News – Page 584 – 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

Japan gives up on rescuing black hole observatory

April 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

Japan’s space agency says it has ceased efforts to rescue a failed X-ray astronomy satellite after it spun out of control and broke apart in orbit, declaring the nearly $400 million mission lost two months after its launch.

Photos: Soyuz launch inaugurates new Russian spaceport

April 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

The first launch from the nearly $3 billion Vostochny Cosmodrome took off Thursday, carrying three satellites into orbit from the new spaceport nestled in Russia’s forested Far East.

Mixture ratio valve the culprit in Atlas 5 anomaly, next launch this summer

April 29, 2016 Justin Ray

With the performance hit on the Atlas 5 rocket’s most recent flight last month now isolated to a faulty valve, preparations to resume the manifest are underway as United Launch Alliance workers stack the next booster for blastoff this summer.

Europe’s Sentinel satellites generating huge ‘Big Data’ archive

April 28, 2016 Stephen Clark

With a second radar surveillance satellite already returning images less than three days after launch, managers in charge of Europe’s growing fleet of Sentinel environment-monitoring spacecraft will grapple with an immense ‘Big Data’ challenge as the multibillion-dollar program enters a new phase.

First launch from Russia’s new cosmodrome declared a success

April 28, 2016 Stephen Clark

A Soyuz rocket streaked into sunny skies over a new multibillion-dollar Siberian spaceport Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin watching from a nearby viewing stand, opening another gateway to space for satellites, and eventually cosmonaut crews.

Indian launch rounds out domestic navigation network

April 28, 2016 Stephen Clark

India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle blasted off Thursday with the seventh and final spacecraft for a regional navigation network to provide position data to users across the subcontinent independent of foreign satellite systems.

Falcon 9 rocket wins landmark U.S. Air Force launch contract

April 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will launch a third-generation GPS navigation satellite for the U.S. military in 2018, the Air Force said Wednesday, breaking a monopoly held by United Launch Alliance since its formation nearly a decade ago.

Photos: Space shuttle fuel tank in Panama for passage through canal

April 27, 2016 Justin Ray

The last space shuttle external tank in existence, headed from the New Orleans manufacturing plant to the California Science Center for the vertical launch pad display of the retired orbiter Endeavour, has passed through the Panama Canal.

SpaceX announces plan to send mission to Mars in 2018

April 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

Elon Musk’s space transport company — chartered with a long-term goal of colonizing Mars — plans to send the first commercial mission to the red planet as soon as 2018, SpaceX announced Wednesday.

First countdown at new Russian cosmodrome aborted in final minutes

April 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

A Soyuz rocket counted down to launch from Russia’s new Vostochny Cosmodrome early Wednesday, but computers aborted the flight about 90 seconds before liftoff, the Russian space agency said.