August 2022 – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX closes out quartet of Starlink launches from Vandenberg

August 31, 2022 Stephen Clark

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with 46 more Starlink internet satellites overnight Wednesday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, completing a quartet of rapid-fire polar orbit Starlink missions from the West Coast spaceport since mid-July.

NASA targets Saturday for next moon rocket launch attempt

August 30, 2022 William Harwood

NASA will make a second attempt to launch the agency’s giant Space Launch System rocket Saturday on a delayed test flight to send an unpiloted Orion crew capsule on a flight around the moon and back, a major milestone in the agency’s ambitious Artemis program.

Live coverage: SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites from California

August 30, 2022 Stephen Clark

SpaceX closed out the month of August with another launch of 46 Starlink internet satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket occurred at 10:40:10 p.m. PDT Tuesday (1:40:10 a.m. EDT Wednesday).

SLS launch scrubbed after weather delay, engine cooling issue

August 29, 2022 William Harwood

Engineers fueled the Space Launch System moon rocket for blastoff Monday on NASA’s long-overdue Artemis 1 test flight, but stormy weather, brief indications of a hydrogen leak, trouble cooling one of the four main engines and then a valve glitch forced managers to call off the countdown.

Live coverage: NASA targets Saturday for next Artemis 1 launch attempt

August 29, 2022 Stephen Clark

The countdown for liftoff of NASA’s first Space Launch System moon rocket, the most powerful launcher ever to fly from U.S. soil, was scrubbed Monday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after teams encountered an issue conditioning one of the four main engines. The next opportunity to launch will be Saturday, Sept. 3. The 32-story-tall rocket will boost a human-rated Orion crew capsule on an unpiloted journey around the moon and back to Earth.

Artemis 1 flight to moon depends on precision rocket firings to pull off a complex trajectory

August 28, 2022 William Harwood

Even using the most powerful rocket NASA’s ever built, getting the agency’s unpiloted Orion spacecraft to the moon for the Artemis 1 test flight won’t be easy. It will hinge on a complex series of precisely orchestrated deep space maneuvers.

Photos: Aerial survey of Kennedy Space Center on the eve of Artemis 1

August 28, 2022 Stephen Clark

Spaceflight Now took an aerial tour around the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the days before the scheduled launch of NASA’s Artemis 1 moon rocket. These images captured by Walter Scriptunas II show the the powerful moon rocket on its launch pad, plus SpaceX’s ongoing work to ready the spaceport for the huge commercial Starship rocket.

NASA’s most powerful rocket poised for launch on Artemis 1 moon mission

August 27, 2022 William Harwood

Five decades after the final flight of NASA’s legendary Saturn 5 moon rocket, the U.S. space agency is poised to launch its most powerful rocket yet Monday for a critical, long-overdue test flight, sending an unpiloted Orion crew capsule on a 42-day voyage around the moon.

SpaceX launch sets record for Falcon 9 payload mass

August 27, 2022 Stephen Clark

SpaceX hauled another 54 Starlink internet satellites into orbit Saturday night from Cape Canaveral, setting a record for the heaviest payload ever launched by a Falcon 9 rocket. The launch occurred days after SpaceX and T-Mobile unveiled plans to use a new generation of Starlink spacecraft to provide ubiquitous connectivity to existing cell phones.

Countdown begins for maiden launch of Artemis moon rocket

August 27, 2022 William Harwood

Countdown clocks began ticking Saturday for the maiden launch of NASA new Space Launch System rocket Monday on a long-awaited mission to send an unpiloted Orion crew capsule around the moon and back.