Mission Reports

January 12, 2026

Breaking News

[ January 12, 2026 ] Live coverage: SpaceX to launch 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
[ January 9, 2026 ] Crew-11 to cut mission short and return to Earth due to medical issue Mission Reports

Philae’s “little cousin” heading for asteroid touchdown

December 2, 2014 Stephen Clark

Weeks after accomplishing the first touchdown on a comet, the team of European scientists that developed the Philae landing craft is awaiting launch of a related robot riding piggyback with Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft to achieve the same feat on an asteroid.

Japan set to launch asteroid sample return mission

December 2, 2014 Stephen Clark

Japan is readying an H-2A rocket for liftoff Tuesday to kick off an audacious six-year roundtrip journey to a carbon-rich asteroid, drop a fleet of landers to its surface, collect primordial rock samples, and return the materials to terrestrial laboratories for analysis.

Small satellites have another way to get into space

December 2, 2014 Stephen Clark

A spherical U.S. Navy spacecraft the size of a beach ball spring-ejected from a new satellite deployer outside the International Space Station last week, debuting a fresh way for low-budget space missions to reach orbit.

Live coverage: Orion lands in Pacific

December 2, 2014 Spaceflight Now

NASA’s first space-worthy Orion capsule blasted off atop a Delta 4-Heavy booster rocket for a two-orbit, four-hour shakedown cruise in orbit. Liftoff occurred at 7:05 a.m. EST (1205 GMT), with splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at 11:29 a.m. EST (1629 GMT).

Live coverage: Japanese asteroid mission blasts off

December 2, 2014 Stephen Clark

An ambitious mission of exploration launched from Japan at 0422 GMT Wednesday (11:22 p.m. EST Tuesday). An H-2A rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center with Hayabusa 2, starting a six-year journey to collect rocks from an asteroid and return them to Earth.

Philae’s “little cousin” heading for asteroid touchdown

Japan set to launch asteroid sample return mission

Small satellites have another way to get into space

Live coverage: Orion lands in Pacific

Live coverage: Japanese asteroid mission blasts off

Isolated showers, gusty winds expected for Thursday’s Delta 4 launch

Soyuz rocket deploys upgraded Russian navigation craft

Launch of Japanese asteroid probe delayed

Thanksgiving in space

Proton liftoff delayed by upper stage problem