Mission Reports – Page 347

August 16, 2026

Breaking News

[ August 15, 2026 ] SpaceX launches record-breaking back-to-back Falcon 9 rockets for Globalstar, U.S. Space Force Falcon 9
[ August 14, 2026 ] NASA Administrator ‘extremely confident’ in Artemis 3 mission in 2027 Artemis
[ August 12, 2026 ] Mike Fincke, a 30-year astronaut with experience across four spacecraft, retires from NASA News
[ August 11, 2026 ] Firefly Aerospace pushes debut of Alpha Block 2 rocket to the fourth quarter of 2026 Alpha
[ August 11, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB Falcon 9

NASA’s trailblazing Kepler telescope ends planet hunt

October 30, 2018 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Kepler telescope has run out of fuel and ended science operations, closing out a pioneering decade-long mission that showed planets are commonplace across our galaxy, agency officials said Tuesday.

Japan launches satellite to study human causes of climate change

October 29, 2018 Stephen Clark

A Japanese H-2A rocket deployed a satellite in orbit Monday to measure greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere and help scientists better quantify the role of human activity in climate change.

China-France Oceanography Satellite launches on research mission

October 29, 2018 Stephen Clark

A joint oceanography research mission developed by Chinese and French scientists launched Monday on top of a Long March 2C rocket from the Jiuquan space center in remote northwestern China.

New Horizons on track for historic New Year’s Day flyby of Ultima Thule

October 28, 2018 William Harwood

Thirteen years outbound from Earth and a billion miles past Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons probe is healthy and on course for a historic New Year’s Day flyby of its next target, a frozen remnant left over from the birth of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago, project scientists say.

Live coverage: Japan’s H-2A launches on 40th flight

October 28, 2018 Stephen Clark

Flying on its 40th mission, a Japanese H-2A rocket lifted off at 0408 GMT (12:08 a.m. EDT) Monday from the Tanegashima Space Center carrying Japan’s GOSAT 2 satellite to measure greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere and the KhalifaSat Earth observation satellite for the United Arab Emirates.

LandSpace falls short of orbit in private Chinese launch attempt

October 28, 2018 Stephen Clark

A solid-fueled satellite launcher backed by a Chinese start-up named LandSpace fired away from the Jiuquan space center in the Gobi Desert Saturday on its inaugural flight, but the rocket failed to place its microsatellite payload into orbit.

Russia launches first Soyuz rocket since Oct. 11 accident

October 25, 2018 Stephen Clark

A Soyuz rocket delivered a Russian military intelligence satellite to orbit Thursday after lift off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia’s far northern Arkhangelsk region, the first flight of a Soyuz variant since an aborted crew launch earlier this month.

Chinese oceanography satellite launches successfully

October 25, 2018 Stephen Clark

China’s Haiyang 2B oceanography satellite, the follow-on to a space mission launched seven years ago, lifted off Wednesday from the country’s Taiyuan launch base aboard a Long March 4B booster.

Atlas 5 rocket begins arriving in Florida for commercial crew test flight

October 24, 2018 Stephen Clark

The Centaur upper stage destined to send Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner crew capsule into orbit on its first unpiloted test flight next year has arrived at Cape Canaveral after a sea journey aboard United Launch Alliance’s Mariner transport ship.

NASA administrator says Russians on track for December Soyuz flight to station

October 23, 2018 William Harwood

Russian engineers have a “really, really good idea” about what went wrong during a Soyuz launch to the International Space Station Oct. 11, forcing the ship’s two-man crew to carry out an emergency abort, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Tuesday. He added that he expects the Russians to resume piloted Soyuz flights in December.