News – Page 506 – Spaceflight Now

March 25, 2026

Breaking News

[ March 25, 2026 ] NASA outlines ambitious $20 billion plan for moon base Artemis
[ March 22, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 29 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Falcon 9
[ March 20, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 25 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB Falcon 9
[ March 19, 2026 ] NASA returns its SLS rocket back to the launch pad ahead of planned April flight of Artemis 2 Artemis
[ March 18, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 29 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Falcon 9

Scientists say thinning atmosphere drove the drying and cooling of Mars

March 27, 2017 Stephen Clark

Data collected by NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft in its first two years at Mars confirm suspicions that the solar wind is blasting away the planet’s atmosphere and helped transform the world from a warmer, wetter and potentially habitable world into the barren landscape seen today, scientists said.

Hotfire test completed ahead of milestone Falcon 9 launch Thursday

March 27, 2017 Stephen Clark

SpaceX has set the first launch of a “flight-proven” Falcon 9 rocket for Thursday evening after running the booster through a hold-down engine firing Monday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Watch a replay of the Falcon 9 engine test

March 27, 2017 Spaceflight Now

The Falcon 9 rocket’s main engines briefly ignited at launch pad 39A in a standard pre-launch test. This is the second time this booster has test fired its engines on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

Watch Falcon 9 go upright on the launch pad in time lapse video

March 27, 2017 Spaceflight Now

A Falcon 9 rocket is moved into the position for a static test firing of its nine Merlin 1D engines. This time lapse video runs at 20 times normal speed.

Watch space station spacewalk highlights

March 24, 2017 Spaceflight Now

Watch video highlights of a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Friday by Expedition 50 commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA and flight engineer Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency.

Live coverage: Reused Falcon 9 rocket prepared for launch

March 24, 2017 Stephen Clark

Liftoff of a previously-flown Falcon 9 rocket is set for 6:27 p.m. EDT (2227 GMT) Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the first time SpaceX has reused one of its first stage boosters on a second mission. Ground crews face a tight timeline to ready the rocket and the SES 10 communications satellite in time for a Thursday launch attempt.

Spacewalkers complete excursion outside International Space Station

March 24, 2017 Stephen Clark

Astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet put on their self-contained spacesuits and headed outside the International Space Station on Friday for a six-and-a-half hour excursion to prepare for the relocation of a docking adapter, service the lab’s Dextre robot, and install a new computer relay box.

Launches from Kourou temporarily suspended by social unrest

March 23, 2017 Stephen Clark

The launch an Ariane 5 rocket with Brazilian and Korean communications satellites that was set for this week has been postponed indefinitely after protesters blocked access to the French Guiana spaceport.

New SLS engine controller tested in hold-down firing

March 23, 2017 Stephen Clark

A shuttle-era RS-25 rocket engine was fired at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi on Thursday in the first test of a new engine control computer that will launch on the first flight of the agency’s Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket as soon as late next year.

Trump signs NASA authorization act, Pence to chair National Space Council

March 23, 2017 Stephen Clark

President Donald Trump signed a new NASA authorization bill Tuesday, the first such space policy framework since early in the Obama administration, that largely continues the space agency’s efforts to foster a commercial economy in Earth orbit and explore deep space, with an eventual goal of landing humans on Mars.