SPACEX LAUNCHES 23 STARLINK SATELLITES FROM FLORIDA - SpaceX launched another batch of its broadband satellites to orbit this evening (March 25). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida today at 7:42 p.m. EDT (2342 GMT). The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth as planned, acing its vertical landing about 8.5 minutes after liftoff on the SpaceX drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.    More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 26)

SPACEX'S DRAGON CAPSULE DOCKS AT ISS ON 30TH CARGO MISSION FOR NASA - After an orbital chase lasting a day and a half, SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft rendezvoused and docked with the International Space Station (ISS) early Saturday morning (March 23). The uncrewed spacecraft launched on Thursday afternoon (March 21) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Rendezvous occurred Saturday morning. Monitored by NASA astronauts Laurel O'Hara and Mike Barratt from inside the ISS Cupola module, the spacecraft autonomously docked to the zenith port of the station's Harmony module at 7:19 a.m. EDT (1119 GMT), soaring 262 miles (421 kilometers) above the south Atlantic Ocean, just west of Africa.   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 25)

NASA ASTRONAUT TRACY DYSON, CREWMATES SAFELY EN ROUTE TO SPACE STATION - Three crew members including NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson successfully launched at 8:36 a.m. EDT Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station. Dyson, along with her crewmates Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus, will dock to the space station’s Prichal module about 11:09 a.m. on Monday, March 25, on the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft.   More
(Source: NASA - Mar 25)

RUSSIA LAUNCHES CREW OF THREE, INCLUDING U.S. ASTRONAUT, TO SPACE STATION - Two days after a rare last-second launch abort, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft blasted off Saturday on a flight to the International Space Station, carrying two short-duration crew members and a NASA astronaut bound for a six-month tour of duty. Soyuz MS-25/71S commander Oleg Novitskiy, Belarus guest cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya and NASA veteran Tracy Dyson thundered away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 8:36 a.m. EDT (5:36 p.m. local time) and slipped into orbit eight minutes and 45 seconds later.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 24)

SPACEX REACHES 19 FLIGHTS WITH A FALCON 9 BOOSTER FOR A THIRD TIME WITH STARLINK MISSION - SpaceX managed to thread the needle with the weather and launch the first of two planned Starlink missions from Cape Canaveral in 48 hours. A Falcon 9 rocket launched from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday at 11:09 p.m. EDT (0309 UTC on Sunday). It will be followed by another Falcon 9 from nearby pad 40 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Monday.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 24)

WORK CONTINUES ON NISAR SATELLITE AS MISSION LOOKS TOWARD LAUNCH - The NISAR (NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite – a joint NASA-Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Earth-observing mission – is nearly complete, and a launch readiness date will be determined at the end of April. The spacecraft will launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on India’s southeastern coast. Work to be finished before launch includes applying a special coating to hardware components on the satellite’s 39-foot-diameter (12-meter) radar antenna reflector, which is among NASA’s primary contributions to the mission.    More
(Source: NASA - Mar 23)

ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES MYSTERIOUS SPY SATELLITES IN 4TH-EVER US LIFTOFF - Rocket Lab launched from the U.S. for the fourth time ever on Thursday morning (March 21), sending mystery payloads aloft for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The NROL-123 mission — or "Live and Let Fly," as Rocket Lab called it — lifted off from the company's Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Thursday at 3:25 a.m. EDT (0725 GMT).   More
(Source: Space.com - Mar 22)

ROSCOSMOS SCRUBS SOYUZ CREW LAUNCH 20 SECONDS BEFORE LIFTOFF - A Russian cosmonaut, an American astronaut and a Belarusian flight attendant turned spaceflight participant are preparing for a mission to the International Space Station. Their arrival at the orbiting outpost will mark the beginning of Expedition 71. Liftoff onboard a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome was set for 4:21 p.m. MSK (9:21 a.m. ET, 1321 UTC), however the launch scrubbed at T-20 seconds for a yet unknown reason. Oleg Novistky, Tracy Dyson and Marina Vasilevskaya make up the trio of the MS-25 mission.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 22)

DRAGON SOARS FROM CAPE CANAVERAL’S PAD 40 ON SPACEX’S 30TH CARGO MISSION TO THE SPACE STATION - SpaceX is gearing up for the next phase of launches from Cape Canaveral that is, in a way, a callback to a previous era in their launch history. While this will be SpaceX’s 30th flight as part of NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program, it’s the first time a Dragon 2 spacecraft will launch to the International Space Station (ISS) from pad 40.
Update: Liftoff occurred on time at 4:55 p.m. EDT and was followed by separation of the Cargo Dragon vehicle a little less than 12 minutes into flight.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 22)

Previous Next