News – Page 558 – Spaceflight Now

April 17, 2026

Breaking News

[ April 16, 2026 ] Blue Origin hot fires its first previously flown booster, prepares for weekend launch Mission Reports
[ April 15, 2026 ] Blue Origin one step closer to launching New Glenn from Vandenberg Space Force Base New Glenn
[ April 15, 2026 ] West Coast SpaceX Falcon 9 mission launches 25 Starlink satellites Falcon 9
[ April 14, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 1,000th Starlink satellite of 2026 on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Falcon 9
[ April 10, 2026 ] NASA confident Artemis 2 heat shield will protect crew during re-entry Artemis

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.