News – Page 346 – Spaceflight Now

April 5, 2026

Breaking News

[ April 3, 2026 ] ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket launches its heaviest payload ever with fifth Amazon Leo mission Atlas 5
[ April 2, 2026 ] Artemis 2 crew blasts off on historic moon mission Artemis
[ April 1, 2026 ] Live coverage: NASA to launch Artemis 2, its first Moon-bound mission with astronauts since 1972 Artemis
[ March 30, 2026 ] Falcon 9 booster launches for record 34th time on Starlink delivery mission Falcon 9
[ March 30, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 119 payloads on smallsat rideshare mission from California Falcon 9

Live coverage: Vega rocket fails during launch of UAE surveillance satellite

July 10, 2019 Stephen Clark

A Vega rocket faltered minutes after liftoff from French Guiana at 9:53 p.m. EDT Wednesday (0153 GMT) and failed to reach orbit with a European-built reconnaissance satellite for the United Arab Emirates. The payload and launcher fell into the Atlantic Ocean, marking the first failure for the solid-fueled Vega launch vehicle.

Firefly to build U.S. version of Israeli Beresheet lunar lander

July 10, 2019 Stephen Clark

Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based company which is already developing a small satellite launcher, has signed an agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries to build lunar landers in the United States and carry NASA science instruments to the moon, officials announced Tuesday.

Proton rocket and astronomy satellite back on the launch pad after battery replacement

July 9, 2019 Stephen Clark

Poised to loft a Russian-German X-ray astronomy observatory into space Friday, a Proton rocket returned to its launch pad Tuesday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan after a three-week delay to replace a drained battery on the vehicle.

India’s first moon lander stacked for launch

July 9, 2019 Stephen Clark

India’s first lunar lander has been hoisted on top of its GSLV Mk.3 rocket ahead of a liftoff scheduled for Sunday.

Commercial satellite images historic Apollo launch pads

July 9, 2019 Stephen Clark

Maxar’s eagle-eyed WorldView 3 satellite captured high-resolution views Monday of NASA’s twin Apollo-era launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, both now home to new launch vehicles 50 years after humans took their first steps on the moon.

SpaceX wins NASA contract to launch X-ray telescope on reused rocket

July 8, 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA has selected a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket — flying with a reused first stage booster — to launch the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer mission from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in April 2021, bypassing Northrop Grumman’s air-launched Pegasus rocket for the task.

Arianespace delays Vega launch to avoid unfavorable high-altitude winds

July 5, 2019 Stephen Clark

The launch from French Guiana of a solid-fueled Vega rocket with a European-built surveillance satellite for the United Arab Emirates has been postponed, Arianespace said, citing unfavorable high-altitude winds over the spaceport. Officials have not set a new target launch date.

Soyuz rocket and Fregat upper stage deliver 33 satellites to three different orbits

July 5, 2019 Stephen Clark

A new Russian weather satellite, a CubeSat to test a Silicon Valley startup’s water-based propulsion system, and eight more members of Spire’s commercial fleet of multipurpose nanosatellites were among 33 spacecraft that rode a Soyuz rocket into orbit Friday from Russia’s Far East.

Photos: NASA conducts key Orion abort test

July 4, 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA simulated an in-flight launch abort of an Orion crew capsule high above Cape Canaveral on Tuesday, in a major test of the safety system that would whisk astronauts on future moon missions away from a failing rocket.

GPS satellite encapsulated for Delta 4 launch

July 4, 2019 Stephen Clark

The U.S. Air Force’s next GPS navigation satellite has been closed up inside the payload fairing of its Delta 4 launcher ahead a liftoff from Cape Canaveral scheduled for July 25.