Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral with SpaceX’s 18th operational Dragon resupply flight to the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
Mission Reports
Proton rocket lifts off with Russian military satellite
A Blagovest communications spacecraft lifted off Monday aboard a Proton rocket to complete a network of four relay satellites in geostationary orbit for the Russian military. The Proton rocket’s Breeze M upper stage successfully delivered the Blagovest spacecraft to its intended orbit nine hours later.
Mission Reports
Live coverage: Contact lost with Japanese moon lander
A commercial robotic lander developed by the Japanese company ispace was supposed to land on the moon at 12:40 p.m. EDT (1640 UTC) Tuesday, attempting to make history as the first privately-funded enterprise to achieve a controlled touchdown on the lunar surface. But mission controllers lost contact with the spacecraft just before landing.
News
Blue Origin details new rocket’s capabilities, signs first orbital customer
Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos revealed new details of his space company’s reusable orbital-class booster Tuesday, releasing an animation illustrating the rocket’s liftoff from Cape Canaveral and announcing a contract with Eutelsat to put a commercial communications satellite on one of the launcher’s first missions.