Launch Services Program – Spaceflight Now

International satellite launches to extend measurements of sea level rise

November 21, 2020

A European-built satellite with the unusual shape of a house launched into orbit Saturday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from California’s Central Coast, carrying a sophisticated radar altimeter to measure rising sea levels on our home planet.

Photos: Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich encapsulated for launch

November 21, 2020

Check out photos of the encapsulation of the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich oceanography satellite inside the payload shroud of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket before its launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

Live coverage: SpaceX launches oceanography satellite from California

November 21, 2020

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 12:17 p.m. EST (9:17 a.m. PST; 1717 GMT) Saturday with an oceanography satellite jointly developed by U.S. and European space and weather agencies. The rocket’s first stage booster returned to a bullseye landing back at Vandenberg.

NASA selects SpaceX to launch mission studying interstellar space

September 28, 2020

NASA has awarded SpaceX a $109 million contract to launch the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, a NOAA space weather observatory, a robotic scout to map water on the moon, and two other ridealong payloads on a single Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in 2024.

Video: Rocketcams show Mars-bound rover’s ride into space

August 6, 2020

Cameras mounted on United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket show the fiery ride into space for NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover after taking off from Florida’s Space Coast.

Photos: Atlas 5 rocket catapults into space with Mars rover

August 5, 2020

Carrying a $2.7 billion NASA mission to Mars, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket took off July 30 from Cape Canaveral and fired into a summer sky powered by four powerful solid rocket boosters and a kerosene-burning main engine.

Mars 2020 spacecraft resumes normal operations after post-launch safe mode

July 31, 2020

NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance mission resumed normal operations Friday after cold temperatures forced the spacecraft into space mode soon after a successful launch from Cape Canaveral.

NASA’s Perseverance rover leaves Earth bound for Mars

July 30, 2020

Persevering through a global pandemic, a last-minute earthquake, and the trials of a rocket launch, NASA’s next Mars rover — named Perseverance — took off from Cape Canaveral Thursday on a nearly seven-month journey to the Red Planet with sophisticated science instruments, technology to collect samples for to Earth, and the first interplanetary helicopter that could produce a “Wright Brothers moment” on another world.

Atlas 5 launch timeline on the Mars 2020 mission

July 29, 2020

This is the launch timeline to be followed by the Atlas 5 rocket’s ascent into space from Cape Canaveral with NASA’s Mars 2020 mission.

ULA’s Atlas 5 is NASA’s go-to rocket for nuclear-powered space probes

July 29, 2020

NASA’s Perseverance rover, set for liftoff Thursday on a journey to Mars, posed some unusual challenges for launch crews working with the robot’s plutonium-fueled power generator, but United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket is uniquely suited for the job, the company’s CEO says.