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VideoLive coverage: Rocket Lab launches NASA’s final two TROPICS satellites
NASA's final pair of TROPICS hurricane research satellites lifted off on a Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle from New Zealand on Thursday night (U.S. time). The two identical shoebox-size spacecraft launched at 11:46 p.m. EDT Thursday (0346 UTC Friday) from Rocket Lab's privately-owned spaceport on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand.
NASA awards Blue Origin $3.4 billion Artemis moon lander contract
Blue Origin, the rocket company owned by Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos, has won a $3.4 billion NASA contract to build an Artemis lunar lander that will provide a downstream alternative to the Starship variant already being developed by SpaceX, the agency announced Friday.
Jammed radar boom on Jupiter-bound JUICE probe finally freed
After three weeks of intense analysis and troubleshooting, European Space Agency flight controllers have finally succeeded in freeing a jammed boom critical to the Jupiter-bound JUICE probe’s ice-penetrating radar instrument.
NASA’s Lunar Flashlight CubeSat mission ends before entering orbit around moon
NASA's small Lunar Flashlight spacecraft, sent to the moon last year to search for water ice deposits at the lunar south pole, will not be able to complete its science mission after a problem with the probe's propulsion system.
Electron rocket launches pair of cyclone-tracking CubeSats for NASA
The first pair of four NASA CubeSats designed to provide frequent updates of typhoon and hurricane development for new insights into how tropical storms evolve and intensify were launched by Rocket Lab from its New Zealand spaceport on Sunday.
Twin TROPICS satellites set to be lofted into orbit
Rocket Lab's launch of NASA's second pair of TROPICS hurricane research satellites, reassigned from Astra following a launch failure last year, has been rescheduled for Sunday after a delay due to unfavorable weather at the the company's New Zealand spaceport.
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter has now flown more than 50 times
NASA’s pioneering Mars helicopter Ingenuity continues to outperform its design specifications, having now notched up more than 50 record-breaking forays across the Red Planet’s surface, 10 times as many flights as originally planned for.
Emirati orbiter captures up-close view of Martian moon Deimos
The United Arab Emirates’ Hope probe has seen the far side of the Martian moon Deimos up close for the first time, collecting compositional data suggesting it may have formed from material that broke off of Mars long ago, and not from a captured asteroid.
SpaceX launches largest rocket ever built, but test flight ends in explosion
After years of anticipation, SpaceX launched the first test flight of its full-scale Starship rocket Thursday from South Texas, but the mission ended four minutes later as the vehicle veered out of control and self-destructed over the Gulf of Mexico following multiple engine failures.
VideoLive coverage: SpaceX’s Starship rocket explodes on test flight from Texas
SpaceX launched the first full-scale Starship and Super Heavy rocket from South Texas at 8:33 a.m. CDT (9:33 a.m. EDT; 1333 UTC Thursday). The nearly 40-story-tall rocket, the largest ever built, lifted off from the Starbase launch complex and flew downrange before veering out of control and exploding about four minutes into the flight.