William Harwood – Page 4 – Spaceflight Now

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.

Trump nominates Jared Isaacman to serve as next NASA administrator

December 4, 2024 William Harwood

If confirmed, Isaacman, 41, would be the fifth NASA administrator with spaceflight experience, replacing former Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who flew into orbit aboard the space shuttle Columbia in early 1986.

One astronaut hospitalized in Pensacola after splashdown; crewmates flown back to Houston

October 25, 2024 William Harwood

The astronaut “is in stable condition under observation as a precautionary measure,” NASA said in a statement 10 hours after the Crew Dragon’s landing. “To protect the crew member’s medical privacy, specific details on the individual’s condition or identity will not be shared.”

SpaceX pulls off mid-air launch pad capture of descending Super Heavy booster

October 13, 2024 William Harwood

In one of the most dramatic, high-risk space flights to date, SpaceX launched a gargantuan Super Heavy-Starship rocket on an unpiloted test flight Sunday and then used giant “mechazilla” robot arms on the pad gantry to pluck the returning first stage out of the sky in an unprecedented feat of engineering.