JPL – Spaceflight Now

August 26, 2026

Breaking News

[ August 25, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 27 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Falcon 9
[ August 24, 2026 ] SpaceX launches Starlink mission on a Falcon booster’s record-breaking 37th flight Falcon 9
[ August 21, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 100th orbital mission of 2026 Falcon 9
[ August 20, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral following last-minute scrub Falcon 9
[ August 19, 2026 ] LandSpace becomes first commercial Chinese company to land an orbital-class booster Mission Reports

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.