News – Page 414 – Spaceflight Now

February 9, 2026

Breaking News

[ February 8, 2026 ] SpaceX test fires its Falcon 9 rocket ahead of midweek launch of Crew-12 to the space station Falcon 9
[ February 7, 2026 ] SpaceX launches return to flight Falcon 9 mission following brief stand down Falcon 9
[ February 6, 2026 ] SpaceX shifts away from Dragon launches at pad 39A as Starship looms News
[ February 6, 2026 ] ULA offloads first Vulcan rocket at Vandenberg at it preps its next Cape launch Mission Reports
[ February 3, 2026 ] NASA waves off February launch for Artemis II moon mission; now targeting early March Mission Reports

Long March 11 rocket delivers five commercial satellites to orbit

April 26, 2018 Stephen Clark

Five commercial Chinese satellites carrying video and hyperspectral imaging sensors took off Thursday aboard a Long March 11 booster.

NASA’s new planet-hunting satellite begins climb into science orbit

April 25, 2018 Stephen Clark

Looping back near Earth for the first time since its launch one week ago, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite fired its thrusters early Wednesday to begin boosting its orbit toward the moon for a May 17 gravity assist maneuver that will help catapult the probe into its unique science orbit.

European environmental observer launched by Russian rocket

April 25, 2018 Stephen Clark

A new European satellite carrying instruments to track changes in the world’s oceans, measure receding ice sheets and chart vegetation growth climbed into orbit Wednesday on top of a Russian Rockot launcher.

Photos: Sentinel 3B satellite prepared for launch from Plesetsk Cosmodrome

April 25, 2018 Stephen Clark

Europe’s Sentinel 3B environmental satellite was shipped to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia’s far northern Arkhangelsk region in March for a month-long campaign to prepare the spacecraft for liftoff aboard a Rockot launcher.

Live coverage: Europe’s next environmental sentinel lifts off

April 25, 2018 Stephen Clark

A European environmental satellite designed to monitor Earth’s oceans, lakes and vegetation lifted off Wednesday aboard a modified Russian ballistic missile originally built to carry nuclear warheads. The mission launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome around 500 miles north of Moscow at 1757:51 GMT (1:57:51 p.m. EDT).

SpaceX set to debut upgraded Falcon 9 rocket

April 24, 2018 Stephen Clark

SpaceX technicians at Cape Canaveral are readying for the first launch of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket configuration next week, a mission that will debut changes to make the launcher safer for astronauts and make it easier — and less expensive — for the company to reuse first stage boosters.

InSight Mars lander joined with Atlas 5 launcher at Vandenberg Air Force Base

April 24, 2018 Stephen Clark

Ground crews at Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s Central Coast hoisted NASA’s InSight Mars lander atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket Monday, kicking off nearly two weeks of integrated tests and checkouts before the probe’s interplanetary launch window opens May 5.

Atlas 5/InSight launch windows

April 24, 2018 Stephen Clark

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket carrying NASA’s InSight lander toward Mars will have a roughly two-hour predawn launch window each day from May 5 through June 8 to boost the science probe into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

Bridenstine sworn in as 13th NASA administrator

April 23, 2018 William Harwood

Oklahoma Republican Rep. Jim Bridenstine resigned from the House of Representatives Monday and was sworn in as NASA’s 13th administrator by Vice President Mike Pence, chairman of the recently revitalized National Space Council.

After “terrific” launch, TESS nears first major orbit-raising burn

April 23, 2018 Stephen Clark

NASA’s new planet-hunting TESS observatory completed its first post-launch thruster firing Saturday, setting up for a big boost Wednesday that will send the spacecraft toward the moon for a flyby next month, the next maneuvers in a two-month process to reach the mission’s final science orbit in mid-June.