News Archive / Missions

• A day of scrubs: No flights today for SpaceX, Blue Origin, Arianespace or ULA – UPDATE

  Jason RhianDecember 18th, 2018

  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Today wasn't the most productive for Arianespace, SpaceX, Blue Origin or ULA. Attempts to launch four missions all ended with the rockets and their payloads safe - but on the ground.

• Ceres’ surface found to contain building blocks for life

  Laurel KornfeldDecember 14th, 2018

  The surface of the dwarf planet Ceres holds high levels of organic material, according to a new study of images returned by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. This provides a tantalizing glimpse into the possibility of life throughout our solar system.

• Interstellar: Voyager 2 goes where only one has gone before

  Laurel KornfeldDecember 14th, 2018

  NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft has become the second probe to enter interstellar space, as confirmed by data returned by several of the science instruments on board the spacecraft.

• VSS Unity conducts test flight that nearly reaches space

  Jason RhianDecember 13th, 2018

  Virgin Galactic's program designed to kick off space tourism has just reached another milestone with a flight that almost reached the edge of space. 

• Northrop Grumman test fires astronaut protection system

  Jason RhianDecember 13th, 2018

  Sending crews to destinations such as the Moon and Mars is not easy. As many within the space industry will tell you, one of the most harrowing times during these missions is the first few minutes of the flight. A test carried out today worked to make this tense period a little less stressful for […]

• NASA’s InSight lander flexes arm, ‘listens’ to Martian winds

  Jim SharkeyDecember 12th, 2018

  NASA's Mars InSight lander has been getting to known for its new home at Elysium Planitia and preparing for what it will be doing there. As it turns out, one of those things - is listening.

• Bringing a knife to a spacewalk: Cosmonauts inspect Soyuz leak repair

  Derek RichardsonDecember 12th, 2018

  During a spacewalk, two Russian cosmonauts used a knife remove thermal insulation on Soyuz MS-09 in order to inspect a leak repair made earlier in the year.

• SpaceX Demo Flight 1 ‘adjusts’ 10 days

  Jason RhianDecember 11th, 2018

  KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- As is to be expected with critical missions meant to demonstrate transportation systems for astronauts, things tend to change in the lead up to the big day. Perhaps the most frequent of these - is time.

• Barely on the job a week, OSIRIS-REx makes major discovery

  Cullen DesforgesDecember 11th, 2018

  On Dec. 3, 2018, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at the half-kilometer wide Bennu asteroid to begin a two-year study to inspect, investigate, and eventually collect samples of the materials making up its mysterious surface.

• New Horizons course correction puts spacecraft on target to Ultima Thule

  Laurel KornfeldDecember 10th, 2018

  NASA's New Horizons spacecraft conducted the most distant ever course-correction maneuver by any spacecraft on Sunday, Dec. 2, firing its thrusters for just 105 seconds to adjust its velocity by approximately 2.2 miles per hour.

• Who needs the Guardians of the Galaxy when we have OSIRIS-REx?

  Cullen DesforgesDecember 10th, 2018

  Last week, a spacecraft arrived at one of the smallest objects ever visited by a NASA mission after a multi-billion mile journey around the Solar System.

• CRS-16 Dragon arrives at ISS after ground-based communications issue

  Derek RichardsonDecember 8th, 2018

  SpaceX’s CRS-16 Dragon was captured by the space station crew, despite a communications issue prompting a temporary retreat command being issued.

• Orion’s Ascent Abort-2 Crew Module delivered to KSC

  Jason RhianDecember 7th, 2018

  The Crew Module of NASA's Orion spacecraft has arrived at KSC in Florida. Its journey began at Johnson Space Center and will be used to further the agency's deep space exploration ambitions.

• There (almost) and back again: Crew of aborted Soyuz mission reassigned

  Heather SmithDecember 6th, 2018

  NASA has announced that Nick Hague will join Aleksey Ovchinin again for a launch on Feb 28, 2019, after their mission was aborted in October 2018.

• Classified: A review of US defense missions launched in 2018

  Patrick AttwellDecember 5th, 2018

  LOMPOC, Calif. -- 2018 has seen five payloads launched for the Department of Defense. Two of these missions were classified and one failed. With the upcoming flight of a ULA Delta Heavy with the NROL-71, SpaceFlight Insider takes a look back at the DoD's 2018 launch manifest.

• OSIRIS-REx arrives at Bennu asteroid

  Laurel KornfeldDecember 4th, 2018

  NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft has successfully arrived at its destination, the asteroid Bennu.

• Crewed flights to ISS resume with Soyuz MS-11 launch

  Derek RichardsonDecember 3rd, 2018

  Normalcy begins to return to International Space Station operations as the crew of Soyuz MS-11 has successfully launched from Baikonur.

• NASA Administrator reveals new commercial plan to explore the Moon

  Jason RhianNovember 29th, 2018

  NASA is working with commercial partners in an effort to produce a lunar transport "market," one designed to further enable scientific exploration of the Moon.

• MarCO CubeSats perform successfully during InSight landing

  Laurel KornfeldNovember 28th, 2018

  Two CubeSats successfully monitored InSight's entry, descent, and landing on Mars and returned data to Earth hours before NASA's Mars orbiters came into position to transmit the data.

• Eternal Ice Age: Unusual ridges near Pluto’s Sputnik Planitia formed by ancient glaciers

  Laurel KornfeldNovember 28th, 2018

  Oddly-shaped ridges located adjacent to Pluto's Sputnik Planitia were created by ancient nitrogen ice glaciers, according to a group of scientists led by the SETI Institute's Oliver White.