Mission Reports – Page 497

January 13, 2026

Breaking News

[ January 13, 2026 ] ISS gains new commander as Crew-11 prepares midweek departure Mission Reports
[ January 12, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 29 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Falcon 9
[ January 12, 2026 ] India’s PSLV suffers second consecutive launch failure, 16 satellites lost Mission Reports
[ January 10, 2026 ] SpaceX deploys NASA’s Pandora, other smallsats amid 1st ‘Twilight’ rideshare mission Falcon 9
[ January 9, 2026 ] L3Harris announces $845 million majority sale of Space Propulsion and Power Systems business News

Europe’s ATV space freighter bids final goodbye to space station

February 14, 2015 Stephen Clark

Europe’s fifth and final Automated Transfer Vehicle departed the International Space Station for the last time Saturday, closing out one of the European Space Agency’s flagship programs as the bus-sized spaceship heads for a destructive re-entry Sunday.

Europe’s last ATV set to depart from space station

February 13, 2015 Stephen Clark

A European supply freighter is set to undock from the International Space Station on Saturday, heading for a destructive dive into Earth’s atmosphere about 30 hours later after a power system failure forced the cancellation of an experiment to observe the dynamics of the re-entry of a large spacecraft.

Engineers to assess reusability of Europe’s wingless space plane

February 13, 2015 Stephen Clark

Back on Earth after a whirlwind journey 20,000 miles around the world, an experimental re-entry demonstrator is on the way to Europe for post-flight inspections aimed at gathering design inputs for future reusable space vehicles.

Photos: Falcon 9 soars into space at sunset

February 12, 2015 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral on its 15th flight just before sunset Wednesday, putting on a spectacular sky show en route to space with a NOAA satellite to measure the solar wind.

Fire in the hole! Vega fires away from jungle spaceport

February 12, 2015 Stephen Clark

Check out photos of a solid-fueled Vega launcher as it zipped away from its launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana, with Europe’s IXV mission Wednesday.

SpaceX to forgo booster recovery on Wednesday’s launch

February 11, 2015 Stephen Clark

SpaceX says it is giving up on landing the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean after Wednesday’s launch of a NOAA space weather observatory due to rough seas in the booster recovery zone off Florida’s East Coast.

European space plane flies around the world on test flight

February 11, 2015 Stephen Clark

Europe launched a sleek space plane more than 250 miles above Earth on Wednesday, testing its maneuverability, on-board guidance systems, and a next-generation heat shield as the experimental vehicle glided through the atmosphere toward a pinpoint splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Video: Europe’s IXV prepared for launch

February 11, 2015 Stephen Clark

Watch a time lapse video chronicling several days of activity to ready the European Space Agency’s sleek IXV re-entry demonstrator for flight.

Flight timeline for ESA’s re-entry demonstrator

February 11, 2015 Stephen Clark

An automobile-sized prototype space plane is ready for an around-the-world test flight to demonstrate technologies to fly on a future orbital space plane, reusable rocket stages, and interplanetary sample return probes. Follow the 102-minute flight with this timeline.

Commercial Dragon supply ship returns to Earth

February 11, 2015 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s Dragon supply ship wrapped up a 29-day stay at the International Space Station on Tuesday, departing the complex with nearly 3,700 pounds of research specimens, a balky spacesuit and experimental 3D printed parts before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.