Spaceflight Insider

  • ULA Delta IV with GPS III SV02 launch delayed

    Jason RhianJuly 17th CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The flight of a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Medium+ (4,2) rocket tasked with sending the GPS III SV02 satellite to orbit has been delayed.

  • Virginia Tech celebrates the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11

    Steve HammerJuly 17th BLACKSBURG, Va. -- “The Real McCoy”, that’s what astronaut Michael Collins wrote on the cover of the Apollo 11 flight plan on display at the "Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11 presentation at Virginia Tech." That is a great way to describe this collection of memorabilia and artifacts. The flight plan, which outlined all aspects of the mission, was just a small part of the present...

  • Was Apollo 11 faked? USSR: ‘Nyet’

    Jason RhianJuly 16th Anyone who has ever had a disagreement with anyone else can expect their 'opponent' to paint them as the worst person on the planet and to point out every failure, every falsehood (real or imagined) you've ever had or uttered. In terms of lunar conspiracy theorists this consideration, seems to have eluded them. There were people who would have loved to have proved Apollos 11-17 were faked - a whol...

  • Private astronauts to be included on Space Mirror Memorial

    Jason RhianJuly 16th There can be little doubt that the age of commercial space flight is here. A recent announcement made by the Astronaut Memorial Foundation has shown that another, more somber, milestone in this new age has been reached.

  • SpaceX reveals cause of Crew Dragon explosion

    Jason RhianJuly 15th SpaceX held a test of the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft on April 20, 2019 which ended with an explosion at the NewSpace firm's Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Today, SpaceX released what it believes to have caused the accident during a briefing earlier this afternoon.

  • Proof of Apollo 11 landing hard as ‘rock’

    Joe LatrellJuly 15th JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Texas -- When asked why they believe the Apollo 11 Moon landings were faked, conspiracy theorists point to the lack of stars in the photos taken by the astronauts, incongruous shadows and other bits of data from that mission. Some evidence that counters their claims isn't so fragile, in fact - it's written in stone.

  • Launch of ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 mission delayed

    Jason RhianJuly 14th A prestigious mission the India Space Research Organisation is planning on sending to the Moon did not fly today. What was described as a "technical snag" has placed the mission on hold - with no new launch date announced.

  • Spektr-RG telescope launched atop Proton-M rocket

    Patrick AttwellJuly 14th The second Proton launch of 2019 took to the skies above the Baikonur Cosmodrome today with the Spektr-RG telescope for the Russian and German space agencies. It marked the start of a mission some 24 years in the making.

  • MRO captures photo of Curiosity rover from Martian orbit

    Laurel KornfeldJuly 13th NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured an image of the Curiosity rover in a photo of Mount Sharp's Woodland Bay region taken from orbit on May 31, 2019.

  • New technique can spot failing bridges from orbit

    Jim SharkeyJuly 13th Bridges are a critical but vulnerable component of transportation infrastructure. Age, structural damage or design flaws can result in a bridge collapse. A group of researchers, led by  Pietro Milillo, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), have developed a new technique to examine bridges for sign of decay using satellite data. The team's study was recently published in the journal Remote Se...

  • NASA officials at Glenn Symposium address recent leadership overhaul

    Michael ColeJuly 12th CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The reassignment of long-time NASA Associate Administrator for Human Explorations and Operations, Bill Gerstenmaier, came as a shock to most everyone in the space flight community. Such was made clear at the Glenn Symposium which was held July 10-12.

  • Anomaly pushes Atlas launch back again

    Jason RhianJuly 11th CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla -- The launch of a ULA Atlas V rocket with the fifth AEHF satellite will have to wait a little longer before its flight.

  • ULA Delta IV with GPS III SV02 launch delayed

    Jason RhianJuly 17th CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The flight of a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Medium+ (4,2) rocket tasked with sending the GPS III SV02 satellite to orbit has been delayed.

  • Was Apollo 11 faked? USSR: ‘Nyet’

    Jason RhianJuly 16th Anyone who has ever had a disagreement with anyone else can expect their 'opponent' to paint them as the worst person on the planet and to point out every failure, every falsehood (real or imagined) you've ever had or uttered. In terms of lunar conspiracy theorists this consideration, seems to have eluded them. There were people who would have loved to have proved Apollos 11-17 were faked - a whole nation's worth.

