Launch Services Program – Spaceflight Now

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope arrives in Florida

June 22, 2026 Will Robinson-Smith

The $4.3 billion observatory will go through about 70 days of prelaunch processing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center before it launches on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket no earlier than August 30.

Delta 2 rocket exhibit opens at Kennedy Space Center

March 28, 2021 Stephen Clark

United Launch Alliance’s final Delta 2 rocket is now on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, a monument to an industry workhorse that helped build the GPS navigation satellite fleet and enabled a new era of Mars exploration.

SpaceX wins contract to launch first pieces of NASA’s Gateway lunar outpost

February 9, 2021 Stephen Clark

NASA announced Tuesday it has awarded SpaceX a $331 million contract to launch the first two pieces of the Gateway lunar outpost in 2024 using a modified version of the Falcon Heavy rocket to hurl the massive core of the deep space station toward the moon.

Photos: Falcon 9 launches and lands at Vandenberg Air Force Base

November 29, 2020 Stephen Clark

These photos show the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Nov. 21 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with the U.S.-European Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich oceanography satellite.

International satellite launches to extend measurements of sea level rise

November 21, 2020 Stephen Clark

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 Stephen Clark

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 Stephen Clark

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 Stephen Clark

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 Stephen Clark

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 Stephen Clark

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.