2025 – Page 27 – Spaceflight Now

Fresh crew docks at space station; Starliner astronauts expected to return to Earth Tuesday

March 17, 2025 William Harwood

Approaching from behind and below, the Crew Dragon, launched Friday evening from the Kennedy Space Center, passed 1,300 feet directly under the station before looping up to a point 720 feet directly ahead of the outpost. From there, it glided straight in for docking at the Harmony module’s forward port at 12:04 a.m. EDT.

SpaceX sets new launchpad turnaround record with Saturday sunrise launch

March 15, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The Saturday morning launch broke the pad turnaround record at Space Launch Complex 40 by at nearly six hours. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 7:35 a.m. EDT (1135 UTC).

NASA, SpaceX launch Crew-10 to begin flight to the International Space Station

March 12, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The mission will be the 14th time that a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carries humans to the International Space Station. The mission launched on Friday, March 14, at 7:03 p.m. EDT (2303 UTC).

SpaceX launches Starlink 12-21 mission following back-to-back scrubs

March 10, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The last Falcon 9 launch from Florida was back on March 2 marking the longest stretch between Florida launches since an upper stage anomaly caused a launch halt from July 13 through July 27. Liftoff of the Starlink 12-21 mission happened Wednesday, March 12 at 10:35 p.m. EDT (0235 UTC).

SpaceX details Falcon 9 anomaly that temporarily grounded the rocket fleet

March 10, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

SpaceX hasn’t launched a Falcon 9 rocket since the March 2 flight of Starlink 12-20. It’s return to flight mission is set to be the rideshare launch of NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH missions on Monday night.

NASA, SpaceX launch SPHEREx and PUNCH missions following spacecraft-driven scrub

March 10, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The infrared space telescope and Sun-centric missions will launch on a rideshare Falcon 9 flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Monday, March 10. Liftoff happened Tuesday, March 11, at 8:10 p.m. PDT (11:10 p.m. EDT, 0310 UTC).

Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 Moon mission ends with lander on its side

March 7, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

A photo from the lunar lander, named Athena, shows it landed inside a crater roughly 250 m from its intended landing site. The spacecraft touched down on the Moon’s surface at 12:28:50 p.m. EST (1728:50 UTC), according to ham radio non-profit AMSAT-DL.

U.S. Air Force’s X-37B spaceplane lands following 434-day orbital mission

March 7, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The secretive winged spacecraft launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on Dec. 29, 2023 to conduct a classified mission. The landing concludes the seventh flight of the Boeing-built spacecraft since 2010.

Intuitive Machines lunar lander healthy, but apparently on its side

March 7, 2025 William Harwood

A commercially built moon lander built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines landed near the moon’s south pole Thursday, but telemetry indicated it ended up on its side. The lander is “alive,” officials said, but it’s not yet known what mission objectives might still be met.

Starship upper stage lost in second mishap in a row

March 7, 2025 William Harwood

SpaceX launched its huge Starship rocket on the program’s eighth test flight Thursday, but a malfunction of some sort triggered multiple upper stage engine shutdowns and for the second flight in a row, the vehicle failed to reach its planned sub-orbital altitude and broke apart in a shower of debris.