The Falcon Heavy for the USSF 52 mission to launch the U.S. military’s X-37B spaceplane inside the hangar at launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Image: SpaceX. Following two Falcon 9 launches from both California and Florida, SpaceX is planning to close out the first weekend of December with a Falcon Heavy static fire test. The ignition of the 27 Merlin engines comes a week ahead of the planned launch of a national security mission that has been on the books for half a decade. The U.S. Space Systems Command said the USSF-52 mission is targeting liftoff no earlier than Sunday, Dec ..read more

A Falcon 9 stands ready at Space Launch Complex 40 for the Starlink 6-31 mission. Image: Spaceflight Now. SpaceX continues with a busy weekend as it prepares to launch another batch of Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station late Saturday night. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 is targeting 11:00 p.m. EST (0400 UTC). If the company is able to overcome weather hurdles, the Starlink 6-31 mission will be its second launch in less than 40 hours. U.S. Space Force meteorologists are calling for a 45-percent chance of acceptable conditions for launch with the potential of rocket-trigger li ..read more

A pair of prototype satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet constellation are encapsulated in a pair of payload fairings for launch aboard a ULA Atlas 5 rocket. Image: ULA Tech giant Amazon is adding a fifth rocket to launch its satellite internet constellation. In a surprise move on Friday afternoon, the company announced it purchased three flights aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets to send batched of its Project Kuiper satellites to low Earth orbit. The news was unexpected by many since the launch company, owned by Elon Musk, was previously left out of an historically large launch purc ..read more

A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch the Korea 425 mission from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Image: SpaceX Kicking off the month of December for SpaceX is a Falcon 9 ride share mission with a payload of 25 spacecraft on board. The launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base is headlined by the Korea 425 mission. The rocket is set to lift off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at 10:19 a.m. PST (1:19 EST, 1819 UTC). The launch is set to be the first of two missions SpaceX plans to launch over the weekend. Spaceflight Now will have live coverage on Launchpad Live starting about ..read more

A Soyuz 2.1a rocket blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying a Progress cargo ship loaded with 5,500 pounds of equipment, supplies and propellant bound for the International Space Station. Image: NASA TV. A Russian Progress cargo ship loaded with more than 5,500 pounds of supplies and equipment bound for the International Space Station blasted off from Kazakhstan early Friday, kicking off a two-day orbital chase. Perched atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket, the Progress MS-25/86P spacecraft took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 4:25 a.m. EST (2:25 p.m. local time) and slipped into the planned ..read more

The Ariane 6 rocket photographed at dusk in French Guiana. During a briefing on Thursday, Nov. 30, ESA officials discussed a summer timeframe for the first launch of the rocket. Image: ESA Lengthy delays for the debut of Europe’s future flagship rocket may have an end in sight. During a briefing with press on Thursday, European Space Agency Director General Josef Aschbacher announced that Ariane 6 would have its first launch between mid-June and the end of July in 2024. The announcement comes a week after a seven-minute hot fire test of the rocket’s core stage engines in Kourou, French Guiana ..read more

A Dual Engine Centaur upper stage for Atlas V nears completion at the factory in Decatur, Alabama. The RL10 engine marked 60 years of flight on Nov. 27, 2023. Image: United Launch Alliance A rocket engine with a long pedigree marked a big milestone on Monday. It’s 60 years since the hydrogen-fueled RL10 engine debuted onboard a Centaur upper stage launched from Cape Canaveral on Nov. 27, 1963. With that first launch, the RL10 engine, currently manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne, became the first engine powered by a combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to be fired in space. The mile ..read more

The next batch of Starlink satellites for SpaceX’s space-based internet service is due to ride a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit Monday night from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff is scheduled during a four-hour window with the first launch opportunity at 11:01 p.m. EST (0401 UTC). There are seven back up launch times, with the last opportunity of the night falling at 2:58 a.m. EST (0758 UTC). Meteorologists with the 45th Weather Squadron are predicting good weather for launch with a 90-percent chance of acceptable conditions at the opening of the launch window, which falls to 80 percen ..read more

A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California carrying 22 Starlink satellites on Nov 20, 2023. Image: Space X. SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from the West Coast with another batch of 22 Starlink satellites at 2:30 a.m. PST Monday (5:30 a.m. EST / 1030 UTC). On this 55th Starlink delivery mission of the year, the Falcon 9 headed in a south-easterly direction after lifting off from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California targeting a 183×178 mile (295×286 km) orbit, inclined at 53 degrees to the equator. It was the second time SpaceX had fuel ..read more

SpaceX’s Starship lifts off from its launch site at Boca Chica in South Texas. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now. SpaceX’s gargantuan Super Heavy-Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, blasted off on its second test flight Saturday and while the initial stages of the mission went smoothly, the first stage broke apart moments after separation from the Starship upper stage, which then blew itself up as it neared space. Viewed as a successful learning experience by SpaceX, it was the second failure in a row to get the Starship upper stage into space, a frustrating disappointment for E ..read more