at SpaceX’s facility in Cameron County, Texas. “Successful […]

NASA has chosen 18 astronauts who will train for missions on and around the Moon as part of the agency’s Artemis program. The Artemis Team was introduced by Vice President Mike Pence during the eighth National Space Council meeting at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday. The program aims to land the first woman and […]

SpaceX plans to launch the eighth version of its Starship interplanetary rocket SN8 to about 50,000 feet with an ambitious test schedule that CEO Elon Musk wouldn’t take odds on its success. The silo-like stainless steel cylinder, which looks a little more spaceship-like with its nose cone attached for the first time, is hoped to […]