A launch pad camera captures the launch of the Falcon 9 and NASA’s exoplanet hunting space telescope TESS. The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 40 on April 18 at 6:51 pm EDT (2251 GMT).
Video: NASA/SpaceX.
Mission Reports
SpaceX nails Starship landing, but rocket explodes minutes later
The latest prototype of SpaceX’s Starship launch vehicle — Starship SN10 — took off from the company’s South Texas test site and flew to an altitude of more than 30,000 feet Wednesday, then descended to a controlled vertical landing after two previous test vehicles crashed at touchdown. Minutes later, the 16-story test rocket exploded in a fireball, but the test flight appeared to be a major step forward in the early stages of the Starship program.
Mission Reports
Parker Solar Probe cleared for launch to ‘touch the sun’
Atlas 5
NASA delays Mars rover launch to no earlier than July 30
A technical issue with the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket that will send NASA’s $2.4 billion Perseverance rover toward Mars has pushed the mission’s launch date back to no earlier than July 30, nearly two weeks into a month-long window for the rover to head to the Red Planet, or else face a two-year delay.