News – Page 590 – Spaceflight Now

April 18, 2026

Breaking News

[ April 18, 2026 ] Live coverage: SpaceX attempts 600th Falcon booster landing amid West Coast Starlink mission Falcon 9
[ 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

Static fire complete in run-up to launch of SpaceX supply ship

April 6, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX ran a Falcon 9 rocket through a customary preflight checkout Tuesday, filling it with super-cold propellants and firing its nine Merlin first stage engines in preparation for liftoff Friday on a resupply run to the International Space Station.

‘Hubble Hugger’ and chief of NASA science division to leave agency

April 5, 2016 Stephen Clark

Veteran astronaut John Grunsfeld, who flew five space shuttle missions before becoming the head of NASA’s science mission directorate in 2012, announced Tuesday he will leave the space agency at the end of April.

Chinese research craft launched on two-week mission

April 5, 2016 Stephen Clark

The unpiloted Shijian 10 spacecraft launched from a spaceport in northwestern China on Tuesday with a suite of microgravity research experiments developed by Chinese, European and Japanese scientists.

Opportunity rover snaps photo of Martian dust devil

April 3, 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover has captured a dust devil spinning across the barren floor of Endeavour Crater, an impact basin the robot has explored since 2011 in the mission’s long-lived second act.

Blue Origin launches same New Shepard spacecraft for third time

April 3, 2016 William Harwood

Blue Origin launched its reusable New Shepard suborbital spacecraft on its third test flight Saturday, successfully boosting an unpiloted capsule out of the discernible atmosphere for a few minutes of weightlessness before a parachute descent to the company’s West Texas launch site.

Progress supply ship docks with the International Space Station

April 2, 2016 Stephen Clark

A Russian refueling and resupply freighter docked with the International Space Station on Saturday after a two-day pursuit with maneuvering propellants, food and provisions for the research lab’s crew.

Mars rover re-routed after spinning wheels on steep hillside

April 1, 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA’s intrepid Opportunity rover, in its 13th year driving across the deserted landscapes of Mars, tried to climb a 32-degree incline a few weeks ago to reach a piece of terrain scientists think formed billions of years ago in the presence of water.

SpaceX hopes to sell used Falcon 9 boosters for as low as $40 million

March 31, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX intends to cut the price of a Falcon 9 rocket launch by up to 30 percent when flying with reused first stage boosters, an achievement the company still hopes to demonstrate before the end of the year, SpaceX’s president said recently.

Photos: Progress supply launch viewed from space station

March 31, 2016 Stephen Clark

Astronauts living on the International Space Station captured amazing views of a Soyuz rocket streaking into orbit from Kazakhstan with nearly 3 tons of supplies destined for the massive research complex.

Two GPS navigation birds retired after two decades in space

March 31, 2016 Justin Ray

A pair of long-lived Global Positioning System satellites launched two decades ago recently went to graveyard orbits and were turned off, their missions at an end.