Mars 2022 – Spaceflight Now

March 10, 2026

Breaking News

[ March 9, 2026 ] SpaceX launches direct television satellite for EchoStar Falcon 9
[ March 7, 2026 ] NASA contract confirms selection of ULA’s Centaur 5 as new upper stage for the SLS rocket Artemis
[ March 6, 2026 ] SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg SFB Sunday Falcon 9
[ March 5, 2026 ] Spanish launch startup PLD Space raises $209 million to scale its rocket production Miura 5
[ March 3, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 600th Starlink satellite of 2026 during predawn Falcon 9 rocket flight from Cape Canaveral Falcon 9

NASA developing plans for commercially-built Mars orbiter

July 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA is advancing a plan to send a robotic orbiter to Mars in the early 2020s, developing designs with five U.S. satellite makers for a mission to extend high-resolution mapping capabilities, telecommunications relay functions, and potentially act as a waypoint for Martian soil samples destined for return to Earth.

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.