News – Page 549 – 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

NASA astronaut Jeff Williams sets new U.S. space endurance record

August 24, 2016 William Harwood

International Space Station commander Jeff Williams set a new U.S. space endurance record Wednesday, his 521st day in orbit over four missions, eclipsing the 520-day record set earlier this year by astronaut Scott Kelly at the end of his nearly one-year stay aboard the lab complex.

Potentially-habitable planet discovered around nearest star Proxima Centauri

August 24, 2016 Keith Cooper

A planet with at least 1.3 times the mass of Earth has been discovered orbiting within the habitable zone of the nearest star to our Sun, Proxima Centauri, which is just 4.2 light years away.

Launch timeline for the Ariane 5 rocket’s 87th flight

August 24, 2016 Stephen Clark

An Ariane 5 rocket will fire into the sky from French Guiana just after sunset Wednesday and deliver nearly 12 tons of payload to an orbit reaching 22,000 miles up less than a half-hour later.

Live coverage: Ariane 5 blasts off with two Intelsat satellites

August 24, 2016 Stephen Clark

An Ariane 5 rocket sent two Intelsat communications satellites into orbit Wednesday after liftoff from Europe’s space base in French Guiana at 2216 GMT (6:16 p.m. EDT; 7:16 p.m. local time).

Photos: A drive around the Ariane 5 launch pad

August 23, 2016 Stephen Clark

Take a trip around the perimeter of the Ariane 5 rocket’s launch zone in Kourou, French Guiana, where two Intelsat communications satellites are poised for liftoff Wednesday.

Photos: European rocket treks to launch pad with U.S. satellites

August 23, 2016 Stephen Clark

Two U.S.-built commercial communications satellites moved to their last stop on Earth on Tuesday, when an Ariane 5 rocket rolled out to a launch pad at the edge of the Amazon jungle on the eve of liftoff.

Photos: Ariane 5 hitched to tug for rollout to the launch pad

August 23, 2016 Stephen Clark

A day before blastoff with two Intelsat communications satellites, an Ariane 5 rocket rolled into position on its launch pad in French Guiana on Tuesday behind a 540-horsepower Titan truck, and these close-up snapshots show technicians preparing for the journey.

Video: Walk around NASA’s new asteroid sample probe

August 23, 2016 Stephen Clark

Take a walk around NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft less than three weeks before its Sept. 8 launch on top of an Atlas 5 rocket. Rich Kuhns, the mission’s program manager from Lockheed Martin, points out some of the major features on the probe.

Photos: OSIRIS-REx prepped for encapsulation

August 23, 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is about to be sealed inside the nose fairing of its Atlas 5 rocket booster for a seven-year voyage to asteroid Bennu and back to Earth on a mission to seek out clues to the origin of life and the chaotic early solar system.

One of NASA’s cleanest spacecraft ever is ready to fly

August 23, 2016 Stephen Clark

Five years after winning $1 billion from NASA to mount the first U.S. asteroid sample return mission, scientists and engineers will get their last look at the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft this week as it is closed up inside the nose cone of an Atlas 5 rocket for launch in September.