Later this year, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center with one of the most highly-anticipated and monumental planetary science missions of the decade — Europa Clipper. The mission will see the spacecraft travel to the smallest of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons, Europa, to investigate the characteristics of the moon, including proving the existence of a subsurface ocean and the possibility of habitable conditions being contained within that ocean. Europa Clipper is currently undergoing final construction and testing at NASA’s Jet Propulsio ..read more

With seven Falcon 9 launches flown this month already, SpaceX’s rapid pace continues with another three flights planned for this coming week. There are two planned launches on Wednesday, April 17, from both the east and west coasts, and another on Thursday, April 18. Additionally, a Chinese Chang Zheng 2D launched on Monday, with another expected to fly on Saturday. Not content with breaking new cadence records in the first quarter of the year with an impressive 31 launches, SpaceX continued to reach new milestones last week. The company celebrated the first 20th launch and landing of a boost ..read more

United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV rocket has successfully launched Tuesday on its final flight, the NROL-70 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. Liftoff from SLC-37B at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station has happened at 12:53 PM EDT (17:53 UTC) following a scrub on the initial attempt over a week ago. The launch marks the 45th and last flight of the Delta IV, which first flew on Nov. 20, 2002. Along with the Atlas V, it was one of two rockets developed under the original phase of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV — now National Security Space Launch, or NSSL) program ..read more

The second week of April not only has a long-awaited total solar eclipse but also orbital launches from Russia and the United States. Besides the long-awaited NROL-70 Delta IV Heavy finale, there was to be a test flight of the Russian Angara rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia and a handful of Falcon 9 launches. Delta IV Heavy’s final flight with a mission for the National Reconnaissance Office on Tuesday, April 9 has now taken place. The NROL-70 and Angara flights were both scheduled for Tuesday, April 9 – although the latter scrubbed with a few minutes remaining in the count – wh ..read more

On Sunday, April 7 SpaceX launched the Bandwagon-1 rideshare mission from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) at 7:16 PM EDT (23:16 UTC). This flight carried 11 spacecraft for six customers, including a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite for South Korea. The payloads are heading for a 45.4 degree inclination, with at least one deployment orbit at around 590 kilometers in altitude. SpaceX has not released details of the second stage operations for this flight. It is possible there will also be a lower deployment altitude for some payloads. The Falcon 9 booster used ..read more

On April 8, a total solar eclipse will sweep across the continental United States — the first since 2017 and the last until Aug. 12, 2045. During totality, or the moment at which the Moon is completely covering the Sun, the Sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona, and other prominences become visible to the naked eye. Scientists often use total solar eclipses as a chance to observe and study the Sun’s corona, and their results contribute to our understanding of stellar dynamics and solar storms and how they affect Earth. In the months and weeks leading up to a total solar eclipse, scientist ..read more

SpaceX has kicked off 2024 breaking records and setting new standards for its operations. The Falcon family of rockets achieved 31 launches in the first quarter of the year putting the company on track to complete 125 launches by the end of 2024. SpaceX also debuted a new crew access tower for Dragon and launched two more crew flights to the International Space Station. SpaceX’s Starship rocket also completed its third flight, reaching space once again, and successfully completing its ascent burn for the first time. In the first quarter of 2024, the company’s Starlink constellation also saw a ..read more

Peparations for the fourth flight of Starship are in full swing, with Ship 29 having completed its engine testing campaign, while Booster 11 has now rolled to the Orbital Launch Pad (OLP) to complete its own engine test campaign. Ship 29 and Booster 11 After rolling out to complete its engine test campaign, Ship 29 performed two static fires. The first one involved normal six-engine static fire to verify all the engines. The second static was a single-engine burn from the header tanks. Once its engine test campaign was completed, Ship 29 was rolled back to the High Bay, where final launch pr ..read more

NASA is working with Orion spacecraft prime contractor Lockheed Martin to resolve a handful of issues that came up late last year during ground testing, forcing the space agency to delay the launch readiness target date for its Artemis II circumlunar mission to September 2025. The Lockheed Martin assembly, test, and launch operations (ATLO) team at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is reinstalling some electronics and implementing workarounds for others affected by an electrical circuit flaw found in digital motor controllers on the spacecraft. While a resolution to that issue appears to be getting ..read more

After SpaceX achieved a record-breaking 12 Falcon 9 launches in March, the company aims to continue this cadence during April. Missions in the next week include a Starlink flight, a mystery-shrouded launch from China, then another three Falcon 9’s toward the end of the week — two more Starlinks and the first of a series of new mid-inclination rideshare missions,  Bandwagon-1. Finally, the much-anticipated second launch attempt of the final Delta IV Heavy carrying NROL-70 is now scheduled for the very end of the week after ground equipment issues delayed the first attempt. The high cadenc ..read more