Spaceflight Insider

  • US Space Force prepares for astronaut rescue missions

    Matt HaskellMay 22nd The 45th Operational Group, Detachment 3 stands ready to rescue Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley in the event their missions ends in an unexpected abort.

  • Astronauts Behnken, Hurley arrive in Florida; only 7 days until Demo-2

    Michael McCabeMay 20th NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana welcomed the crew of the SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the Cape on May 20, 2020. Set to lift off in just 7 days, Demo-2 will be the first crewed launch from American soil since OV-104 Atlantis took her final flight on July 8, 2011. […]

  • Japan launches its last ‘white stork’ to the International Space Station

    Derek RichardsonMay 20th Lifting off from its seaside launchpad, Japan’s final H-2B rocket sent the final Kounotori cargo ship into orbit to service the International Space Station.

  • SpaceX to test sun visors on Starlink satellites

    Matt HaskellMay 19th SpaceX will test sun visors on one of their Starlink satellites on their next launch, currently planned for early June.

  • ULA successfully launches Atlas V, X-37B spaceplane

    Theresa CrossMay 17th At 9:14 AM EDT, United Launch Alliance successfully launched an Atlas V rocket, lofting the X-37B spaceplane into orbit for the U.S Space Force.

  • Launch of USSF-7 scrubbed due to weather

    Sean CostelloMay 16th Despite the availability of two 10-minute windows, United Launch Alliance was unable to loft the USSF-7 payload atop their Atlas V rocket due to weather violations in the launch criteria.

  • ULA to launch the sixth flight of the X-37B

    Cullen DesforgesMay 15th United Launch Alliance will launch the USSF-7 mission early Saturday morning from Cape Canaveral for the United States Space Force.

  • 45th Space Wing preparing for back to back launches

    Matt HaskellMay 14th This weekend, the 45th Space wing at cape Canaveral Air Force Station is poised for a modern era record turnaround in launches, as it prepares to launch a United Launch Alliance Atlas V with the USSF-7 X-37B from LC-41 on Saturday, and a SpaceX Falcon 9 with Starlink satellites from LC-40 on Sunday.

  • Flight plans released for SpaceX’s Demo-2 crewed mission

    Cullen DesforgesMay 14th During a recent joint NASA / SpaceX Demo-2 mission press conference, a clear picture was painted as to what launch day activities and the ensuing flight of Crew Dragon will look like.

  • Curiosity mission team operates rover from home

    Jim SharkeyMay 13th While the majority of scientists and engineers who work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California are currently off-site, that doesn’t mean that their work supporting interplanetary missions has ground to a halt.

  • NG-13 Cygnus departs ISS for extended mission

    Derek RichardsonMay 11th After 83 days attached to the International Space Station, the three-person Expedition 63 crew today bid farewell to the NG-13 Cygnus cargo ship after it supplied the outpost with some 3,400 kilograms of supplies and equipment.

  • Astronaut Douglas Hurley to serve as Demo-2 spacecraft commander

    Laurel KornfeldMay 8th   NASA astronaut Douglas Gerald Hurley flew on the last crewed mission to launch from American soil 11 years ago, and fittingly, will serve as spacecraft commander of Crew Dragon Demo-2, the first crewed flight to resume launches from the US.

    The Range

  • NASA adds crew member to first operational Crew Dragon mission

    April 5th
    HOUSTON, TX – On March 31, NASA announced that astronaut Shannon Walker will join fellow astronauts Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover on the first operation flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon to the International Space Station. A native of Houston, Walker began her NASA journey as a Flight Controller on behalf of Rockwell Collins during the […]

  • Voyager 2 will be on its own while DSN antenna is upgraded

    March 23rd
    The only radio telescope capable of communicating with NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft will undergo nearly 11 months of upgrades to its 230-foot- (70-meter-) wide antenna, during which it will be unable to transmit commands to the 42-year-old spacecraft, which is now traveling in interstellar space.

  • Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden passes away

    March 19th
    Alfred M. Worden, a former astronaut who served as the command module pilot of NASA’s Apollo 15 Moon mission, died in his sleep on Wednesday, March 18, at a Sugar Land, Texas, assisted living center, at the age of 88.

  • Sun is rising on launch day for SpaceX Starlink-5 mission

    March 15th
    It’s launch day! With under an hour to go before the scheduled liftoff of SpaceX’s sixth batch of 60 Starlink satellites, SpaceFlight Insider correspondent Theresa Cross is stationed along the river’s edge at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex’s (KSCVC) Saturn V viewing site.

  • New Horizons parallax project seeks public participation

    February 21st
    NASA’s New Horizons mission is seeking public participation in a project aimed at imaging the two closest stars, Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359, from Earth on April 22 and 23, the same day the spacecraft will photograph them from almost five billion miles (eight billion km) away.

  • Pluto’s heart feature controls its winds

    February 20th
    Pluto’s iconic heart feature, named Tombaugh Regio, functions as a “beating heart” that controls the small planet’s winds and might even play a role in shaping its surface features.

  • Arrokoth data sheds light on planet formation

    February 19th
    Data returned by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft taken during its January 2019 flyby of Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) Arrokoth, also known as 2014 MU 69, located four billion miles from Earth, supports the theory that planet formation in the solar system occurred in a gentle rather than violent process.

  • ULA successfully launches Solar Probe aboard Atlas V

    February 10th
    CAPE CANAVERAL, FL - A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launched a NASA probe its way to our Sun. At 11:03 p.m. EDT, February 9, the rocket left Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) located at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

  • Pluto’s hazy atmosphere is similar to that of Titan

    February 2nd
    Pluto is often compared to Neptune's largest moon Triton, but its hazy atmosphere is actually more akin to that of Saturn's largest moon Titan, which is sometimes viewed as an analog of early Earth.

  • NASA broadcast celebrates Spitzer telescope’s accomplishments

    January 24th
    In a live broadcast on Wednesday, January 22, NASA celebrated 16 years of incredible accomplishments by the Spitzer Space Telescope, one of its four "Great Observatories" in space.

  • Spitzer telescope to be decommissioned after 16 years

    January 20th
    NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which has studied the universe in infrared light since its launch in August of 2003, will be decommissioned on Thursday, January 30, 2020.

  • Gallery: SpaceX’s Dragon clears safety check paving way for crewed missions

    January 19th

  • No in-flight abort for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft today

    January 18th
    SpaceX has been forced to stand down from today's attempt to test out a critical element of the company's crew-rated spacecraft.

  • Boeing releases video from recent OFT mission

    January 16th
    Boeing has released video from its failed attempt to send its "Starliner" spacecraft to the International Space Station.

  • Processing of Starlink 2 booster underway, following return to Port Canaveral

    January 11th
    SpaceX's B1049.4 returned to Port Canaveral January 9, 2020 after the completion of its fourth flown mission delivering the third set of Starlink satellites into low-Earth-orbit (LEO). This is Spacex’s first launch supported by the newly-created U.S. Space Force and its forty-eighth successful booster recovery.

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