News – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Starlink satellites from California

September 25, 2023 Spaceflight Now

SpaceX launched its 42nd Starlink delivery mission of the year with a Falcon 9 lifting off from the West Coast carrying a batch of 21 satellites at 1:48 a.m. PDT (4:48 a.m. EDT / 0848 UTC) Monday morning.

OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule safely lands in Utah

September 24, 2023 William Harwood

A saucer-shaped capsule carrying asteroid fragments that may hold clues about the birth of the solar system slammed into Earth’s atmosphere Sunday and descended to an on-target parachute-assisted touchdown in Utah in the final chapter of a dramatic seven-year, four-billion-mile voyage.

Interview: Talking asteroid sample return

September 24, 2023 Spaceflight Now

Spaceflight Now’s Will Robinson-Smith speaks with some of the key figures at Lockheed Martin, who helped bring the OSIRIS-REx mission to life and will continue working with both the spacecraft and the asteroid samples after the return capsule lands in the Utah desert.

As it happened: Seven-year asteroid adventure ends with sample return

September 24, 2023 Spaceflight Now

Live coverage as a capsule lands in the U.S. Army test range in the Utah desert carrying samples from the surface of asteroid Bennu. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (short for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) mission has been on a seven-year journey to Bennu and back. If all goes according to plan the capsule will land under a parachute at about 10:55 a.m. EDT (1455 UTC) on Sunday.

Another Falcon 9 hits 17-flight milestone with Starlink launch

September 23, 2023 Spaceflight Now

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched from Cape Canaveral Saturday night with a first-stage booster making its 17th flight. It was only the second to reach this milestone. Liftoff, with 22 Starlink satellites occurred at 11:38 p.m. EDT (0338 UTC Sunday).

NASA is bringing an asteroid sample back to Earth – here’s when, how and why

September 22, 2023 Will Robinson-Smith

The sample of asteroid Bennu collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is set to return to Earth the morning of Sept. 24.

Artemis 2 astronauts go to the launch pad for launch day practice

September 22, 2023 Spaceflight Now

Ahead of launching the Artemis 2 mission no earlier than November 2024, the four astronauts donned test flight suits to go through a pre-launch simulation. They rode to launch pad 39B in Canoo electric vehicles and climbed the Mobile Launcher tower.

NASA astronaut looks forward to family hugs, peace and quiet, after yearlong flight

September 22, 2023 William Harwood

If NASA had asked astronaut Frank Rubio, well in advance, if he would like to spend a full year aboard the International Space Station, he likely would have turned it down. But that’s how it turned out anyway, when trouble with his crew’s Soyuz ferry ship forced them to extended a six-month stay to 12.

SpaceX launches Falcon 9 on record-breaking 17th flight for booster

September 20, 2023 Spaceflight Now

SpaceX continued to push the boundaries of booster reusability Tuesday night with the launch of a Falcon 9 using a first stage rocket making its 17th flight. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral with 22 satellites for the Starlink internet network occurred at 11:38 p.m. EDT (0338 UTC).

Radar-imaging satellite lost as Rocket Lab Electron rocket suffers launch failure

September 19, 2023 Spaceflight Now

A Rocket Lab Electron rocket, carrying a radar-imaging satellite for Capella Space, failed on Tuesday after a problem occurred two and half minutes into flight. It was the fourth failure in 41 flights for the small satellite launcher.