News – Page 533 – Spaceflight Now

December 19, 2025

Breaking News

[ December 18, 2025 ] Rocket Lab launches 4 novel DiskSat satellites for U.S. Space Force, NASA Electron
[ December 18, 2025 ] Senate confirms Jared Isaacman as 15th NASA Administrator News
[ December 17, 2025 ] SpaceX flies Starlink mission using Falcon 9 booster flying for a 30th time Falcon 9
[ December 16, 2025 ] SpaceX launches Wednesday morning Starlink mission from Kennedy Space Center Falcon 9
[ December 15, 2025 ] Rocket Lab Electron rocket aborts liftoff at engine ignition Electron

Japanese weather observatory successfully boosted into orbit

November 2, 2016 Stephen Clark

A nearly four-ton satellite fitted with a modernized camera to collect more timely images of typhoons and severe weather bolted away from a seaside launch pad in southern Japan on Wednesday, riding an H-2A rocket on the way to an orbital perch more than 22,000 miles above Earth.

Long March 5 heavy-lifter ready to join China’s rocket inventory

November 2, 2016 Stephen Clark

China is ready to debut a heavy-lifting rocket rivaling the biggest boosters in the world Thursday, paving the way for a backlog of missions to loft massive space station modules, send deep space probes to the moon and Mars, and perhaps deploy commercial satellites.

Key events during the H-2A rocket launch with Himawari 9

November 1, 2016 Stephen Clark

Japan’s Himawari 9 weather satellite will ride into space atop an H-2A rocket from Tanegashima Space Center and reach a preliminary geostationary transfer orbit within 28 minutes of liftoff.

Live coverage: H-2A rocket blasts off with latest Japanese weather satellite

November 1, 2016 Stephen Clark

A Japanese H-2A rocket launched from Tanegashima Island on Wednesday with the Himawari 9 weather observatory bound for a perch more than 22,000 miles above Earth to improve forecasting in the Asia-Pacific. Liftoff of the 17-story rocket from southern Japan occurred at 0620 GMT (2:20 a.m. EDT) Wednesday.

H-2A rocket rolls to launch pad with Japanese weather satellite

November 1, 2016 Stephen Clark

A sophisticated new Japanese weather satellite will ride an H-2A rocket into orbit Wednesday to start a 15-year mission tracking cyclones and helping meteorologists predict storm movements across the Asia-Pacific and Australia.

Photos: Soyuz lands in Kazakhstan with U.S.-Russian-Japanese crew

October 31, 2016 Stephen Clark

An on-target touchdown in Kazakhstan punctuated a 115-day space mission for Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, Japanese flight engineer Takuya Onishi and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins this weekend. Photographers recorded the moment with these vivid photos.

Chinese astronauts halfway through country’s longest space mission

October 31, 2016 Stephen Clark

Two Chinese astronauts are busy with medical experiments and other duties as they near the halfway mark of a month-long stay aboard the Tiangong 2 space lab, according to state media reports.

SpaceX hopes procedure fix can allow Falcon 9 launches to resume

October 31, 2016 Stephen Clark

Investigators probing the Sept. 1 explosion of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on its launch pad in Florida believe a high-pressure gas tank inside the launcher’s upper stage most likely burst due to the conditions of the helium loaded into it, a finding that could simplify fixes needed before the commercial booster can return to service.

Video: Crew members extracted from the Soyuz after landing

October 30, 2016 Justin Ray

One-by-one, the three crew members are pulled from the Soyuz MS-01 capsule and placed in reclining chairs minutes after landing in Kazakhstan.

International space crew wraps up nearly four months in orbit

October 30, 2016 William Harwood

A veteran Russian cosmonaut, a Japanese flight engineer and a NASA scientist-astronaut undocked from the International Space Station and returned to Earth Saturday, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 115-day mission.