News – Page 578 – Spaceflight Now

December 27, 2025

Breaking News

[ December 26, 2025 ] Former ULA president and CEO Tory Bruno joins Blue Origin News
[ December 22, 2025 ] H3 rocket suffers upper stage anomaly, fails to correctly deploy navigation satellite H3
[ December 22, 2025 ] Tory Bruno steps down as President, CEO of ULA News
[ December 21, 2025 ] Astronauts, launch teams practice Artemis 2 countdown Artemis
[ December 20, 2025 ] Space Development Agency awards roughly $3.5 billion to 4 companies for 72 missile tracking and warning satellites News

Attitude control failures led to break-up of Japanese astronomy satellite

April 18, 2016 Stephen Clark

Japan’s Hitomi X-ray observatory, beset by an attitude control problem that has disrupted communications since March 29, may have shed one of its power-generating solar panels or deployable telescope in orbit and is spinning too fast to contact ground controllers, officials said.

Chinese space lab back on Earth after groundbreaking embryo experiment

April 18, 2016 Stephen Clark

An uncrewed spacecraft landed in China’s Inner Mongolia region Monday after nearly 13 days in orbit carrying an array of microgravity research experiments, including a groundbreaking investigation that showed mammal embryos can develop in space, Chinese state media reported.

Door now open to launch educational hitchhikers on Atlas 5 rockets for free

April 18, 2016 Justin Ray

United Launch Alliance has begun accepting applications from colleges and universities across the U.S. to compete for free cubesat launch slots aboard upcoming Atlas 5 rockets.

Expandable room installed on space station

April 16, 2016 Stephen Clark

The International Space Station’s robotic arm, under the control of engineers on Earth, extracted an experimental inflatable habitat from the trunk of SpaceX’s Dragon supply ship Saturday and attached it to the orbiting complex.

Delta 4-Heavy passes countdown rehearsal for upcoming NRO launch

April 15, 2016 Justin Ray

Successfully put through its countdown paces in a critical pre-flight test Thursday, America’s largest rocket currently in service moved closer to a June launch for the U.S. intelligence community.

Swiss company to build Vulcan fairings, composite structures

April 14, 2016 Stephen Clark

United Launch Alliance plans to introduce a new payload fairing design on the next-generation Vulcan rocket, which will fly with composite parts made by Switzerland-based Ruag Space, the company’s chief executive said Wednesday.

Flown Falcon 9 booster hoisted off landing platform

April 13, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX rocket technicians offloaded the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket from its landing platform Tuesday, beginning a pioneering test campaign to verify its readiness for another launch later this year.

Russian billionaire devotes $100 million to star flight initiative

April 13, 2016 William Harwood

Russian billionaire Yuri Milner plans to spend $100 million over the next few years to begin developing the technology needed to build a giant laser array to propel swarms of postage stamp-size spacecraft off on 20-year-long interstellar flights to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to the sun, the internet investor announced Tuesday.

New views of Falcon 9 landing from on-board SpaceX’s drone ship

April 13, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX has released new photos of last week’s thrilling rocket landing aboard a floating drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, showing the 15-story Falcon 9 first stage slowing to a hover just as it touched down on the platform.

Final space shuttle fuel tank in existence heads to California museum

April 12, 2016 Justin Ray

On the 35th anniversary of the first space shuttle launch, the last remaining external fuel tank set sail today from its factory in New Orleans to Los Angeles and a remarkable museum attraction in the making.