SpaceX

The Starliner spacecraft on NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s forward port as the International Space Station orbited 263 miles above the Mediterranean Sea. Image: NASA. NASA and Boeing managers have again decided to extend the Starliner crew capsule’s stay at the International Space Station, passing up a June 26 re-entry to allow more time for analysis and testing to make sure helium leaks and thruster failures are fully understood, officials said late Friday. NASA plans to hold a formal re-entry readiness review before setting a new landing target date. Given the on-going analysis, the Starliner’s undocking and return to Earth likely will slip past two already planned space station spacewalks on Monday and July 2. In the meantime, Starliner command...

A Falcon 9 stands ready for a Starlink mission at Cape Canaveral’s pad 40. File photo: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now. SpaceX is preparing to launch its first Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in more than two weeks. The last time the company attempted to launch the Starlink 10-2 mission, it encountered a rare scrub as the Falcon 9’s first stage Merlin engines began firing. Liftoff of the rescheduled flight is set for 1:15 p.m. EDT (1715 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40. Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to liftoff. Activity in the tropics creates some uncertainty for the launch from a meteorological perspective. On Saturday, June 22, the 45th Weather Squadron issued a launch weather forecast that suggests just 50 percent odds of...

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft photographed through the window of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule while both were docked to the International Space Station. Image: NASA Boeing’s leak-prone Starliner capsule will remain docked to the International Space Station an additional four days, NASA announced Tuesday, returning to Earth with a pre-dawn landing at White Sands, New Mexico, on June 26 to close out an extended 20-day test flight, the first with astronauts aboard. The additional docked time will give Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams more time to help out aboard the station while flight controllers and engineers continue scrutinizing telemetry and finalizing plans for re-entry with five known helium leaks in the capsule’s propulsion system and unexpected...

SES’s Astra 1P satellite is encapsulated in a pair of payload fairings ahead of its planned launch onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on June 18, 2024. Image: SpaceX SpaceX is preparing to launch a satellite to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) on behalf of one of its oldest customers: Luxembourg-based SES. The prolific launch company aims to bounce back from an unusually quiet period in its launch cadence, accented by a last-second abort as the engines on another one of its Falcon 9 rockets began to fire. Liftoff of the mission is set for 5:35 p.m. EDT (2135 UTC). The mission is set to be the 45th orbital flight from Florida’s Space Coast in 2024. Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to liftoff. The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail...

The Ship 29 upper stage of the fully integrated Starship rocket as seen before its fourth flight test on June 6, 2024. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now The Federal Aviation Administration is preparing to gather public input on SpaceX Starship launch operations at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The request for comments comes about a month after the conclusion of an environmental review of a 100-acre expansion for SpaceX at its Hangar X site. The pair of projects highlight an ongoing ramp up of activity for a company that aims to launch more than 140 Falcon launches by the end of 2024, most of them from Florida’s Space Coast. “SpaceX draws a lot of attention. There’s no question about it. They’re doing a lot of amazing things and they draw a lot of attention from the public, not just locall...