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Mission Reports
For 12 years, Spaceflight Now has been providing unrivaled coverage of U.S. space launches. Comprehensive reports and voluminous amounts of video are available in our archives.
SpaceX testing Falcon for commercial satellites
The payload fairing for SpaceX's upgraded Falcon 9 rocket, set to debut this summer on a launch from California, is being tested inside the world's largest vacuum chamber in Ohio as the burgeoning space transportation company breaks in to the commercial launch market.
VIDEO:PAYLOAD FAIRING TEST
Atlas 5 launch gallery
United Launch Alliance's photographer Pat Corkery captured Wednesday's stunning Atlas 5 rocket launch with cameras around Cape Canaveral's Complex 41.
IMAGES:LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY
Lockheed to build two more GOES weather satellites
NOAA has ordered two more GOES geostationary weather satellites from Lockheed Martin Corp. for launch in 2019 and 2024, officials said Wednesday.
FULL STORY
Kepler's planet-finding mission may be at an end
NASA's planet-hunting Kepler telescope, stationed 40 million miles from Earth, has lost the ability to precisely point toward stars, and scientists fear the mission's quest to identify rocky planets around other stars is over, officials said Wednesday.
FULL STORY
Proton rocket lifts off with Eutelsat broadcast satellite
A Russian Proton rocket soared into space Tuesday with the Eutelsat 3D broadcasting satellite, carefully maneuvering the 6-ton spacecraft into a high-altitude transfer orbit during a 9-hour flight.
MISSION STATUS CENTER IMAGES:SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH OF PROTON IMAGES:PROTON ON THE PAD
Fourth ATV attached to Ariane 5 launcher
Europe's next Automated Transfer Vehicle, set for launch in June to the International Space Station, was hoisted atop an Ariane 5 launcher in French Guiana on Friday.
FULL STORY
Soyuz capsule brings three-man crew to safe landing
A Russian cosmonaut, a NASA physician-astronaut and outgoing Canadian space station commander Chris Hadfield, whose deft use of social media turned him into an orbital superstar, undocked and plunged back to Earth Monday to close out a five-month stay in space.
FULL STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER
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HATCH OPENED FOR EGRESS PLAY VIDEO:
AERIAL VIEW OF THE LANDING PLAY VIDEO:
SOYUZ TMA-07M LANDS IN KAZAKHSTAN PLAY VIDEO:
EXPEDITION 35 SOYUZ UNDOCKS FROM STATION PLAY SUBSCRIBE NOW
Orion crack repair under scrutiny in loads testing
Engineers are putting NASA's first space-bound Orion capsule, set to fly in orbit in 2014, through tests to stress the capsule's structural shell and check repairs to cracks in the pressurized module's aluminum bulkhead.
FULL STORY
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Hi-def video files are presented in 720p resolution VIDEO:
SPACEWALKERS REMOVE SUSPECT AMMONIA CONTROLLER PLAY VIDEO:
VIDEO OF THE AMMONIA LEAK ON SPACE STATION HI-DEF VIDEO:
NARRATED PREVIEW OF SATURDAY'S SPACEWALK PLAN HI-DEF SUBSCRIBE NOW
Atlantis' payload bay doors swing open for display
The clamshell payload bay doors of space shuttle Atlantis swung open this week at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex as the retired ship is configured to mimic her flying days in orbit.
FULL STORY
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PAYLOAD BAY DOORS OPENED PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO:
DOOR OPENING TIME LAPSE: IN FRONT PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO:
DOOR OPENING TIME LAPSE: OVERHEAD PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO:
SHIP CLEANED AFTER WRAPPING REMOVED PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO:
ATLANTIS UNWRAPPED FROM PLASTIC COVERING PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO:
LOOK BACK TO EARLY CONSTRUCTION PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO:
ARRIVAL AND FIREWORKS AT RETIREMENT HOME PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO:
AERIAL VIEWS OF SHUTTLE ATLANTIS PARADE PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO:
RETIRED SHUTTLE ATLANTIS LEAVES COMPLEX 39
PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO:
PAYLOAD BAY DOORS CLOSED IN THE HANGAR PLAY | HI-DEF VIDEO:
REPLICA DOCKING SYSTEM INSTALLED PLAY | HI-DEF SUBSCRIBE NOW
Europe to build satellite for pioneering carbon mission
The European Space Agency gave the green light on Tuesday to a satellite mission to measure the weight of Earth's forests, helping scientists factor the role of woodlands in the carbon cycle and climate change.
