News – Page 261 – Spaceflight Now

October 11, 2025

Breaking News

[ October 9, 2025 ] U.S. Space Force picks Blue Origin bid for expanding satellite processing at Cape Canaveral News
[ October 9, 2025 ] SpaceX delays launching Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites amid backdrop of poor weather Falcon 9
[ October 7, 2025 ] SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites with a Falcon 9 booster flying for a 29th time Falcon 9
[ October 6, 2025 ] SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket on 90th Starlink mission of 2025 Falcon 9
[ October 4, 2025 ] SpaceX to launch 4 Falcon Heavy rockets as part of newest U.S. national security missions award News

NASA’s space station program manager retiring from agency

June 17, 2020 Stephen Clark

Kirk Shireman, NASA’s program manager for the International Space Station, is retiring from the space agency later this month to take a position in private industry.

China launches Earth observation satellite

June 17, 2020 Stephen Clark

A Gaofen Earth-imaging satellite and two secondary payloads launched Wednesday aboard a Chinese Long March 2D rocket.

Fitted with super-clean sample tubes, NASA’s next Mars rover nears launch date

June 16, 2020 Stephen Clark

The Perseverance rover’s sterilized sample tubes — designed to seal Martian rock and sediment for eventual return to Earth — are installed on the spacecraft as teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center prepare to enclose the rover inside the payload shroud of its Atlas 5 launcher for liftoff July 20.

NASA says JWST won’t be ready for launch in March 2021

June 16, 2020 Stephen Clark

The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope will not happen in March 2021 — the mission’s previously-scheduled launch date — after the coronavirus pandemic forced a more than 50 percent reduction in staff levels at the observatory’s assembly and test facility.

Intelsat, SES buy 10 C-band broadcast satellites from U.S. manufacturers

June 16, 2020 Stephen Clark

Intelsat and SES, operators of the two largest fleets of geostationary communications satellites, have ordered 10 spacecraft from Maxar, Northrop Grumman and Boeing for launches beginning in 2022 to replace C-band capacity being transitioned to 5G cellular network services.

Last Beidou satellite launch postponed by rocket trouble

June 15, 2020 Stephen Clark

Ground crews at the Xichang launch center in China postponed the launch of a Long March 3B rocket into orbit Tuesday that was to complete the deployment of the Beidou navigation fleet, a project approved by the Chinese government in 1994 to end reliance on the U.S. military’s GPS network.

Starlink satellite deployments continue with successful Falcon 9 launch

June 13, 2020 Stephen Clark

Breaking a SpaceX record for the shortest span between two missions from the same launch pad, a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Saturday from Cape Canaveral carrying 58 more Starlink broadband satellites and three Earth-imaging spacecraft for Planet.

University-built CubeSat launched with swarm of auroral science nodes

June 13, 2020 Stephen Clark

Rocket Lab successfully launched five small satellites from New Zealand Saturday for customers in the United States and Australia, including a CubeSat with a novel swarm of tiny magnetometers to measure the plasma currents that shape colorful auroras.

Live coverage: Falcon 9 rocket lifts off on first Starlink rideshare mission

June 13, 2020 Stephen Clark

Another batch of Starlink Internet satellites shared a ride into orbit with three of Planet’s SkySat Earth-imaging satellites on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Saturday. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 5:21 a.m. EDT (0921 GMT) from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

After crane problem, ULA caps build-up of Atlas 5 rocket for Mars rover launch

June 12, 2020 Stephen Clark

United Launch Alliance has completed stacking of the major elements of the Atlas 5 rocket assigned to power NASA’s Perseverance rover toward Mars, but the mission’s launch date has been pushed back three days to July 20 after teams repaired an issue with a crane in the Atlas 5’s assembly building.