Small Explorers – Spaceflight Now

May 6, 2026

Breaking News

[ May 5, 2026 ] Live coverage: SpaceX to launch 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB Falcon 9
[ May 4, 2026 ] Lockheed Martin joins collaboration with Firefly Aerospace and Seagate for off-shore launches Alpha
[ May 2, 2026 ] SpaceX launches South Korean Earth observation satellite, plus 44 more payloads on midnight Falcon 9 rideshare mission Falcon 9
[ May 1, 2026 ] SpaceX marks May Day, National Space Day with Starlink mission on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Falcon 9
[ April 29, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB Falcon 9

SpaceX wins NASA contract to launch X-ray telescope on reused rocket

July 8, 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA has selected a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket — flying with a reused first stage booster — to launch the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer mission from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in April 2021, bypassing Northrop Grumman’s air-launched Pegasus rocket for the task.

NASA selects missions to observe the sun and its impact on Earth

June 26, 2019 Stephen Clark

NASA has selected two satellite missions for launch on the same rocket in 2022 to investigate the origins of the solar wind and explore the interaction between magnetic fields around Earth with those from the sun.