These photos show Firefly Aerospace’s second Alpha rocket as it was raised on its launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sept. 10, and again on Sept. 12 after the first launch attempt for the mission. Photographers captured these views as Firefly prepared the rocket for a planned test flight carrying seven small satellites into orbit.
A reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 booster completed its record-breaking 14th flight to space after blastoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Saturday night. The mission was billed as one of SpaceX’s complex launches to date, deploying 34 Starlink internet spacecraft and a testbed satellite for AST SpaceMobile’s space-based cellular broadband network into two different orbits.
NASA officials said Thursday they hope to try again to launch the Artemis 1 moon rocket from the Kennedy Space Center as soon as Sept. 23 or 27, but that schedule comes with two big caveats: A repair to a leaky liquid hydrogen fueling line must hold tight during a tanking test next weekend, and the Space Force’s Eastern Range has to extend the certification of batteries on the moon rocket’s flight safety system.
An Ariane 5 rocket launched at 5:45 p.m. EDT (2145 GMT) Wednesday from Kourou, French Guiana, with a powerhouse European broadband satellite owned by Eutelsat and built by Thales Alenia Space. The Eutelsat Konnect VHTS satellite will beam internet connectivity across Europe for fixed broadband consumers and in-flight WiFi.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Sunday night with 51 more Starlink internet satellites and a rideshare payload that will use a Spaceflight-built orbital transfer vehicle to climb into a higher orbit to test broadband communications technology for Boeing. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral occurred at 10:09 p.m. EDT Sunday (0209 GMT Monday).
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