News Archive
Browse every article published on Spaceflight Now, from launch reports and mission previews to spacecraft development coverage. Use the filters to narrow by topic or search by keyword.
Matching Articles
607 articles
Webb’s secondary mirror successfully deployed
In another major milestone for the James Webb Space Telescope, a motor-driven tripod unfolded as planned Wednesday, moving a 2.4-foot-wide secondary mirror into position to reflect collected starlight back down to the instruments that will study it.
Engineers taking more time to assess Webb’s behavior in space before continuing deployments
Engineers activating the James Webb Space Telescope decided Sunday to hold off tightening up the observatory's critical sunshade to allow more time to check out the performance of its power systems and overall behavior now that several major deployments are complete.
VideoWebb’s fate hinges on high-risk sunshade, mirror deployments
If you want to see the faint, stretched-out light from the first stars and galaxies that began shining at the end of the cosmic dark ages a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, you're going to need a big telescope. But not just any big telescope.
Michael Strahan, Alan Shepard’s daughter and four others rocket into space
Sixty years after her father became the first American in space, Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter of Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, rocketed out of the lower atmosphere Saturday, joining ABC TV host Michael Strahan and four others for a thrilling 10-minute climb to space and back.
Blue Origin poised for first launch with crew of six
Sixty years after NASA astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space, his oldest daughter plans to blast off Saturday on a sub-orbital flight of her own, joining former NFL star and TV host Michael Strahan, two entrepreneurs and a father-and-son duo aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard spacecraft.
VideoJapanese billionaire and assistant arrive at space station
A Russian cosmonaut, a Japanese billionaire and his production assistant rocketed into orbit Wednesday and headed for the International Space Station for an 12-day visit, the first by paying "space tourists" in more than a decade.
Spacewalkers replace faulty antenna outside space station
Running two days late because of concerns about possibly threatening space debris, a veteran astronaut and a rookie crewmate floated outside the International Space Station Thursday and replaced a faulty antenna in a problem-free 6.5-hour spacewalk.
NASA calls off spacewalk due to possible risk of space debris
A planned spacewalk outside the International Space Station by astronauts Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron was called off early Tuesday after NASA received an overnight warning about possibly threatening space debris.
Astronaut Alan Shepard’s daughter and Michael Strahan named to spaceflight
The third piloted flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital spacecraft will launch December 9 with a crew of six, including a network morning anchor and the eldest daughter of Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space, the company announced Nov. 23.
SpaceX crew capsule docks at International Space Station
The day after a sky-lighting Florida launch, four astronauts aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule chased down the International Space Station Thursday and glided in for a problem-free docking, kicking off a half-year stay aboard the orbital outpost.