SpaceX flight sets record for most orbital launches from Space Coast in a year

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A Falcon 9 rocket climbs off pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center early Tuesday to begin SpaceX’s CRS-24 resupply mission to the International Space Station. Credit: SpaceX The liftoff of a SpaceX cargo ship on the way to the International Space Station early Tuesday was the 31st and final orbital launch from Florida’s Space …

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SpaceX’s final launch of the year set for early Tuesday, weather permitting

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A Falcon 9 rocket emerges from SpaceX’s hangar at Kenned Space Center for the quarter-mile trip up the ramp to launch pad 39A. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX’s 31st and final Falcon 9 launch of the year is scheduled to take off early Tuesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, weather permitting, with a Dragon cargo ship carrying …

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Japanese space tourists return to Earth

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Russian commander Alexander Misurkin smiles after getting out of the Soyuz MS-20 landing capsule, visible at bottom. Credit: Roscosmos Two Japanese space tourists and a veteran Russian cosmonaut departed the International Space Station and landed back on Earth Sunday, capping a 12-day mission with a parachute-assisted touchdown in frigid Kazakhstan. The Soyuz MS-20 space capsule …

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SpaceX two-for-two in company’s first Falcon 9 launch doubleheader

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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket streaks downrange over the Atlantic Ocean Saturday night. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography Fifteen hours after hurling a package of Starlink internet satellites into orbit from California, SpaceX launched a high-power geostationary communications spacecraft for Turkey from Cape Canaveral late Saturday, the first time two Falcon 9 …

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Webb telescope encapsulated inside Ariane 5 rocket’s nose cone

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The Ariane 5 rocket’s payload fairing, emblazoned with the Webb mission logo, was lowered over the James Webb Space Telescope on Friday. Credit: ESA-Manuel Pedoussaut The James Webb Space Telescope has been closed up inside the nose cone of its Ariane 5 launcher in French Guiana, and officials confirmed Saturday the huge astronomical observatory is …

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Falcon 9 launch timeline with Turksat 5B

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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Thursday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the Turkish Turksat 5B communications satellite into orbit around 33 minutes later. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket is poised for launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida during a …

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SpaceX launches Starlink satellites from California on unusual coast-hugging trajectory

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A Falcon 9 rocket takes off from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Space Force Base with 52 Starlink internet satellites. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX deployed 52 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit early Saturday after a predawn launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base that routed a Falcon 9 rocket on an unusual track southeast from …

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SpaceX to set new company records with back-to-back weekend launches

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A Falcon 9 rocket heads downrange from Cape Canaveral after liftoff May 9. This was the 10th, and most recent, launch of SpaceX’s B1051 first stage booster. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now SpaceX aims to set a new record for rocket reuse Saturday with the launch of a Falcon 9 booster from California on …

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Unconventional Space Robots

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Credits: Marco Pavone   Lilly interviews Stephanie Schneider, a PhD candidate at Stanford working on unconventional space robotics. Schneider explains her work on Reachbot, a long-reach crawling and anchoring robot, which repurposes extendable booms for mobile manipulation. They discuss the challenges and exciting elements of robotic prototyping for low-gravity or otherwise unique environments. https://youtu.be/0RqFgOHqz7E Stephanie …

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Webb telescope testing on tap today before setting target launch date

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Ground crews work with the James Webb Space Telescope inside the Ariane 5 rocket’s final assembly building in French Guiana. Credit: ESA-Manuel Pedoussaut Technicians at a jungle spaceport in South America are completing tests on the James Webb Space Telescope Thursday to make sure they fixed a “finicky” communications interface glitch that halted launch preparations …

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