2025 – Page 29 – Spaceflight Now

Rocket Lab launches BlackSky Gen-3 satellite on 60th Electron flight

February 18, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The mission, dubbed ‘Fasten Your Space Belts,’ was Rocket Lab’s second launch of the year and its ninth launch supporting BlackSky as a customer. Liftoff from New Zealand happened at 12:17 p.m. NZDT on Feb. 19 (6:17 p.m. EST, 2317 UCT on Feb. 18).

SpaceX sticks first Falcon 9 booster landing in The Bahamas

February 17, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1080, landed near Exuma, an island within The Bahamas. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 6:21 p.m. EST (2321 UTC).

Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander arrives in lunar orbit

February 16, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The robotic lander reached the Moon’s orbit after performing its 4 minute and 15 second Lunar Orbit Insertion burn, which began at 8:51 p.m. EST on Feb. 13 (0151 UTC on Feb. 14).

SpaceX launches 21 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral

February 14, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The Starlink 12-8 mission was SpaceX’s 20 orbital launch of the year and send 21 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. Liftoff happened at 1:14 a.m. EST (0614 UTC).

NASA announces new launch date for Crew-10, swap of SpaceX Dragon spacecraft following construction delays

February 12, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The four-member crew will now fly onboard Dragon Endurance instead of SpaceX’s fifth Crew Dragon spacecraft as originally intended. Launch has moved up to Wednesday, March 12, “pending mission readiness and completion of the agency’s certification of flight readiness process.”

SpaceX launches 21 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral

February 11, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The Starlink 12-18 mission included 13 satellites that have Direct to Cell capabilities. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 1:53 p.m. EST (1853 UTC).

SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from California

February 8, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The Starlink 11-10 mission was the sixth orbital launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base this year. Liftoff from pad 4E happened Monday at 6:09 p.m. PST (9:09 p.m. EST, 0209 UTC).

Rocket Lab launches first Electron rocket of 2025 from New Zealand

February 7, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The mission was the company’s 59th Electron rocket launch to date. Liftoff of the ‘IoT 4 You and Me’ mission happened at 9:43 a.m. NZDT on Feb. 9 (3:43 p.m. EST, 2043 UTC on Feb. 8).

ULA begins de-stacking Vulcan rocket, pivots to Atlas 5 launch of Amazon’s Kuiper satellites for first 2025 mission

February 7, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The change in manifest comes as the U.S. Space Force’s Assured Access to Space continues the certification process for the Vulcan rocket. United Launch Alliance will begin stacking an Atlas rocket in the coming weeks.

NASA leaders, Artemis contractors argue importance of architecture continuity for returning to the Moon

February 7, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

Representatives from NASA, Boeing and Lockheed Martin argued that the United States shouldn’t skip past the Moon in favor of Mars when it comes to crewed deep space exploration. The discussion came up during a panel at the SpaceCom conference concerning the forthcoming Artemis 2 mission.