  • SpaceX reveals cause of Crew Dragon explosion

    Jason RhianJuly 15th SpaceX held a test of the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft on April 20, 2019 which ended with an explosion at the NewSpace firm's Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Today, SpaceX released what it believes to have caused the accident during a briefing earlier this afternoon.

  • Proof of Apollo 11 landing hard as ‘rock’

    Joe LatrellJuly 15th JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Texas -- When asked why they believe the Apollo 11 Moon landings were faked, conspiracy theorists point to the lack of stars in the photos taken by the astronauts, incongruous shadows and other bits of data from that mission. Some evidence that counters their claims isn't so fragile, in fact - it's written in stone.

  • Spektr-RG telescope launched atop Proton-M rocket

    Patrick AttwellJuly 14th The second Proton launch of 2019 took to the skies above the Baikonur Cosmodrome today with the Spektr-RG telescope for the Russian and German space agencies. It marked the start of a mission some 24 years in the making.

  • New technique can spot failing bridges from orbit

    Jim SharkeyJuly 13th Bridges are a critical but vulnerable component of transportation infrastructure. Age, structural damage or design flaws can result in a bridge collapse. A group of researchers, led by  Pietro Milillo, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), have developed a new technique to examine bridges for sign of decay using satellite data. The team's study was recently published in the journal Remote Sensing.

  • NASA officials at Glenn Symposium address recent leadership overhaul

    Michael ColeJuly 12th CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The reassignment of long-time NASA Associate Administrator for Human Explorations and Operations, Bill Gerstenmaier, came as a shock to most everyone in the space flight community. Such was made clear at the Glenn Symposium which was held July 10-12.

  • Report: Major shakeup at NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate

    Patrick AttwellJuly 10th NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate has undergone a significant change in leadership. According to a tweet posted by Marcia Smith of Space Policy Online, the changes involved two key personnel either being replaced - or relieved.

  • Virgin Galactic merges with Social Capital Hedosophia

    Cullen DesforgesJuly 10th In an unprecedented move for the commercial space flight industry, Virgin Galactic (VG) and Social Capital Hedosophia (SCH) have announced a merger which is expected to become effective once the transaction closes this year.

  • Voyager team working to keep 42-year-old probes operational

    Laurel KornfeldJuly 9th To keep NASA’s Voyager probes, launched 42 years ago to study the solar system’s gas giant planets, operational in interstellar space for as long as possible, mission scientists are making tough decisions to propel the spacecraft even further.

  • SLS Artemis 1 core stage nearing completion

    Scott JohnsonJuly 7th NEW ORLEANS, La. - The core stage (CS-1) for the first flight (Artemis 1 (formerly Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1)) of NASA's next super-heavy lift launch vehicle, the Space Launch System (SLS), is nearing completion at the agency's Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans.

  • Spitzer and Hubble identify atmospheric composition of “sub-Neptune” exoplanet

    Laurel KornfeldJuly 6th Scientists have identified the atmospheric composition of an exoplanet larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune by studying it with both the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes.

  • Orion spacecraft progressing toward Artemis 1 flight

    Michael ColeJuly 4th PLUM BROOK, Ohio -- NASA is making important strides with the Orion spacecraft in preparation for the Artemis 1 mission, the next step in the agency's effort to return humans to the Moon.

  • AA-2 test next step in NASA’s long-lived Orion testing program

    Jason RhianJuly 2nd CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Should NASA's Orion spacecraft encounter a problem when it is used to send astronauts to the Moon one day, the system tasked with keeping them safe has proven it can do so. The test was dubbed - Ascent Abort 2.

  • NASA’s 2020 Mars rover gets 7-foot-long robot arm

    Jim SharkeyJuly 1st Engineers working in High Bay clean room 1 of the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) recently added a vital component to the space agency's Mars 2020 rover. On June 21, the team installed the rover's main robotic arm.

  • Rocket Lab’s Electron launches seven small satellites from New Zealand

    Laurel KornfeldJune 29th Rocket Lab, a private American company that manufactures and launches small satellites, put seven satellites via its Electron vehicle during a launch from New Zealand.

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