Fresh images from the James Webb Space Telescope show the faraway planet Neptune hung amid a tapestry of even more distant galaxies, the latest view from a now-regular flow of observations from astronomers’ new eye on the universe. Scientists released Webb’s first views of Neptune and Mars this week.
Engineers filled up the Artemis 1 moon rocket with more than 750,000 gallons of super-cold propellants in a tanking test Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center after successfully troubleshooting another hydrogen leak. NASA’s launch director said she was “extremely encouraged” by the test, but officials have not yet committed to another attempt to launch the uncrewed test flight to the moon at the next opportunity Sept. 27.
Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin were joined by NASA astronaut Frank Rubio for launch Wednesday to begin a six-month expedition on the International Space Station. The crew lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:54 a.m. EDT (1354 GMT) aboard a Soyuz rocket, and docked with the space station at 1:06 p.m. EDT (1706 GMT).
NASA’s launch team says they got a hydrogen leak under control in a fueling line near the bottom of the Artemis 1 moon rocket’s core stage, allowing engineers to continue with a cryogenic tanking test on pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday. The leak temporarily halted operations to load more than 750,000 gallons of super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the Space Launch System.
Engineers are ready to reload NASA’s Artemis moon rocket with supercold fuel Wednesday to make sure a repaired liquid hydrogen quick-disconnect fitting is leak free, one of two requirements that must be met before the agency can make a third attempt to launch the huge booster September 27 on the program’s maiden moonshot.
Ground teams at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan rolled a Soyuz rocket to its launch pad Sunday, moving a step closer to liftoff Wednesday with a team of two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut heading for the International Space Station, the first flight of a U.S. crew member on a Russian spacecraft since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
One of China’s newest rockets, the Long March 7A, launched Tuesday with a military communications satellite, potentially signaling the start of a transition of launches for the country’s armed forces from aging booster designs with toxic propellants to newer rockets with more environmentally friendly fuels.
© 1999-2025 Spaceflight Now Inc