Small Explorers – Spaceflight Now

March 15, 2026

Breaking News

[ March 14, 2026 ] NASA Administrator teases further Artemis program updates in one-on-one interview Artemis
[ March 13, 2026 ] NASA ready for another shot at launching Artemis 2 moon mission Artemis
[ March 13, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 25 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base Falcon 9
[ March 13, 2026 ] SpaceX launches Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral on cloudy Saturday morning Falcon 9
[ March 10, 2026 ] NASA inspector general assesses agency’s management of moon lander risk Artemis

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.