SpaceX

The Ariane 6 rocket stands at the launch pad at the Europe Spaceport in French Guiana following the removal of the mobile launch gantry. Image: M. Pédoussaut/ESA To quote the title track of Swedish rock band Europe’s third album, “It’s the final countdown” for the long awaited Ariane 6 to finally take flight. After running years behind schedule, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Arianespace are less than a week from the planned debut. The 62-meter-tall (203-foot-tall) rocket will lift off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana about 4 km (2.5 mi.) from the former Ariane 5 launch pad. This will be the first of two planned launches of the rocket in 2024. “We will keep in mind that this inaugural flight is also the start of a very important phase in the Ariane 6 program,” said Franck Huib...

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ahead of the planned Starlink 8-9 launch on July 3, 2024. SpaceX finished raising the rocket into its vertical position just before midnight on July 2. Image: Spaceflight Now Update 1:48 a.m. EDT: SpaceX updated its target launch time after raising the rocket into launch position shortly before midnight. SpaceX is preparing to launch a batch of Starlink satellites using a booster that ran into technical issues during the final seconds of its last launch attempt. The launch is the first of the month for the company, which is aiming for an average of 12 Falcon flights per month in 2024. Liftoff of the Starlink 8-9 mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is set for 4:55 a.m. EDT ...

This view from a window on the cupola overlooks a portion of the International Space and shows the partially obscured Starliner spacecraft from Boeing docked to the Harmony module’s forward port. Image: NASA The return to Earth of Boeing’s Starliner capsule is on indefinite hold pending results of new thruster tests and ongoing analysis of helium leaks that cropped up during the ship’s rendezvous with the International Space Station, NASA announced Friday. But agency officials insisted Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams are not “stranded” in space. “We don’t have a targeted (landing) date today,” Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, told reporters during a teleconference. “We’re not going to target a specific date until we get that testin...

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the NROL-186 mission on June 28, 2024. Image: SpaceX SpaceX launched a national security mission on behalf of the United States’ National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from Vandenberg Space Force Base Friday night. The spy agency described the classified mission as “the second launch of NRO’s proliferated architecture, delivering critical space-based ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) to the nation.” The Falcon 9 rocket supporting this mission lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at the opening of a two-hour window, 8:14 p.m. PDT (11:14 p.m. EDT, 0314 UTC). The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1081 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for an eighth time. Its pre...

A Falcon 9 stands ready for a Starlink mission at Cape Canaveral’s pad 40. File photo: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now. SpaceX is marking two key records with the planned launch of its latest batch of Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Starlink 10-3 mission will be SpaceX’s 350th Falcon 9 rocket launch. The first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1062 in the SpaceX fleet, will launch for a 22nd time, making it the flight leader among the Falcon fleet. Liftoff of the mission is set for 7:14 a.m. EDT (1114 UTC). Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to liftoff. Among its previous 21 launches, B1062 launched two GPS satellites, two crews of astronauts (Inspiration4 and Ax-1) and 14 Starlink missions. A little more...