Live coverage of the countdown and launch of an International Launch Services Proton rocket with the Yamal 401 communications satellite for Gazprom Space Systems. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
Falcon 9
Live coverage: Iridium satellites, climate research craft lift off from California
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Tuesday with five communications satellites for Iridium’s commercial voice, data relay, and tracking network, and a pair of U.S.-German research craft to probe Earth’s climate and water cycle. Launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, occurred at 12:47 p.m. PDT (3:47 p.m. EDT; 1947 GMT).
Mission Reports
Soyuz booster rolls out for launch with space station cargo freighter
Russian launch crews stood up a Soyuz rocket Sunday on its launch mount in Kazakhstan for a scheduled liftoff Wednesday with approximately 5,500 pounds of supplies, experiments, fuel and several small satellites to be released by spacewalking cosmonauts at the International Space Station later this year.
Mission Reports
Live coverage: Falcon Heavy launches, three boosters land safely
SpaceX’s second Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off Thursday with the Arabsat 6A communications satellite. The world’s most powerful operational launcher lifted off from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. EDT (2235 GMT), and its three first stage boosters landed less than 10 minutes later — two back at Cape Canaveral and one on a drone ship at sea.