FULL STORY
Shuttle veteran to pilot Virgin Galactic's spaceship
Veteran space shuttle commander Rick Sturckow has joined Virgin Galactic to pilot the company's suborbital passenger spaceship, officials announced Tuesday.
FULL STORY
21st anniversary of Endeavour's maiden launch
21 years ago Tuesday, the shuttle Endeavour set sail on her maiden voyage into space, a daring mission to rescue the stranded Intelsat 603 communications satellite.
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First flight of Cygnus cargo craft delayed to September
Orbital Sciences Corp. says the first full-up test flight of its Cygnus cargo resupply ship to the International Space Station will probably slip to September due to a combination of factors, including an engine replacement on the mission's Antares rocket and a scheduling conflict with a Japanese logistics spacecraft.
FULL STORY
The birth of American human spaceflight
Sunday marks the 52nd anniversary of Alan Shepard's momentous 15 minutes of flight, becoming the first American to travel into space. Launching on May 5, 1961 at 9:34 a.m., a Redstone rocket sent Freedom 7 capsule on a ballistic trajectory 116 miles high before splashing down in the Atlantic.
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HIGHLIGHTS FROM FREEDOM 7 PREPS AND FLIGHT HI-DEF VIDEO:
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Delta 4-Heavy rocket moved to Vandenberg launch pad
United Launch Alliance and the Air Force are readying the next Delta 4-Heavy rocket, the largest booster in the U.S. arsenal that is responsible for launching the nation's elite surveillance satellites.
FULL STORY IMAGES:ROLLOUT PHOTO GALLERY
Television broadcasting satellite launched by China
China launched a state-owned communications satellite into orbit Wednesday to beam television and data to commercial customers across Asia, Africa and Australia for the next 15 years.
FULL STORY
NASA buys six more seats on Russian Soyuz craft
Uncertain when U.S. commercial spaceships will be ready for the job, NASA has signed a $424 million contract extension with the Russian space agency to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station through June 2017, the space agency announced Tuesday.
FULL STORY
NASA says space station's batteries safer than 787's
NASA officials are confident lithium-ion batteries due to launch to the International Space Station in 2016 will not overheat like the batteries that grounded the Boeing 787 Dreamliner earlier this year.
FULL STORY
Herschel observatory goes dark after four-year mission
The Herschel telescope ended a nearly four-year campaign watching the cosmos Monday, when the telescope lost its sharp infrared vision as the last of a reservoir of liquid helium coolant evaporated into space - an expected ending to Herschel's stellar mission.
FULL STORY
SpaceShipTwo's first rocket flight breaks sound barrier
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane lit its engine for the first time in flight Monday, powering through the speed of sound and moving a step closer to spaceflight for the masses.
FULL STORY IMAGES:SPACESHIP ROCKETS THROUGH MACH 1
After Antares, Orbital sets sights on space station
Buoyed by a flawless test launch of the Antares rocket, the heavy-lifting part of its commercial cargo resupply system for the International Space Station, Orbital Sciences Corp. has its eye on a summer demonstration flight of the company's Cygnus resupply freighter.
FULL STORY
Sea Launch rocket failure blamed on hydraulic pump
Sea Launch closed the investigation into a Feb. 1 rocket failure Thursday, concurring with the conclusion of Russian and Ukrainian experts that the mishap was caused by a faulty hydraulic pump used to steer the Zenit 3SL booster in flight.
