September 27, 2025
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Breaking News
  • [ September 26, 2025 ] Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser debut mission delayed again, no longer docking to station News
  • [ September 25, 2025 ] SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Falcon 9
  • [ September 25, 2025 ] ULA launches third batch of Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites from Cape Canaveral Atlas 5
  • [ September 25, 2025 ] SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Falcon 9
  • [ September 24, 2025 ] SpaceX launches NASA, NOAA missions exploring the impacts of the Sun Falcon 9

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Mission Reports

Photos: Converted Russian ballistic missile fires into space with satellite

October 16, 2017 Stephen Clark

A decommissioned missile originally built in Russia to deliver nuclear weapons to intercontinental targets in the United States vaulted out of a vertical canister Friday and fired into space with a European satellite to monitor global air pollution.

Mission Reports

Modified Russian missile boosts Europe’s newest environmental sentinel to space

October 13, 2017 Stephen Clark

A European satellite that will collect daily air quality measurements over every major city on Earth rode an uprated Russian ballistic missile into orbit Friday.

Members

Q&A with Josef Aschbacher, director of ESA’s Earth observation programs (members only)

October 13, 2017 Stephen Clark

Josef Aschbacher, head of ESA’s Earth observation programs, recently spoke with Spaceflight Now about the importance of the Sentinel 5P satellite mission designed for air quality measurements from space, and discussed increasing data usage from Europe’s Copernicus environmental network, and plans to expand the flagship Earth observation fleet.

Mission Reports

Photos: Sentinel 5P environmental satellite prepared for liftoff

October 13, 2017 Stephen Clark

Europe’s Sentinel 5P satellite, fitted with a Dutch-developed spectrometer to measure gases in Earth’s atmosphere, was fueled and mated to its Russian Rockot booster over the last month at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a military complex around 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow.

Mission Reports

Live coverage: European environmental satellite launches from Russia

October 13, 2017 Stephen Clark

A modified Russian missile built for nuclear war blasted off on a peaceful mission Friday, targeting placement of a European Earth observation satellite in orbit to measure atmospheric chemistry and global air quality. Liftoff from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia occurred at 0927 GMT (5:27 a.m. EDT).

News Headlines

  • Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser debut mission delayed again, no longer docking to station
    September 26, 2025
  • SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg
    September 25, 2025
  • ULA launches third batch of Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites from Cape Canaveral
    September 25, 2025
  • SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral
    September 25, 2025
  • SpaceX launches NASA, NOAA missions exploring the impacts of the Sun
    September 24, 2025
  • A geologist, a former SpaceX launch director and a commercial astronaut; meet NASA’s 10 new astronaut candidates
    September 22, 2025
  • NRO, SpaceX launch reconnaissance satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB
    September 22, 2025
  • SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites on Sunday sunrise Falcon 9 flight
    September 20, 2025
  • SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral
    September 17, 2025
  • NASA, Northrop Grumman postpone Cygnus XL arrival to ISS following propulsion issue
    September 16, 2025
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