Live coverage of the countdown and launch of the NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive environmental satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
Falcon 9
SpaceX narrowly misses booster landing at sea
One of four landing legs mounted to the base of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster failed to engage on the rocket’s final descent to a barge in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, leaving wreckage scattered on the football field-sized deck of the landing ship after an otherwise successful launch with an ocean research satellite.
Falcon 9
SpaceX completes hotfire test, preps for first California rocket landing
A Falcon 9 rocket powered by a recycled first stage lit its main engines for a hold-down firing on a launch pad Tuesday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in preparation for launch with an Argentine radar satellite on a mission that will feature the first SpaceX booster landing on the West Coast.