Mars 2022 – Spaceflight Now

July 31, 2026

Breaking News

[ July 29, 2026 ] SpaceX launches classified payload for National Reconnaissance Office Falcon 9
[ July 25, 2026 ] SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Starlink satellites from West Coast Falcon 9
[ July 25, 2026 ] Super Heavy-Starship rocket chalks up mostly successful test flight Artemis
[ July 24, 2026 ] Critical NASA Deep Space ground station in Spain evacuated due to wildfires News
[ July 23, 2026 ] Launch preview: SpaceX ready for 2nd attempt to launch Starship Flight 13 following post-abort engine work Artemis

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.