SpaceX

United Launch Alliance launches their Atlas V 551 rocket on Monday, April 28, 2025 with the first batch of Project Kuiper satellites for Amazon towards low Earth orbit from SLC-41 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now Against the setting Sun, United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket thundered off the pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force State to begin the flight of the first production satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite internet constellation. Five solid rocket boosters helped propel the rocket and the 27 satellites on board from Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at 7:01 p.m. EDT (2301 UTC).  The threat of anvil clouds caused ULA to adjust the liftoff time by one minute, but otherwise, weather was quite pristine for the north-easterly trajectory. ULA use...

Tejpaul Bhatia, Axiom Space’s Chief Revenue Officer, was promoted to the position of Chief Executive Officer on April 25, 2025. He will oversee the company as it completes its planned Axiom Station and AxEMU spacesuits for the Artemis Program. Images: Axiom Space; illustration by Will Robinson-Smith The new leader at Axiom Space is a familiar face around the office. On Friday, the Houston-based company announced that its Chief Revenue Officer, Tejpaul Bhatia, is taking the reins as the new Chief Executive Officer. Bhatia takes over the position from Kam Ghaffarian, the Executive Chairman and co-founder of Axiom Space, who has been serving as interim CEO since Aug. 9, 2024. That’s when co-founder Mike Suffredini announced he would step down as CEO “for personal reasons,” but continue on as ...

Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 2 West at Vandenberg Space Force Base ahead of the launch of the ‘Message in a Booster’ mission. Image: Trevor Mahlamann / Firefly Aerospace A perfect storm of range restrictions and suboptimal weather seems to finally be clearing for Firefly Aerospace. After delaying the flight of their sixth Alpha rocket for more than a month, the company announced a new launch window, which opens on Sunday. Onboard the rocket, designated FLTA006 by Firefly Aerospace, is a technology demonstration for Lockheed Martin’s LM400 satellite bus. The mission, dubbed ‘Message in a Booster,’ has its first launch opportunity during a window that runs from 6:37-7:29 a.m. PDT (9:37-10:29 a.m. EDT, 1337-1429 UTC). That roughly one-hour window is the firs...

SpaceX launches their Falcon 9 rocket on April 21, 2025 with a rideshare mission towards mid-inclination orbits from SLC-40 in Cape Canaveral, FL. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now Update 9:38 p.m. EDT: The Falcon 9 first stage booster successfully landed at Landing Zone 2. SpaceX completed its third Falcon 9 rocket launch in less than 48 hours with a rideshare mission carrying payloads to a mid-inclination orbit. Liftoff of the Bandwagon-3 mission happened at 8:48 p.m. EDT (0048 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It was the 245th orbital launch for SpaceX from SLC-40 and the 300th total orbital flight from this pad. This flight was the third launch in SpaceX’s rideshare program to mid-inclination orbits. It followed Bandwagon-1 from Kennedy Space Ce...

SpaceX launches their Falcon 9 rocket on April 21st, 2025 with a cargo resupply mission towards the ISS from SLC-39A in Cape Canaveral, FL. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now SpaceX launched an uncrewed Cargo Dragon to the International Space Station early Monday on a resupply mission with increased importance after a transportation mishap derailed a flight by another U.S. cargo ship. Liftoff from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center happened on Monday, April 21, at 4:15 a.m. EDT (0815 UTC). The Cargo Dragon mission, dubbed Commercial Resupply Services 32 (CRS-32), carries 6,700 pounds (3,000 kg) of science and supplies to the station. About 9.5 minutes after launch, Dragon separated from the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket. Docking with the ISS forward port of the Harmony module is exp...