SpaceX

An artist’s rendering of the Hera spacecraft alongside the CubeSats, Juventas and Milani. Graphic: ESA The European Space Agency is on the cusp of launching its first planetary defense mission, a complement to NASA’s 2022 Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. The goal of these missions is to understand how Earth can be protected from a potentially destructive asteroid strike. On Thursday, the Hera spacecraft, along with two CubeSats, are set to be encapsulated inside the fairings of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ahead of a planned launch on Monday, Oct. 7. The moment will begin a roughly two-year journey out to the binary asteroid system of Didymos and its moon, Dimorphos. At hand is a mission to study the impacts left by DART when it collided with Dimorphos in 2022, shortening is or...

United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket made the one-third of a mile journey from its Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station late in the morning on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. The rocket will fly ULA’s second certification mission set to launch no earlier than Friday, Oct. 4. Image: Will Robinson-Smith/Spaceflight Now United Launch Alliance returned to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 with its Vulcan rocket ahead of the vehicle’s second launch. ULA needs to successfully fly this second certification mission before it can begin launching national security payloads for the U.S. Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office. Liftoff of the mission dubbed Cert-2 is targeting Friday, Oct. 4, during a three-hour l...

The Falcon 9 second stage firing during the climb to orbit with Crew 9. Dragon Freedom reached orbit normally but the upper stage failed to perform a deorbit burn correctly. Image: SpaceX. SpaceX’s Falcon rocket fleet was grounded for the third time in three months after a second stage problem occurred Saturday following the successful launch of a Dragon Capsule carrying two crew to the International Space Station. The suspension in flights comes as the company prepares to launch two solar system exploration missions in October with narrow launch windows. SpaceX said the Falcon 9 second stage that launched NASA’s Crew 9 mission failed to correctly perform a firing of its Merlin Vacuum engine less than 30 minutes after releasing Dragon Freedom into a planned 117×128 mile (189×206 km) orbit....

Cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov (left) will assist commander Nick Hague (right) during the Crew 9’s climb to space. The two empty seats will be used by Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and pilot Sunita Williams when all four return to Earth next February. Image: SpaceX NASA’s 10th Crew Dragon flight to the International Space Station is ready for launch Saturday with two long-duration crew members on board along with two empty seats that will be used next February to carry Boeing’s Starliner astronauts back to Earth after an extended stay in orbit. Crew 9 commander Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov are scheduled for liftoff from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 1:17 p.m. EDT Saturday, roughly the moment Earth’s rotation carr...

The Soyuz MS-25/71S spacecraft carrying commander Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson undocked from the International Space Station early Monday as the two spacecraft were passing 260 miles above eastern Mongolia. Image: NASA Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, now the world’s most experienced spaceman, first-time flier Nikolai Chub and NASA veteran Tracy Dyson undocked from the International Space Station and returned to Earth Monday, closing out a record-setting mission with a picture-perfect landing in Kazakhstan. With the Soyuz crew back home, NASA and SpaceX are gearing up to launch astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov to the station aboard a Crew Dragon capsule on Thursday, weather permitting. Liftoff from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Statio...