News Archive / Missions

• Fourth GPS satellite arrives safely in Florida

  Cullen DesforgesAugust 10th, 2020

  On July 14, the fourth satellite in the Global Positioning System III (GPS III) system arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, for processing in preparation of its launch in September.

• Demo-2 Crew Dragon Capsule returns to Space Coast

  Sean CostelloAugust 7th, 2020

  “Endeavour”, the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft which made history as the first commercial vehicle to ferry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, has returned to the Space Coast.

• SES awards launch contracts to ULA & SpaceX

  Matt HaskellAugust 7th, 2020

  SES has contracted both United Launch Alliance (ULA) and SpaceX to fly its newest four C-band satellites into orbit in 2022.

• Demo-2 Crew Dragon splashes down after 2-month mission

  Derek RichardsonAugust 2nd, 2020

  After two months aboard the International Space Station, Dragonship Endeavour with its two-person astronaut crew is back on Earth, having splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida.

• Weather being watched ahead of Demo-2 return

  Theresa CrossJuly 31st, 2020

  SpaceX and NASA, in preparation for the upcoming undocking of the DEMO-2 Crew Dragon from the International Space Station, are continuing to monitor weather patterns in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.

• NASA, ULA on the eve of launch of Perseverance Mars rover

  Matt HaskellJuly 29th, 2020

  Years of hard work and preparation have culminated in NASA’s newest Mars rover, Perseverance, sitting  atop its United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral, set to leave Earth as early as 7:50 a.m. EDT (11:50 UTC) Thursday morning.

• Mars 2020 Flight Readiness Review complete, Launch Readiness Review tomorrow

  Theresa CrossJuly 26th, 2020

  Preparations continue at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for the upcoming Mars 2020 launch, currently scheduled to liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 on Thursday, July 30, 2020. Most recently completed was the Flight Readiness Review, the critical review step which confirmed the readiness of the equipment, teams and resources required […]

• Progress MS-15 cargo ship takes ‘express lane’ to ISS

  Derek RichardsonJuly 23rd, 2020

  The Russian Progress MS-15 cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station in a reported record time to deliver supplies and experiments to the Expedition 63 crew, despite a last-second misalignment.

• Spacewalkers set the stage for future ISS additions

  Derek RichardsonJuly 21st, 2020

  NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken completed their fourth spacewalk in less than a month to upgrade the International Space Station, setting the stage for future additions to the 20-year-old outpost.

• Commercial spaceflight advocate outlines revolution in the field

  Laurel KornfeldJuly 7th, 2020

  Bruce Pittman of NASA’s Space Portal Office, a 35-year advocate for commercial spaceflight, outlined his vision of the endeavor over the next 42 months in a June webinar run by NASA’s Night Sky Network.

• Pluto’s subsurface ocean may date back to planet’s formation

  Laurel KornfeldJune 29th, 2020

  Scientists who recently studied the detailed images of Pluto’s surface returned by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015 have found evidence that the dwarf planet’s subsurface ocean may have been around since Pluto’s formation over four billion years ago.

• Perseverance mission scientist outlines rover’s instruments, mission

  Laurel KornfeldJune 23rd, 2020

  One month before the scheduled launch of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, Roger Wiens, who serves as both principal investigator of its SuperCam laser instrument and as co-investigator of its SHERLOC team, discussed the mission’s science instruments and its purpose in a virtual webinar presented by the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI).

• Locked and Loaded: Artemis I’s muscle delivered to KSC

  SpaceFlight InsiderJune 16th, 2020

  NASA, still riding high on regaining the ability to launch astronauts to low-Earth-orbit is now preparing to turn the dial up to eleven. LEO is nice and all - but flying to the Moon is way better. The agency is pulling this pieces to achieve just that.

• NASA TAPS ASTROBOTIC TO DELIVER VIPER ROVER TO THE MOON

  Michael ColeJune 16th, 2020

  NASA awarded a nearly $200 million contract Thursday to Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, to deliver NASA’s VIPER rover to a destination at the moon’s south pole in 2023.

• New Horizons parallax experiment observes an alien sky

  Laurel KornfeldJune 14th, 2020

  NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, now over 4.3 billion miles (6.9 billion km) from Earth, successfully imaged two nearby stars displaced from the locations in the sky where they are seen from Earth in its April stellar parallax experiment.

• 3 SkySat, 58 Starlink satellites fly during first SpaceX Rideshare launch

  Cullen DesforgesJune 13th, 2020

  At 5:21 a.m. EDT, SpaceX’s ninth set of Starlink satellites departed Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40, flying with three SkySat satellites, part of the company’s first commercial ride share arrangement.

• President Trump delivers remarks after Demo-2 launch

  Michael McCabeJune 6th, 2020

      President Donald J. Trump gave a speech inside of NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building after the successful launch of astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.

• First Starlink VisorSat takes flight aboard SpaceX Falcon 9

  Sean CostelloJune 3rd, 2020

  On Wednesday June 3, SpaceX successfully launched its eighth batch of Starlink satellites, lifting off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at 9:25 p.m. EDT, 1:25 UTC on June 4.

• SOFIA data sheds new light on endurance of Pluto’s atmosphere

  Laurel KornfeldJune 1st, 2020

  Data captured by the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), an airborne observatory that studied Pluto’s atmospheric hazes just two weeks before New Horizons‘ 2015 flyby, indicates the hazes in Pluto’s atmosphere are regularly replenished.

• Crew Dragon Endeavour docks with International Space Station

  Derek RichardsonMay 31st, 2020

  Less than 19 hours after soaring into orbit from Florida, SpaceX’s Demo-2 Crew Dragon mission with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken has reached the International Space Station.