July 16, 2021
Falcon 9

New SpaceX drone ship arrives at Port Canaveral

July 15, 2021

A new SpaceX drone ship named “A Shortfall of Gravitas” was towed into Port Canaveral Thursday, completing a shuffling of SpaceX’s rocket landing platforms to support upcoming launches from Florida and California.

  • China launches satellite group to detect global radio transmissions

    July 12, 2021

    China launched five small satellites designed to detect and monitor global radio transmissions Friday on top of a Long March 6 rocket, joining five similar spacecraft deployed in orbit in 2019.

  • Richard Branson rockets into space

    July 11, 2021

    Virgin Galactic owner Richard Branson rocketed into space Sunday, an edge-of-the-seat sub-orbital test flight intended to demonstrate his company’s air-launched spaceplane is ready for passengers who can afford the ultimate thrill ride.

  • Live coverage: Richard Branson flies to space aboard Virgin Galactic rocketplane

    July 11, 2021

    Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson and five crewmates flew to the edge of space over New Mexico Sunday, riding the company’s VSS Unity rocketplane to an altitude of more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) after a high-altitude release from a carrier aircraft. The rocketplane safely landed back at Spaceport America.

  • China launches satellite to link mission control with space station

    July 11, 2021

    China launched a fresh satellite for the country’s Tianlian data relay network July 6, reinforcing a fleet of spacecraft designed to connect ground controllers with the country’s space station.

  • Richard Branson’s flight signals confidence in commercial space travel

    July 10, 2021

    Virgin Galactic-founder Richard Branson and five company crewmates are set to take a barnstorming ride to space Sunday in a bold show of confidence in his company’s readiness to start carrying passengers on brief trips out of the atmosphere.

  • SpaceX cargo capsule splashes down in Gulf of Mexico

    July 10, 2021

    Wrapping up a 36-day mission to the International Space Station, a SpaceX Cargo Dragon capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico Friday night with biomedical experiments, spacewalk equipment, and other hardware returning from orbit.

  • Virgin-founder Richard Branson heads for space Sunday

    July 9, 2021

    After nearly two decades of overly optimistic forecasts, technical challenges, a tragic setback and a determined recovery, Richard Branson, the globe-trotting media mogul and founder of Virgin Galactic, plans to rocket into space Sunday, beating fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos to the punch by nine days.

  • Dragon cargo ship departs space station and heads for Earth

    July 8, 2021

    A SpaceX cargo capsule undocked from the International Space Station Thursday and headed for splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico after a two-day delay to wait for Tropical Storm Elsa to clear the area.

  • Live coverage: Dragon cargo ship departs space station

    July 8, 2021

    A SpaceX cargo ship that delivered upgraded solar arrays to the International Space Station last month departed the orbiting outpost Thursday to begin the trip back to Earth. Undocking occurred at 10:45 a.m. EDT (1445 GMT) Thursday, setting up for a re-entry and splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico Friday at 11:29 p.m. EDT (0329 GMT Saturday).

  • Chinese astronauts complete first spacewalk outside new space station

    July 7, 2021

    Two Chinese astronauts headed outside the country’s space station Saturday for the second-ever spacewalk in China’s space program, and the first staged from the new Tiangong complex in low Earth orbit.

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