On Friday, June 28, 2024, technicians lifted NASA’s Orion spacecraft into space using a 30-ton crane. NASA/Radislav Sinyak This is the spacecraft that NASA will launch to the moon. For the first time since 1972, four astronauts will orbit Earth’s natural satellite. The Orion spacecraft, which will be used for the space agency’s Artemis 2 … Read more
29 SpaceX’s preparations for Starship Flight 5 continue to focus on replacing Ship 30’s heat shield, while crews prepare to deploy Booster 12 for a static fire this coming week. Meanwhile, long-term planning revolves around the construction of Pad B at the launch site. Orbital Launch Platform B SpaceX is busy building Orbital Launch Pad … Read more
WASHINGTON — While NASA is pushing ahead with a crewed moon landing during the Artemis 3 mission in September 2026, the agency’s own analysis estimates there is a nearly one-in-three chance that the lander will be at least a year and a half late. That review grew out of a confirmation review for the Human … Read more
14 The Starship program is testing with a possible tower capture in mind for the system’s next flight, a goal that seems more within reach after Flight 4’s successful soft landing on the ocean. In addition to a booster test section – Booster 14.1 – that will move to the orbital launch pad, a second … Read more
NASA’s oldest active astronaut will return to space in September for a six-month mission. Don Pettit, 69, will go to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Roscosmos-led Soyuz MS-26 mission, which also includes Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. Russian state media source TASS said this week that the launch date … Read more
The summary The two astronauts who flew Boeing’s Starliner capsule to the International Space Station stayed there longer than expected. NASA pushed back the date for their return trip to Earth again Friday, after several previous delays. The reason for the changes is an investigation into problems with the spacecraft that arose earlier during the … Read more
Enlarge / The fairing for the first test flight of Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket has been placed around the small group of satellites that will carry it into orbit. Welcome to edition 6.48 of the Rocket Report! Fresh off last week’s dramatic test flight of SpaceX’s Starship, teams in Texas are wasting no time preparing … Read more
SpaceX officials hope to soon launch and land massive 450-foot Starship-Super Heavy rockets up to 44 times a year at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. But Susan Palma, a 40-year-old Titusville resident, fears that further development at the Cape risks further disrupting the natural water flow and salinity of the endangered Indian River Lagoon. She attended … Read more
Not only did the 120-ton Starship rocket take off on its fourth test flight, but both stages also returned, with the booster landing in the Gulf of Mexico and the upper stage experiencing a chaotic reentry. This test brings the super heavy lift vehicle closer to achieving reusability. Astronomers could soon receive warnings when SpaceX … Read more
Enlarge / No simulation. Plasma flows over the surface of SpaceX’s spacecraft during its return high above the Indian Ocean. SpaceX demonstrated Thursday that its towering Super Heavy booster and Starship rocket could one day soon be recovered and reused in the way Elon Musk envisions for the future of space exploration. For the first … Read more