William Harwood – Spaceflight Now

Northrop Grumman cargo ship reaches space Station

September 18, 2025 William Harwood

The capture came after Northrop Grumman engineers adjusted the sensitivity of main engine fault detection software that prematurely triggered shut downs during two rendezvous thruster firings Tuesday.

SpaceX successfully launches Super Heavy-Starship on critical test flight

August 27, 2025 William Harwood

While re-entry heating damaged a protective “skirt” around the the engine bay of the upper stage Starship, along with partially melting a control flap near its hinge, the vehicle remained under control throughout and made it all the way to a powered splashdown in the Indian Ocean as planned.

Cargo ship docks with International Space Station

August 25, 2025 William Harwood

Launched Sunday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station atop a Falcon 9 rocket, the cargo Dragon closed out a 28-hour rendezvous with an ahead-of-schedule docking at the lab’s forward port at 7:05 a.m. EDT as the two spacecraft were passing 260 miles above the Ivory Coast of Africa.

ULA launches Vulcan rocket on first Space Force mission

August 13, 2025 William Harwood

Equipped with four solid-fuel strap-on boosters for additional takeoff power, the 198-foot-tall Vulcan’s two methane-fueled BE-4 engines thundered to life at 8:56p.m. EDT, instantly propelling the rocket away from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Crew 10 returns to Earth with Pacific Ocean splashdown

August 9, 2025 William Harwood

Two NASA astronauts, a Japanese flier and a Russian cosmonaut plunged back to Earth Saturday, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego to wrap up a five-month mission.

NASA probes to study how the solar wind triggers potentially dangerous ‘space weather’

July 23, 2025 William Harwood

SpaceX launched twin satellites for NASA Wednesday that will study how the electrically-charged solar wind interacts with Earth’s magnetic field, creating constantly changing and occasionally dangerous “space weather” affecting satellites, electrical grids and other critical systems.

Commercial crew blasts off on privately-funded space station research mission

June 25, 2025 William Harwood

Strapped into a new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule making its maiden flight, Whitson, test pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India, European Space Agency astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and Hungarian engineer Tibor Kapu roared away from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 2:31 a.m. EDT.

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.

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.