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
902 articles
NASA to replace cracked heat shield in time for Mars 2020 rover launch
NASA officials plan to replace the Mars 2020 rover's heat shield after engineers discovered a crack in the structure earlier this month, but managers anticipate no delay in the mission's scheduled launch date a little more than two years away.
InSight Mars lander joined with Atlas 5 launcher at Vandenberg Air Force Base
Ground crews at Vandenberg Air Force Base on California's Central Coast hoisted NASA's InSight Mars lander atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket Monday, kicking off nearly two weeks of integrated tests and checkouts before the probe's interplanetary launch window opens May 5.
Atlas 5/InSight launch windows
The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket carrying NASA's InSight lander toward Mars will have a roughly two-hour predawn launch window each day from May 5 through June 8 to boost the science probe into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
NASA is counting on long-lived Mars orbiter lasting another decade
With NASA's attention at the red planet shifting to collecting and bringing rock samples back to Earth -- a feat that could take a decade with costs that will leave little money for other Mars missions -- the space agency is counting on its workhorse Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter continuing its imaging and radio relay functions for nearly 10 more years.
NASA’s InSight lander inside one month to launch toward Mars
NASA's InSight Mars lander will be buttoned up for launch in the coming weeks at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, in preparation for its hoisting atop an Atlas 5 rocket for blastoff in the predawn hours of May 5.
Saturn’s clouds run deep, rings may rain organics
Saturn’s clouds have roots deeper inside the planet’s atmosphere than scientists previously thought, and Saturn’s rings — now believed to have formed in the last 200 million years — appear to be raining organic molecules down on the planet, according to observations made by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft last year in the final weeks of its mission.
Space Launch System, planetary exploration get big boosts in NASA budget
NASA's planned rocket to send humans back to the moon and the agency's solar system exploration program were big winners in a $20.7 billion budget passed by Congress and signed by President Trump on Friday.
Atlas 5 rocket assembled for first Mars mission launch from Vandenberg
Ground crews at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California raised a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on its launch pad earlier this month in preparation for liftoff May 5 with NASA's InSight lander heading to Mars.
NASA to decide soon whether flying drone will launch with Mars 2020 rover
Testing of a lightweight robotic helicopter designed to fly in the alien atmosphere of Mars has produced encouraging results in recent months, and NASA officials expect to decide soon whether the aerial drone will accompany the agency's next rover to the red planet set for liftoff in 2020.
New Horizons spacecraft’s next distant destination gets a nickname
The frozen faraway miniature world targeted for a high-speed flyby by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft on Jan. 1, 2019, now has a nickname: Ultima Thule.