Mars 2022 – Spaceflight Now

October 9, 2024

Breaking News

[ October 7, 2024 ] ESA’s Hera spacecraft launches on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket as Hurricane Milton takes aim at Florida Falcon 9
[ October 4, 2024 ] ULA launches second Vulcan flight, encounters strap-on booster anomaly News
[ October 3, 2024 ] Live coverage: ULA to launch second test flight of its Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral Mission Reports
[ October 2, 2024 ] ESA’s Hera mission progresses towards launch pending Falcon 9 readiness Falcon 9
[ September 30, 2024 ] ULA rolls its Vulcan rocket to the launch pad ahead of second test flight Mission Reports

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.