FULL STORY
Form-fitting plastic cover removed from Atlantis
The space shuttle Atlantis, now a museum piece at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, has emerged from the protective plastic cocoon that had encased the spacecraft since November.
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SHUTTLE ATLANTIS UNWRAPPED IN MUSEUM HI-DEF VIDEO:
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Third Soyuz launch in a week bolsters Glonass
Russia successfully launched a Soyuz rocket Friday for the third time in less than a week, deploying a satellite to sustain the country's Glonass navigation network and extend the system's global reach.
FULL STORY
Progress cargo craft arrives at space station
A Russian cargo ship hobbled by a jammed navigation antenna glided into its port on the International Space Station early Friday, completing a dramatic automated rendezvous. After final checks to make sure the stowed antenna would not interfere with an airtight structural seal, the ship was safely locked in place.
FULL STORY
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PROGRESS SUCCESSFULLY DOCKS TO STATION HI-DEF SUBSCRIBE NOW
PhoneSats set mark for first smartphone satellites
Three tiny satellites are pioneering the innovative, inexpensive use of off-the-shelf cell phone technology to control space missions just days after launching aboard the test flight of the Orbital Sciences Antares rocket.
FULL STORY
Four satellites launched on China's Long March rocket
A Chinese Long March rocket blasted off from a remote desert launch base Friday with a high-resolution Earth imaging payload and Ecuador's first satellite.
FULL STORY PREVIEW STORY
Sun probe arrives at launch site for mating to booster
A solar observatory designed to study how the Sun's atmosphere is energized has been trucked to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the ground base where the air-launched Pegasus rocket booster will be readied to propel the NASA satellite into orbit in June.
FULL STORY
Russians launch space station resupply ship
It was a throwback of sorts Wednesday as a Russian Progress cargo craft launched on a two-day track in pursuit of the International Space Station, reverting to the old rendezvous style instead of the six-hour sprints employed recently, but one of its navigation antennas did not immediately deploy.
FULL STORY
Dazzling photos record start of flawless Antares test
Sunday's test flight of the Orbital Sciences Antares rocket was mission of many firsts, proving a new launch pad and launch vehicle to serve the needs of the International Space Station. This collection of photos document the blastoff from all angles.
IMAGES:NASA's UP-CLOSE LAUNCH PHOTOS IMAGES:ORBITAL'S REMOTE CAMERA SHOTS IMAGES:SPECTACULAR AERIAL VIEWS IMAGES:LIFTOFF FROM THE PRESS SITE
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ANTARES ROCKET SUCCESSFULLY FLIES TO ORBIT HI-DEF VIDEO:
WEDNESDAY'S COUNTDOWN HALTED BY UMBILICAL HI-DEF VIDEO:
REVIEW OF ANTARES PRE-LAUNCH PREPARATIONS HI-DEF VIDEO:
ANIMATION OF THE ANTARES LAUNCH SYSTEM HI-DEF VIDEO:
OVERVIEW OF PHONESAT SECONDARY PAYLOAD HI-DEF SUBSCRIBE NOW
Antares rocket aces test launch from Virginia coast
Soaring into a brilliant blue sky from a new launch pad on the Virginia coastline, an Antares rocket owned by Orbital Sciences Corp. blasted off on a successful test flight Sunday, inaugurating a new launch system to resupply the International Space Station.
FULL STORY MISSION STATUS CENTER IMAGES:ANTARES AFTER SATURDAY'S SCRUB
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This beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.
U.S. STORE
The historic first orbital flight by an American is marked by this commemorative patch for John Glenn and Friendship 7.
The crew emblem for the final space shuttle mission is available in our store. Get this piece of history!
This special commemorative patch marks the retirement of NASA's Space Shuttle Program. Available in our store!
This embroidered patch commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Program. The design features the space shuttle Columbia's historic maiden flight of April 12, 1981.
The official patches from Apollo 1, the shuttle Challenger and Columbia crews are available in the store.
VIDEO:
HATCH OPENED FOR EGRESS 
