Mars 2022 – Spaceflight Now

April 29, 2025

Breaking News

[ April 29, 2025 ] SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites on 50th Falcon 9 rocket of 2025 Falcon 9
[ April 28, 2025 ] ULA launches first production Amazon Kuiper satellites on Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Atlas 5
[ April 26, 2025 ] SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Falcon 9
[ April 26, 2025 ] SpaceX launches 27 Starlink launch from California Falcon 9
[ April 26, 2025 ] Firefly Aerospace to scrubs launch of Alpha rocket from Vandenberg Alpha

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.