SpaceX

The SpaceX Dragon Endurance splashes down in the waters of the Pacific Ocean near the coast of San Diego, California. Image: NASA Two NASA astronauts, a Japanese flier and a Russian cosmonaut plunged back to Earth Saturday, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego to wrap up a five-month mission. Strapped into SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance, commander Anne McClain, pilot Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and cosmonaut Kirill Peskov gently splashed down in calm seas at 11:33 a.m. EDT, 17-and-a-half hours after undocking from the International Space Station. SpaceX support crews deployed near the landing site quickly converged on the capsule to rig the craft for a lift onto the deck of a recovery ship. After hatch opening, the station fliers were helped out of ...

Editor’s Note: This release was edited Aug. 9, 2025, to update the International Space Station docking port for the Crew-10 mission. The first crew to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program completed the agency’s 10th commercial crew rotation mission to the International Space Station on Saturday. NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov returned to Earth at 11:33 a.m. EDT. Teams aboard SpaceX recovery vessels retrieved the spacecraft and its crew. After returning to shore, the crew will fly to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and reunite with their families. “Splashdown! Crew-10 is back on Earth from the Inte...

Poor weather in the booster recovery zone caused a scrub of the KF-02 mission, preventing the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for a fourth time in as many days. Image: SpaceX via livestream Update Aug. 10, 9:30 a.m. EDT: Poor weather in the booster recovery zone scrubs KF-02 launch; now targeting Monday, Aug. 11. For a fourth time in as many days, SpaceX was unable to launch 24 satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet service from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Technical issues with the Falcon 9 rocket prevented launches on Thursday and Friday and poor weather stymied launch attempts on Saturday and Sunday. “Just want to make everyone aware that we have no-go conditions on recovery weather,” the SpaceX launch director said about 1.5 minutes ahead of the planned liftoff. “W...

NASA invites media to view the agency’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) spacecraft and two other missions — the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) observatory, which will launch along with IMAP as rideshares. Media will have the opportunity to photograph the three spacecraft and speak with subject matter experts representing all three missions. The event will take place on Thursday, Aug. 28, at the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility in Titusville, Florida. Confirmed media will receive additional details after registering. To participate in the event, media must RSVP by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 19, by submitting their request online at: https...

United Launch Alliance (ULA) hoists the USSF-106 mission payload atop the Vulcan rocket in the Government Vertical Integration Facility (VIF-G) adjacent to Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This will be Vulcan’s first national security mission for the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command (SSC). Image: United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance is on the cusp of a significant milestone for its Vulcan rocket. The 202-foot-tall (61 m) launch vehicle is poised to take flight on its first national security mission as soon as Tuesday, August 12. Atop the two-stage rocket are a pair of missions for that are part of the U.S. Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program. The launch will be the first post-certification flight for a Vulcan rocket. “Thi...