Mission Reports

While SpaceX’s next crew mission awaits a launch opportunity just up the coast, another Falcon 9 rocket is poised for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Thursday with another cluster of 53 Starlink internet satellites heading for a deployment orbit nearly 200 miles above Earth.

The four-man crew flying on Axiom’s first private mission to the International Space Station is getting some extra time on the orbiting complex this week. Managers have extended their stay until at least Thursday night due to bad weather in SpaceX’s splashdown zones off the coast of Florida.

The first-ever powered flights over another planet have proved a resounding success for NASA’s JPL team, which is celebrating Ingenuity’s 12-month anniversary of its first helicopter hop on Mars Tuesday.

In a long-awaited report released Tuesday, a panel of planetary scientists recommended NASA prioritize development of a flagship robotic mission that would orbit Uranus, a frozen world with 27 known moons that has not been explored since a fleeting visit by the Voyager 2 spacecraft 36 years ago.

Two Chinese rocket launches hours apart Friday successfully deployed a radio and TV broadcasting spacecraft and an atmospheric environmental monitoring satellite.

Two Russian cosmonauts put on their Orlan spacesuits and headed outside the International Space Station Monday for a spacewalk to begin outfitting a European robotic arm mounted on a Russian science module launched last year, a collaboration that’s been unaffected by souring international relations on Earth.