News – Page 613 – Spaceflight Now

June 29, 2026

Breaking News

[ June 28, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 7.5-ton SiriusXM satellite as part of constellation refresh Falcon 9
[ June 28, 2026 ] SpaceX launches Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base Falcon 9
[ June 24, 2026 ] West Coast Falcon 9 launch continues expansion of SpaceX’s Starlink network Falcon 9
[ June 23, 2026 ] NASA, Boeing committed to Starliner-1 launch despite unclear timeline Mission Reports
[ June 23, 2026 ] SpaceX launches reentry capsule demo mission called ‘Starfall’ Falcon 9

Orbital ATK, SpaceX nab U.S. Air Force propulsion contracts

January 14, 2016 Stephen Clark

Orbital ATK and SpaceX won Pentagon contracts worth a combined value of up to $241 million Wednesday in public-private partnerships crafted to hasten the U.S. military’s move away from Russian-supplied propulsion to deliver national security satellites to orbit.

NASA’s next flagship space telescope to get formal start

January 13, 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA officials expect to officially kick off development in February of a multibillion-dollar observatory recycling a grounded top secret spy satellite telescope capable of studying dark energy and directly resolving planets around other stars.

Photos: Jason 3 oceanography satellite encapsulated

January 13, 2016 Stephen Clark

The Jason 3 oceanography satellite, a joint project between U.S. and European weather agencies, is closed up inside the nose cone of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket awaiting launch from California’s Central Coast on Sunday.

NASA publishes tantalizing close-ups of dwarf planet Ceres

January 12, 2016 Stephen Clark

Imagery from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, now in its closest orbit of the dwarf planet Ceres, reveal textures, landscapes and bright streaks possibly made of salts exposed by violent collisions with asteroids.

Hold-down firing completed ahead of Sunday’s Falcon 9 launch

January 12, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s launch team ran through a traditional preflight test Monday, putting a Falcon 9 rocket through a mock countdown, loading it with propellant and briefly firing its nine engines on a launch pad in California ahead of this weekend’s liftoff with a U.S.-European oceanography satellite.

Record pace of Ariane 5 flights planned for 2016

January 11, 2016 Stephen Clark

Arianespace plans 11 launches from French Guiana this year, including eight flights by the heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket with up to a dozen large telecommunications satellites and four spacecraft for Europe’s Galileo navigation system.

Oldest GPS navigation satellite to be retired with next launch

January 11, 2016 Justin Ray

A new Global Positioning System craft will ride a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket into orbit next month to replace a satellite that has operated in space for 25 years.

Offshore barge landing targeted after next Falcon 9 launch

January 11, 2016 Stephen Clark

Nearly a month after nailing a landing a rocket landing at Cape Canaveral, SpaceX plans to steer the next flight of a Falcon 9 booster toward a recovery vessel in the Pacific Ocean after a Jan. 17 blastoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

U.S. lab generates first space-grade plutonium sample since 1980s

January 7, 2016 Stephen Clark

For the first time in nearly 30 years, the U.S. Department of Energy has produced a sample of plutonium-238, the radioactive isotope used to power deep space missions, good news for future NASA space probes heading to destinations starved of sunlight.

Pluto’s floating mountains, intriguing structures fascinate scientists

January 5, 2016 William Harwood

Nearly six months after NASA’s New Horizons probe zoomed past Pluto, just one quarter of the data stored on board has made its way back to waiting scientists, revealing a surprisingly varied terrain that includes glacial flows and steep mountains of frozen water floating in a “sea” of slush-like nitrogen ice.