SpaceX

Photographers capture the liftoff of the Soyuz MS-25 mission bound for the International Space Station. Image: NASA/Bill Ingalls. Two days after a rare last-second launch abort, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft blasted off Saturday on a flight to the International Space Station, carrying two short-duration crew members and a NASA astronaut bound for a six-month tour of duty. Soyuz MS-25/71S commander Oleg Novitskiy, Belarus guest cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya and NASA veteran Tracy Dyson thundered away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 8:36 a.m. EDT (5:36 p.m. local time) and slipped into orbit eight minutes and 45 seconds later. Launch originally was planned for last Thursday, but the countdown was aborted inside 20 seconds to launch when computers detected low voltage readings in the Soyuz 2.1a ...

For a third time, a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster achieves its 19th flight, tying it as a launch leader. Liftoff on the Starlink 6-42 mission came following a weather scrub on Friday, March 22. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now Update 11:45 p.m. ET: SpaceX launched the Starlink 6-42 mission close to the end of the launch window. SpaceX managed to thread the needle with the weather and launch the first of two planned Starlink missions from Cape Canaveral in 48 hours. A Falcon 9 rocket launched from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday at 11:09 p.m. EDT (0309 UTC on Sunday). It will be followed by another Falcon 9 from nearby pad 40 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Monday. In a forecast issued by the 45th Weather Squadron on Friday, Space Force meteorologists gav...

For the first time, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon 2 spacecraft on top is positioned in launch configuration at pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Image: SpaceX SpaceX is gearing up for the next phase of launches from Cape Canaveral that is, in a way, a callback to a previous era in their launch history. While this will be SpaceX’s 30th flight as part of NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program, it’s the first time a Dragon 2 spacecraft will launch to the International Space Station (ISS) from pad 40. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket and Cargo Dragon spacecraft on this mission is set for Thursday, March 21, at 4:55 p.m. ET (2055 UTC). More than 6,000 pounds of cargo and science is packed into the capsule, which will dock autonomously to the zenith port of the ISS’...

SpaceX’s Starship rocket launches for a third time in program history on Thursday, March 14, 2024. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now SpaceX’s Starship rocket took to the skies over Texas for a third time Thursday morning. The launch, approved on Wednesday afternoon by the Federal Aviation Administration, managed to navigate some tricky weather on its ascent. Liftoff of the world’s tallest rocket currently flying took place at 8:25 a.m. CT (9:25 a.m. ET, 1325 UTC), towards the back end of a 110-minute window. The vehicle was stacked for launch late last week at SpaceX’s Starbase launch and manufacturing site in southern Texas near Brownsville. The mission represents the shortest time between second and third flights for a commercial, orbital rocket. Both the Falcon 1 and the Falcon 9 s...

A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to support the Starlink 6-44 launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on March 13, 2024. Image: Spaceflight Now Update 9:45 p.m. ET: Tonight’s Falcon 9 launch of 23 Starlink satellites scrubbed with about two minutes left in the countdown. Launch rescheduled for Thursday at 7:04 p.m. EDT (2304 UTC). SpaceX is busily preparing for two missions from launchpads in both Florida and Texas. It’s poised to launch the third integrated flight test (IFT-3) of its Starship rocket Thursday morning, but in the meantime, it hopes to launch a batch of Starlink satellites from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Liftoff of the Starlink 6-44 mission from Launch Complex 39A is set for no earlier than 9:25 p.m. ET on Wednesday (0125 UTC on Thursday). There are 23 ...