News – Page 521 – 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

China sets November launch for lunar sample return mission

January 25, 2017 Stephen Clark

China plans to launch a robotic mission to return samples from the lunar surface, the first such mission in four decades, in November on top of the country’s new heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket, according to state media reports.

Soyuz rolled to launch pad for first geostationary launch from French Guiana

January 24, 2017 Stephen Clark

A Russian-built Soyuz rocket moved to its launch pad on the northeastern coast of South America on Tuesday ahead of a Friday night flight with a Spanish-owned communications satellite to relay video and broadband signals between the Americas and Europe.

Japan puts its first military communications satellite into orbit

January 24, 2017 Stephen Clark

A Japanese H-2A rocket took off Tuesday with a communications satellite to relay messages and commands among the country’s defense forces, part of a $1.1 billion program to reduce Japan’s reliance on commercial and international providers to connect its military units.

European engineers studying string of clock failures on Galileo navigation satellites

January 23, 2017 Stephen Clark

A wave of clock failures on Europe’s Galileo navigation satellites has not knocked any of the craft offline, but officials want to better understand the problem before launching more satellites into the fleet.

New U.S. weather satellite with improved camera sends back first images

January 23, 2017 Stephen Clark

A new-generation weather satellite launched in November promising to deliver better images of hurricanes, storms and clouds than any mission before has returned its first tantalizing pictures from geostationary orbit.

H-2A rocket primed for launch of Japanese military communications satellite

January 23, 2017 Stephen Clark

The first communications satellite dedicated to support Japanese defense forces will launch Tuesday on top of an H-2A rocket on the way to a perch more than 22,000 miles above Earth.

Japanese spacecraft spots planet-spanning wave on Venus

January 22, 2017 Stephen Clark

Images from Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft have revealed a gigantic wave in the atmosphere of Venus, and scientists say it may be the largest such feature in the solar system.

New Horizons to continue mission of discovery with Kuiper Belt encounter

January 22, 2017 Stephen Clark

Scientists planning the the next phase of NASA’s New Horizons mission, a robotic craft that completed the first exploration of Pluto in 2015, are going into the flyby of a frozen, faraway city-sized clump of rock on New Year’s Day 2019 armed with little knowledge of the target lurking around 4 billion miles from Earth.

Photos: Atlas 5 launches SBIRS GEO Flight 3

January 22, 2017 Justin Ray

Launching a highly sophisticated infrared surveillance satellite for the U.S. military, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket thunders away from Cape Canaveral.

Photos: Another SBIRS soars atop Atlas 5

January 21, 2017 Justin Ray

The Atlas 5 rocket lifted the SBIRS GEO Flight 3 missile warning sentinel into orbit, advancing space technology for surveillance and security.