Mission Reports – Page 424

December 21, 2025

Breaking News

[ December 21, 2025 ] Astronauts, launch teams practice Artemis 2 countdown Artemis
[ December 20, 2025 ] Space Development Agency awards roughly $3.5 billion to 4 companies for 72 missile tracking and warning satellites News
[ December 18, 2025 ] Rocket Lab launches 4 novel DiskSat satellites for U.S. Space Force, NASA Electron
[ December 18, 2025 ] Senate confirms Jared Isaacman as 15th NASA Administrator News
[ December 17, 2025 ] SpaceX flies Starlink mission using Falcon 9 booster flying for a 30th time Falcon 9

Falcon 9 rocket performs static fire test

March 10, 2017 Stephen Clark

Held down by heavy-duty restraints, a Falcon 9 rocket fired up its nine Merlin engines for more than three seconds Thursday evening in a key readiness test before launching with a commercial television broadcast satellite next week.

Video: Falcon 9 rocket test-fired ahead of EchoStar 23 launch

March 9, 2017 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was test-fired at Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A on Thursday evening, a few days before its scheduled blastoff with the EchoStar 23 communications satellite.

Photos: Vega rocket vaults off launch pad

March 7, 2017 Stephen Clark

Firing off the launch pad with more than a half-million pounds of thrust, a Vega rocket soared into space Monday night from French Guiana with Europe’s Sentinel 2B environmental satellite.

Environmental sentinel launched from French Guiana

March 7, 2017 Stephen Clark

A European environmental satellite rode a solid-fueled Vega launcher from a tropical spaceport at the edge of the Amazon jungle into polar orbit Monday night, adding a new eye in the sky to check on the health of crops and forests from space.

Live coverage: European environmental satellite launched by Vega rocket

March 6, 2017 Stephen Clark

A Vega rocket launched from French Guiana at 0149:24 GMT Tuesday (8:49:24 p.m. EST Monday) with Europe’s fifth Sentinel environmental satellite. The Sentinel 2B observatory will take the pulse of Earth’s vegetation, monitoring crops, forests, urban sprawl, and pollution from polar orbit.

Launch timeline for Vega rocket’s flight with Sentinel 2B

March 6, 2017 Stephen Clark

Europe’s fifth Sentinel Earth observation satellite will ride a four-stage Vega rocket into polar orbit 488 miles above Earth to begin tracking changes in agriculture and forestry patterns and monitoring natural disasters.

Live coverage: SpaceX readies next Falcon 9 for liftoff

March 6, 2017 Stephen Clark

SpaceX is preparing for the next launch of a Falcon 9 rocket, set for blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the EchoStar 23 television broadcast satellite destined to cover Brazil. The rocket’s static fire test, a major milestone in any SpaceX launch campaign, was performed Thursday.

NASA buys up to five more seats on future Soyuz missions

March 1, 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA has purchased two seats on Russian Soyuz capsules launching later this year and in early 2018 to expand the crew on the U.S. segment of the International Space Station from three to four, and reserved options to fly astronauts on Soyuz spacecraft in 2019 if commercial rides are not available in time.

Auto-destruct system seen as a key to ramping up launch tempos

February 25, 2017 Stephen Clark

The U.S. Air Force says the demonstration of an automated safety system on last week’s Falcon 9 rocket launch will slash and costs and hasten turnarounds between missions from military-operated ranges in Florida and California.

NASA studying whether to add astronauts to first launch of new super booster

February 24, 2017 William Harwood

NASA managers said Friday they hope to know within a month or so whether it might be feasible — or advisable — to put two astronauts on board the first test flight of a huge 322-foot-tall Space Launch System super booster scheduled for its maiden launch late next year.