News Archive / Missions

• Software issue delays Ingenuity Mars helicopter’s first flight

  Cullen DesforgesApril 14th, 2021

  History will have to wait a little longer as the first flight of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars has been delayed by at least a week.

• Soyuz MS-18 reaches International Space Station after 2 orbits

  Derek RichardsonApril 9th, 2021

  The Soyuz MS-18 crew took the express lane to the International Space Station, reaching the outpost less the four hours after leaving Earth.

• Cosmonauts still troubleshooting slight air leak aboard ISS

  Derek RichardsonApril 8th, 2021

  Russian cosmonauts are still working to plug a slight air leak aboard the International Space Station, which was first noticed in 2019 and located in 2020.

• SpaceX CEO Elon Musk offers details on Starship SN11 explosion

  Nicholas D'AlessandroApril 7th, 2021

  SpaceX Starship SN11 met a fiery demise last week, like the three iterations before it. Recently, Elon Musk tweeted details on why the prototype exploded.

• Crew-1 Dragon astronauts take spacecraft for a spin around ISS

  Derek RichardsonApril 5th, 2021

  In one of the final major activities of the Crew-1 mission, its astronaut riders suited up to relocate docking ports to clear the way for the Crew-2 Dragon.

• Ingenuity helicopter deployed onto the Martian surface

  Cullen DesforgesApril 5th, 2021

  NASA’s first interplanetary helicopter has touched the surface of Mars for the first time after being deployed from underneath the Perseverance rover.

• Starship SN11 explodes during landing-flip maneuver

  Derek RichardsonMarch 30th, 2021

  Starship SN11 attempted to complete what three previous prototypes could not, launch to 10 kilometers, land and not explode. However, it wasn’t to be.

• Starship SN11 launch delayed because FAA inspector not present

  Nicholas D'AlessandroMarch 29th, 2021

  SpaceX's Starship SN11 appeared ready to fly March 29 as its flaps were unchained and tested with Highway 4 beginning to close down as well.

• SpaceX completes SN11 static fire, flight shifts to NET Monday

  Nicholas D'AlessandroMarch 26th, 2021

  Starship SN11 was set to perform a same-day double header on Friday, March 26, combining a static fire and test flight in Boca Chica, Texas.

• Mars and Titan: Two very different potentially habitable worlds

  Laurel KornfeldMarch 23rd, 2021

  Mars and Saturn’s moon Titan are at the forefront of the search for habitable solar system worlds, but they are very different from one another in terms of the presence of liquid, temperature variations, and the presence of organic compounds, planetary scientist Vincent Chevrier of the University of Arkansas noted in a March 12 online […]

• Falcon 9 first stage launched a record 9th time

  Theresa CrossMarch 14th, 2021

  Another 60 Starlink satellites for SpaceX’s internet constellation lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket in a beautiful morning launch from Florida.

• Hubble Space Telescope discoveries highlighted by astronomer

  Laurel KornfeldMarch 14th, 2021

  During its 31 years of activity, the Hubble Space Telescope has been "one of the most successful scientific experiments in history," used to research numerous fields of astronomy ranging from cosmology and the expansion of the universe to the characterization of exoplanets, said astronomer Tom Brown of the Space Telescope Science Institute in a March 2 online presentation.

• Perseverance rover begins driving across the surface of Mars

  Cullen DesforgesMarch 13th, 2021

  In the weeks since Perseverance landed on Mars, the images, science and sounds that have come from the mission have proven to be groundbreaking.

• NASA assigns Mark Vande Hei to Soyuz MS-18 mission to ISS

  Derek RichardsonMarch 10th, 2021

  NASA has assigned astronaut Mark Vande Hei to the Soyuz MS-18 mission for a roughly six-month trip to the International Space Station.

• Cause of missed Falcon 9 landing announced; Starlink 17 expected to fly Thursday

  Theresa CrossMarch 2nd, 2021

  SpaceX has announced their intention to launch the next batch of 60 Starlink satellites on March 4, 2021 – possibly as early as at 3:24 a.m. EST.

• Spacewalkers begin prepping space station for new solar arrays

  Derek RichardsonFebruary 28th, 2021

  Expedition 64 flight engineers and NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Victor Glover ventured outside the International Space Station for the first of two spacewalks to ready the outpost for new solar arrays later this year.

• Spaceborne Computer-2 to speed “time-to-insight” for ISS studies

  Theresa CrossFebruary 26th, 2021

  Many different research investigations off Earth will be supported by Hewlett-Packard Enterprise’s pathfinding Spaceborne Computer-2, or SBC-2, to perform data processing and analytics.

• Inspiration4 mission names 2nd crew member

  Cullen DesforgesFebruary 25th, 2021

  Cancer survivor and frontline healthcare worker for St. Jude, Hayley Arceneaux, will join Jared Isaacman as part of the four-person Inspiration4 crew.

• NG-15 Cygnus spacecraft brings supplies and experiments to ISS

  Derek RichardsonFebruary 22nd, 2021

  Northrop Grumman's NG-15 Cygnus spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station early Monday morning with thousands of kilograms of crew supplies and experiments for the seven-person Expedition 64 crew.

• NG-15 Cygnus set to send new experiments to the space station

  Theresa CrossFebruary 18th, 2021

  Northrop Grumman is set to send its NG-15 Cygnus resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract.