Mission Reports – Spaceflight Now

May 8, 2021

Breaking News

[ May 7, 2021 ] Large Chinese rocket tumbling toward toward unguided re-entry this weekend Mission Reports
[ May 7, 2021 ] Bezos’s Blue Origin auctions seat on first New Shepard spaceflight with passengers Mission Reports
[ May 6, 2021 ] China launches four satellites on Long March 2C rocket Mission Reports
[ May 5, 2021 ] Upgraded Starship prototype makes first soft landing after test flight News
[ May 4, 2021 ] Starlink launch marks 100 missions since an in-flight Falcon rocket failure Falcon 9

Large Chinese rocket tumbling toward toward unguided re-entry this weekend

May 7, 2021

For the second time in a year, a large spent Chinese rocket stage intentionally left in orbit is heading for an unguided plunge back into Earth’s atmosphere Saturday or Sunday somewhere between 41.5 degrees north and south latitude.

Bezos’s Blue Origin auctions seat on first New Shepard spaceflight with passengers

May 7, 2021

Blue Origin plans to begin crew flights of its suborbital New Shepard spacecraft on July 20, launching the highest bidder in an online auction out of the atmosphere and into space for a few minutes of weightlessness and an out-of-this world view before returning to Earth.

China launches four satellites on Long March 2C rocket

May 6, 2021

Three Chinese military satellites and a civilian data relay payload launched Thursday aboard a Long March 2C rocket.

Starlink launch marks 100 missions since an in-flight Falcon rocket failure

May 4, 2021

The oldest Falcon 9 booster in SpaceX’s operational rocket fleet sent 60 more Starlink internet satellites into space Tuesday with a launch from historic pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

China launches military observation satellite

May 4, 2021

China launched an optical Earth observation satellite April 30, beginning a mission designed to provide detailed reconnaissance imagery to the Chinese military.

Live coverage: SpaceX launches another Starlink mission

May 4, 2021

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 3:01 p.m. EDT (1901 GMT) Tuesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying 60 more Starlink satellites into orbit. SpaceX successfully landed the Falcon 9 booster on a drone ship offshore.

SpaceX test fires a Falcon 9 rocket ahead of Starlink mission

May 3, 2021

SpaceX has performed a static test firing of a Falcon 9 rocket at launch pad 39A ahead of a planned liftoff on Tuesday with 60 more Starlink satellites.

Crew Dragon brings four astronauts back to nighttime splashdown

May 2, 2021

Four astronauts strapped into their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged to a fiery pre-dawn splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico Sunday, closing out the first operational flight of SpaceX’s futuristic touch-screen ferry ship.

Live coverage: Four astronauts return home after 167 days in space

May 1, 2021

NASA commander Mike Hopkins, pilot Victor Glover, astronaut Shannon Walker, and Japanese mission specialist Soichi Noguchi wrapped up a 167-day mission early Sunday with a splashdown at sea aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule at around 2:56 a.m. EDT (0656 GMT).

Astronauts describe thrilling ride to orbit on Falcon 9 rocket

April 30, 2021

When the countdown hit zero last Friday and the engines powering a previously flown Falcon 9 first stage roared to life for takeoff, the four astronauts strapped into a SpaceX Crew Dragon some 21 stories up started laughing.

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