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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

597 articles
  • China lands its first probe on Mars

    China’s space agency said Friday the country’s first Mars rover safely touched down and began sending data back to Earth, joining the United States as the only two nations to successfully land and operate a spacecraft on the surface of the Red Planet.

  • Chinese rover heads for landing on Mars

    A Chinese rover outfitted with cameras, a weather station, and a sophisticated laser spectrometer could touch down on Mars as soon as Friday, a feat that would make China the second nation to successfully land and operate a spacecraft on the surface of the Red Planet.

  • Video

    NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter aces first longer-range flight on Mars

    NASA's Ingenuity helicopter flew farther and faster Sunday than the rotorcraft's first two test flights in the Martian atmosphere, traveling the length of a football field while exceeding distances and speeds achieved during testing on Earth, officials said.

  • Video

    NASA’s Mars helicopter completes second, higher flight

    The second flight of NASA's Ingenuity helicopter in the Martian atmosphere Thursday took the rotorcraft higher than its first hop. A third takeoff as soon as Sunday will take the helicopter more than 150 feet away from its makeshift airfield as engineers attempt more daring test flights.

  • In another first, NASA’s Perseverance rover generates oxygen on Mars

    In another first on Mars, an instrument inside NASA's Perseverance rover has made oxygen out of carbon dioxide sucked in from the planet's atmosphere, officials said Wednesday. The technology could help future astronauts "live off the land" by generating their own rocket fuel and breathing air.

  • SLS core ready for shipment to Florida; NASA still hopes for late 2021 launch

    Teams at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi removed the core of NASA's first Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket from a test stand earlier this week for loading onto a barge to carry it to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the rocket stage is due to arrive by the end of the month to start final preparations for a test flight around the Moon.

  • Video

    After successful first flight, NASA wants to push Mars helicopter to its limits

    The work isn't over for NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter. Engineers hope to fly the rotorcraft four more times in the next two weeks before calling it quits on the pioneering technology experiment, which accomplished the first powered flight of an aircraft on another planet Monday.

  • NASA celebrates first historic helicopter flight on Mars

    An automated mini-helicopter driven by two fast-spinning, counter-rotating rotors took off from the surface of Mars, hovered for 30 seconds, then successfully landed Monday to complete the historic first powered flight of an aircraft on another planet.

  • Video

    Live coverage: NASA confirms successful first flight of Mars helicopter

    NASA's robotic Ingenuity helicopter is poised to make the first attempt at a powered flight in the atmosphere of Mars. Watch live at 6:15 a.m. EDT (1015 GMT) Monday as NASA officials receive signals confirming the outcome of the automated flight attempt.

  • Video

    NASA schedules first Mars helicopter test flight for Monday

    After some long-distance troubleshooting, NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter will attempt the first flight of its kind on another world Monday in a demonstration that could open the door to a new era of interplanetary aerial scouts. Watch live at 6:15 a.m. EDT (1015 GMT) Monday as NASA officials receive signals confirming the outcome of the flight attempt.