Firefly Aerospace’s first mission to the moon is nearly ready to fly. The company’s Blue Ghost lunar lander arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Monday (Dec. 16) for integration with the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will launch the robotic probe — as well as the private Japanese moon lander Resilience …
Two private moon landers will take flight on the same SpaceX rocket next month, if all goes according to plan. The Japanese company ispace announced on Tuesday night (Dec. 17) that its second-ever moon mission will launch on the same Falcon 9 rocket that will loft Blue Ghost, a lunar lander built by Texas-based Firefly …
Double Moon Mission! SpaceX To Launch 2 Private Lunar landers In January. Read More »
Japanese startup Space One lost another rocket today (Dec. 18) when its Kairos 2 launch vehicle failed shortly after liftoff. Space One was aiming to be the first private Japanese company to put a satellite into orbit with the Kairos 2 rocket, but it was not to be. After taking off around 11 a.m. local …
Private Japanese Rocket Explodes After Liftoff In Its 2nd Launch Failure Of 2024. Read More »
China has started building its second enormous satellite-internet constellation in low Earth orbit (LEO). A Long March 5B rocket lifted off from Wenchang Space Launch Center on the island of Hainan Monday (Dec. 16) at 5:00 a.m. EDT (1000 GMT; 6 p.m. local time), carrying 10 broadband spacecraft aloft. Everything went well, according to the …
Chinese astronauts living aboard the Tiangong Space Station created a world record on December 17. Two of the Shezhou 19 crew members conducted a marathon nine-hour Extravehicular Activity (EVA) or spacewalk, highest ever in spaceflight history while working outside the station. The EVA was precisely clocked in at nine hours and 6 minutes. According to …
NASA has again postponed the return to Earth of Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, the astronauts stranded on the International Space Station after Boeing’s Starliner capsule malfunctioned in the middle of this year. The crew of the spacecraft arrived at the ISS in June. The objective was to test the Starliner’s comprehensive capabilities, including launch, …
The Starliner Astronauts Will Be Stranded Until March. Read More »
SpaceX launched two communication satellites from Florida’s Space Coast today (Dec. 17) on the second leg of a spaceflight doubleheader. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center today at 5:26 p.m. EDT (2226 GMT), carrying the O3b mPOWER 7 and 8 satellites toward medium Earth orbit (MEO), about 5,000 miles (8,000 …
SpaceX Launches 2 mPOWER Satellites From Florida On 2nd Leg of Spaceflight Doubleheader. Read More »
SpaceX test-fired the upper stage of its seventh Starship megarocket again recently, this time practicing for an in-space engine burn. The company ignited all six of the Flight 7 Starship spacecraft’s Raptor engines for about 10 seconds on a test stand at its Starbase facility in South Texas on Sunday (Dec. 15). SpaceX announced that …
SpaceX Test-Fires Starship Spacecraft Again Ahead of Flight 7 Launch. Read More »
SpaceX’s 31st robotic cargo mission has made it back to Earth. SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule splashed down off the Florida coast at 1:39 p.m. EDT (1839 GMT) today (Dec. 17), a day after undocking from the International Space Station (ISS). CRS-31 returned to Earth with thousands of pounds of equipment and experiment specimens from ongoing …
SpaceX’s 31st Dragon Cargo Capsule Returns To Earth With Splashdown Off Florida Coast. Read More »
The European Commission on Monday awarded contracts to push forward delayed plans for a 10.6 billion euro ($11.13 billion) secure European satellite constellation in response to Elon Musk’s Starlink and other fast-growing internet networks. The multi-orbit array of more than 280 satellites known as IRIS² will provide an encrypted backbone for European Union governments and …
EU Kick Starts New Secure Satellite Constellation. Read More »
