News – Page 568 – Spaceflight Now

June 8, 2026

Breaking News

[ June 7, 2026 ] Live coverage: SpaceX to launch Falcon 9 rocket booster on record-breaking 35th flight Falcon 9
[ June 6, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 2 Starshield satellites during Saturday night Starlink mission Falcon 9
[ June 5, 2026 ] NASA crew briefly shelters inside Dragon capsule as Russia addresses new space station leaks Mission Reports
[ June 4, 2026 ] NASA head urges new launcher for Blue Origin’s moon landers to meet Artemis mission deadlines Moon Base
[ June 3, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Falcon 9

SpaceX fires previously-flown rocket in major stride toward reusability

July 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

Throttling up to more than a million pounds of thrust at SpaceX’s Central Texas test facility, a Falcon 9 rocket booster recovered after a commercial satellite launch in May passed a key milestone Thursday as the company sets its sights on re-flying a used first stage on a mission this fall.

ExoMars orbiter fine-tunes path toward red planet

July 28, 2016 Stephen Clark

A European spacecraft cruising toward Mars fired its main engine Thursday, tweaking its trajectory and helping set up for carefully-choreographed simultaneous maneuvers Oct. 19 to place part of the tandem mission into orbit around the red planet and deposit a stationary battery-powered lander on the Martian surface.

Photos: More shots of Thursday’s Atlas 5 rocket launch

July 28, 2016 Justin Ray

Departing Cape Canaveral at 8:37 a.m. EDT Thursday, the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted a classified national security satellite into orbit for deployment.

Photos: Atlas 5 powers away with NROL-61 payload

July 28, 2016 Justin Ray

Launching the secretive NROL-61 payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket thundered away from Cape Canaveral today at 8:37 a.m. EDT (1237 GMT).

Spy satellite infrastructure supported by successful Atlas 5 rocket launch

July 28, 2016 Justin Ray

A clandestine satellite for the U.S. reconnaissance program was successfully launched by an Atlas 5 rocket today, riding a ferocious torrent of fire and smoke off the pad before disappearing behind a curtain of secrecy.

Video: Liftoff of Atlas 5 on NROL-61 satellite deployment

July 28, 2016 Justin Ray

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, standing 194 feet tall and and weighing 950,000 pounds, unleashes 1.5 million pounds of thrust from its main engine and two side-mounted boosters at 8:37 a.m. EDT today to launch the National Reconnaissance Office’s NROL-61 satellite from Cape Canaveral.

Re-entering Chinese rocket stage streaks across Western U.S.

July 28, 2016 Stephen Clark

A flaming fragment of space junk from China’s newest satellite launcher blazed through Earth’s atmosphere over the Western United States late Wednesday.

Japan’s sixth HTV cargo mission slated for Sept. 30 launch

July 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

Japan’s space agency has set Sept. 30 as the target launch date for the country’s sixth resupply mission to the International Space Station, carrying cargo, experiments and six lithium-ion batteries to kick off a major upgrade of the lab’s electrical system.

NASA developing plans for commercially-built Mars orbiter

July 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA is advancing a plan to send a robotic orbiter to Mars in the early 2020s, developing designs with five U.S. satellite makers for a mission to extend high-resolution mapping capabilities, telecommunications relay functions, and potentially act as a waypoint for Martian soil samples destined for return to Earth.

Atlas 5/NROL-61 launch timeline

July 27, 2016 Justin Ray

Follow the unclassified portion of the Atlas 5 rocket’s ascent to space from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 launch pad with the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office’s NROL-61 satellite. Launch is scheduled for Thursday at 8:37 a.m. EDT (1237 GMT).