SpaceX

SpaceX launches the Starlink 6-101 mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral on Jan. 30, 2026. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.SpaceX completed its 13th and final Falcon 9 rocket launch of the month, which flew from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on in the predawn hours of Thursday morning. The Starlink 6-101 mission will add another 29 broadband internet satellites to SpaceX’s low Earth orbit megaconstellation. Prior to liftoff, the company had more than 9,500 satellites in orbit, according to stats maintained by Dr. Johnathan McDowell, an expert orbital tracker and astronomer. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 happened at 2:22 a.m. EST (0722 UTC) with the rocket flying on a south easterly trajectory. ]]> The 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 95 percent chance for favorabl...

The GPS 3 Space Vehicle 09 satellite is encapsulated inside Falcon 9 rocket payload fairings at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida. Image: SpaceX Update Jan. 26, 12 p.m. EST (1700 UTC): SpaceX delayed the mission roughly 24 hours. The U.S. Space Force is set to send its ninth third-generation Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite into medium Earth orbit on Tuesday night. The satellite will ride to space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after the government moved the spacecraft from a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket. The mission, named GPS 3-9, will see the GPS 3 Space Vehicle 09 (SV09) payload deploy from the rocket’s upper stage nearly 1.5 hours after liftoff. This latest positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) satellite is equipped with what the Space Force calls M-C...

NASA and its partners will discuss the upcoming crew rotation to the International Space Station during a pair of news conferences on Friday, Jan. 30, from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. At 11 a.m. EST, mission leadership will discuss final launch and mission preparations in a news conference that will stream on the agency’s YouTube channel. Next, the crew of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission will participate in a virtual news conference from NASA Johnson crew quarters at 1 p.m., also on the agency’s YouTube channel. Individual streams for each of the events will be available on that page. This is the final media opportunity with Crew-12 before they travel to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch. Crew-12 will carry NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ES...

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket at Launch Complex 39B (left) and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket inside its Vertical Integration Facility (right): Image: NASA/Keegan Barber (left), United Launch Alliance (right) February 2026 is shaping up to be a blockbuster month for launches from Florida’s Space Coast. In addition to a now regular cadence of Falcon 9 launches from SpaceX, Cape Canaveral is poised to see launches from Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance and potentially NASA via its Space Launch System rocket. The current schedule has two marquee operations scheduled for the same day, Feb. 2: the launch of USSF-87, a national security mission, on a ULA Vulcan rocket and the wet dress rehearsal tanking test for the SLS, a critical milestone on the road to launching Artemis 2, a cr...

As America approaches its 250th anniversary of declaring independence, NASA’s Artemis II mission will carry a host of mementos that reflect the nation’s long tradition of exploration, innovation, and leadership in its official flight kit. The items will fly aboard the Orion spacecraft, launched on top of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, as it carries four astronauts around the Moon on the first crewed test flight of the agency’s Artemis campaign. “Historical artifacts flying aboard Artemis II reflect the long arc of American exploration and the generations of innovators who made this moment possible,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “This mission will bring together pieces of our earliest achievements in aviation, defining moments from human spaceflight, and symbols of where...