SpaceX

Vapors stream away from NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket during a cryogenic tanking test Wednesday. Credit: NASA Engineers filled up the Artemis 1 moon rocket with more than 750,000 gallons of super-cold propellants in a tanking test Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center after troubleshooting a persistent hydrogen leak. NASA’s launch director said she was “extremely encouraged” by the test, but officials have not yet committed to another attempt to launch the uncrewed test flight to the moon at the next opportunity Sept. 27. “We’ll go take a look at the data,” launch director Charlie-Blackwell-Thompson said. “I don’t like to get ahead of the data, so I’d like the team to have an opportunity to go look at it, to see if there are changes we need to make to our loading procedure, our timel...

The payload fairing containing the National Reconnaissance Office’s classified spy satellite is lifted atop ULA’s Delta 4-Heavy rocket before the NROL-91 mission. Credit: United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance’s ground team recently completed a countdown dress rehearsal and installed a classified spy satellite payload on top of a Delta 4-Heavy rocket at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, readying the triple-body launcher for liftoff Saturday. The top secret spy satellite on top of the Delta 4-Heavy rocket is likely a new sharp-eyed electro-optical Keyhole-type imaging platform for the NRO, according to independent analysts. But the NRO has not disclosed details of the satellite, keeping with the spy agency’s policy of not commenting on details of its missions. The Delta 4-H...

A Soyuz-2.1a rocket stands on its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome after rollout from its hangar Monday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls Ground teams at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan rolled a Soyuz rocket to its launch pad Sunday, moving a step closer to liftoff Wednesday with a team of two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut heading for the International Space Station, the first flight of a U.S. crew member on a Russian spacecraft since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. NASA astronaut Francisco “Frank” Rubio will join Russian commander Sergey Prokopyev and flight engineer Dmitry Petelin for launch Wednesday at 9:54 a.m. EDT (1354 GMT) to begin a half-year on the space station. Rubio is preparing for his first flight to space after his selec...