September 2023 – Spaceflight Now

Falcon 9 beats the weather to launch 22 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral

September 29, 2023 Spaceflight Now

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Friday night on another mission to deliver satellites into orbit for SpaceX’s Starlink internet service. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 10:00 p.m. EDT Sept. 29 (0200 UTC on Sept. 30) after a delay for weather.

Launch of NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission slips a week due to spacecraft issue

September 28, 2023 Spaceflight Now

The launch of NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission is being delayed a week due to allow “verifications” of parameters used by the spacecraft’s thrusters, the space agency confirmed Thursday. Liftoff on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is now scheduled for no earlier than Oct. 12.

Soyuz lands safely in Kazakhstan to end record-breaking mission; Rubio: “It’s good to be home”

September 27, 2023 William Harwood

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and two Russian cosmonauts undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth early Wednesday, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out an unexpected yearlong stay in space, the longest single flight in U.S. space history.

Live coverage: Space station crew return to Earth after 371-day mission

September 27, 2023 Spaceflight Now

Two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut return to Earth after an extended tour of duty aboard the International Space Station. The landing marked the end of a 370-day-21-hour-22-minute-long mission. It was the third longest human space flight in history and the longest by a U.S. astronaut.

Rapid response Victus Nox launch success open new possibilities for Space Force, commercial space industry

September 27, 2023 Will Robinson-Smith

Nearly two weeks after the successful launch of a payload for the U.S. Space Force’s Space System Command, leaders from the branch along with launch provider, Firefly Aerospace, and satellite manufacturer, Millennium Space Systems, touted the importance and details of the mission during a press briefing on Tuesday.

Two cosmonauts, NASA astronaut head for Wednesday landing after yearlong mission

September 26, 2023 William Harwood

Outgoing space station commander Sergei Prokopyev and his two Soyuz crewmates, co-pilot Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, packed up Tuesday for a fiery plunge back to Earth early Wednesday to close out a yearlong stay in orbit, the longest flight in U.S. space history.

SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Starlink satellites from California

September 25, 2023 Spaceflight Now

SpaceX launched its 42nd Starlink delivery mission of the year with a Falcon 9 lifting off from the West Coast carrying a batch of 21 satellites at 1:48 a.m. PDT (4:48 a.m. EDT / 0848 UTC) Monday morning.

OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule safely lands in Utah

September 24, 2023 William Harwood

A saucer-shaped capsule carrying asteroid fragments that may hold clues about the birth of the solar system slammed into Earth’s atmosphere Sunday and descended to an on-target parachute-assisted touchdown in Utah in the final chapter of a dramatic seven-year, four-billion-mile voyage.

Interview: Talking asteroid sample return

September 24, 2023 Spaceflight Now

Spaceflight Now’s Will Robinson-Smith speaks with some of the key figures at Lockheed Martin, who helped bring the OSIRIS-REx mission to life and will continue working with both the spacecraft and the asteroid samples after the return capsule lands in the Utah desert.

As it happened: Seven-year asteroid adventure ends with sample return

September 24, 2023 Spaceflight Now

Live coverage as a capsule lands in the U.S. Army test range in the Utah desert carrying samples from the surface of asteroid Bennu. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (short for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) mission has been on a seven-year journey to Bennu and back. If all goes according to plan the capsule will land under a parachute at about 10:55 a.m. EDT (1455 UTC) on Sunday.