Spaceflight Insider

  • Sunrise at the port: welcoming home Falcon 9 booster B1060.2

    Theresa CrossSeptember 6th It was a beautiful morning on the Space Coast of Florida as many gathered to watch another SpaceX first stage make its way into Port Canaveral. Arriving at the Cape early on Sunday, September 6, 2020, B1060.2 is fresh off its second mission which launched from LC-39A earlier in the week. B1060 first flew as […]

  • Northrop Grumman continues to advance NASA’s Artemis program

    Matt HaskellSeptember 3rd Aerospace giant Northrop Grumman continues to meet milestones in preparation for NASA’s Artemis program, as it completes a successful booster test fire for Artemis IV, and delivers the final abort motor for Artemis II

  • US Air Force Global Strike Command conducts Minuteman III test from Vandenberg Air Force Base

    Ashly CullumberSeptember 2nd On Wednesday, September 2, 2020 at 12:03 a.m. Pacific Time, an operational test launch of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was conducted from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

  • Orion spacecraft passes final milestone for first Artemis launch

    Cullen DesforgesSeptember 2nd On September 1, NASA announced that the flight-ready Orion Crew capsule had completed a significant milestone in preparation for its voyage on the first launch of the Artemis Program, Artemis 1.

  • NASA to air Northrop Grumman FSB-1 test fire from Utah

    Theresa CrossSeptember 2nd On Wednesday, September 2 at 2:45 p.m.. EDT, NASA will broadcast a full-duration test fire by Northrop Grumman of a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket booster. It will air on NASA television and will also be viewable online, via their website. The test will be conducted at Northrop Grumman’s manufacturing and test facilities in Promontory, […]

  • SpaceX launches first polar launch from Florida in 60 years

    Matt HaskellAugust 30th SpaceX has successfully launched the SAOCOM-1B satellite for the Argentinian Space Agency, CONAE – the first polar trajectory launch from Florida’s Space Coast in 60 years.

  • No delay expected for SAOCOM 1B, Starlink missions

    Matt HaskellAugust 29th With less than 25 hours remaining until the second planned lift off of a possible double-header flight day, SpaceX is marching forward with plans to launch and recover two Falcon 9 rockets, just 9 hours apart.

  • Update from ULA on abort event, status of NROL-44 payload

    Sean CostelloAugust 29th   United Launch Alliance (ULA) provided SpaceFlight Insider with additional insight and detail regarding the current status of the NROL-44 payload, launch vehicle and the efficacy of their Delta IV Heavy auto-launch system.

  • Hot Fire Abort safely keeps Delta IV Heavy, NROL-44 on the ground

    Sean CostelloAugust 29th A hot fire abort was called at T-3 seconds, after ignition of engines aboard the Delta IV Heavy but prior to the vehicle being released for flight.

  • SpaceX aiming for first polar launch from Florida in 60 years

    Cullen DesforgesAugust 28th On August 30, SpaceX is planning to make another entry in the modern-day history books, flying a launch trajectory not seen from Florida’s Space Coast in over 60 years. The mission to launch the SAOCOM-1B payload into a sun-synchronous polar orbit is also part of a rare, two-launch day on the Eastern Range.

  • 24-hour scrub leaves Delta IV and NROL-44 on the pad at SLC-37

    Theresa CrossAugust 27th This morning’s planned launch of a United Launch Alliance Delta lV Heavy rocket, set to carry the NROL-44 mission, was scrubbed while the countdown was in a planned hold at T-minus 4 hours and 15 minutes.

  • ULA set to launch mission for National Reconnaissance Office

    Matt HaskellAugust 26th United Launch Alliance is preparing to launch the NROL-44 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office atop their Delta IV Heavy rocket early Thursday morning. 

  • A busy week planned for the Space Coast, 3 launches in 3 days

    Theresa CrossAugust 25th The countdown is on for three planned launches from Cape Canaveral this week, beginning with an early morning United Launch Alliance flight scheduled for 06:12 GMT (2:21 a.m. EDT), Thursday August 27. Launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 37B, the triple body Delta-lV Heavy rocket (the largest of the Delta lV family) […]

  • SpaceX successfully launches Booster for the sixth time

    Theresa CrossAugust 18th On August 18 at 10:31 a.m. EDT, SpaceX successfully launched the latest batch of 58 corporate satellites from Cape Canaveral Florida, destined to become part of their growing Starlink constellation.

  • Final Kounotori cargo spacecraft leaves ISS

    Derek RichardsonAugust 18th After more than a decade of service, Japan’s final first-generation HTV cargo resupply spacecraft has departed the International Space Station, setting the stage for a new HTV-X vehicle capable of service in low Earth orbit and beyond.

  • SpaceX set to launch its 100th Mission with Starlink and SkySat

    Cullen DesforgesAugust 18th SpaceX is on the cusp of launching its 100th mission, due to loft the eleventh batch of Starlink satellites on Tuesday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, atop their Falcon 9 rocket.

    The Range

  • Kepler data reveals Earth-like planet in star’s habitable zone

    April 21st
    Scientists who took a second look at data returned by NASA’s Kepler space telescope have discovered an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star.

  • Pluto may have deep, ancient underground ocean

    April 14th
    Two new studies of data collected by the New Horizons spacecraft during its 2015 Pluto flyby suggest the dwarf planet has a deep subsurface ocean that may have been present all 4.5 billion years of Pluto’s existence.

  • Mars’ magnetic field is 10 times stronger than previously thought

    April 14th
    Data collected by NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander on Mars has surprised scientists by indicating the Red Planet has a magnetic field 10 times stronger than previously suspected.

  • 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

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