JPL – Spaceflight Now

August 24, 2025

Breaking News

[ August 23, 2025 ] Live coverage: NASA, SpaceX to launch Cargo Dragon on a mission to boost space station orbit Falcon 9
[ August 22, 2025 ] SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB Falcon 9
[ August 22, 2025 ] SpaceX launches Space Force’s X-37B spaceplane to demo laser communications, quantum navigation Falcon 9
[ August 20, 2025 ] Launch preview: SpaceX to launch X-37B military spaceplane on Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center Falcon 9
[ August 20, 2025 ] Firefly Aerospace explores launching its Alpha rocket from Japan Alpha

NASA eyes ion engines for Mars orbiter launching in 2022

March 3, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA officials want the agency’s next Mars orbiter to pull double duty as a communications relay station for a fleet of surface landers and as a trailblazer for a future round-trip sample return mission and human expeditions to the red planet.

Rover data suggest Mars crater once contained long-lived lake

December 10, 2014 Stephen Clark

Scientists analyzing imagery from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover believe sediments left by an ancient lake more than three billion years ago formed a towering mountain that is set to be the robot’s research subject for the rest of its mission on the red planet.