Space News

United Launch Alliance fired off its first operational Vulcan rocket Tuesday, boosting two military satellites into space in the first U.S. Space Force-sanctioned flight of a new launcher that eventually will replace the company’s Atlas 5 and already-retired Deltas. Equipped with four solid-fuel strap-on boosters for additional takeoff power, the 198-foot-tall Vulcan’s two methane-fueled BE-4 … Read more

A meteorite appeared as a fireball seen in several states, including Georgia, where it landed in a house. Dave Malkoff explores its past.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off late Thursday, propelling a reusable X-37B Space Force rocket plane into space on a classified long-duration mission. It was the eighth such flight since the program’s debut in 2010 and the first since a 434-day mission ended last March. Lighting up the overnight sky for miles around, the … Read more

SpaceX early Sunday launched its 33rd resupply mission to the International Space Station, sending up a Dragon capsule loaded with 2.5 tons of equipment and supplies along with an add-on thruster kit to help maintain the lab’s altitude.  Perched atop a workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, commercial resupply mission 33 got underway with a sky-lighting launch … Read more

After three catastrophic in-flight failures in a row, SpaceX readied a huge Super Heavy-Starship rocket for launch Sunday evening from the Texas Gulf Coast to put a variety of upgrades to the test and to deliberately stress the vehicle to learn more about its capabilities. Test flight No. 10 was expected to get underway at … Read more

An unpiloted SpaceX cargo ship docked at the International Space Station early Monday, delivering more than 5,000 pounds of equipment and supplies including 1,500 tortillas, the crumb-free bread substitute for crews dining in weightlessness. The cargo Dragon launched Sunday from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station atop a Falcon 9 rocket and closed out a 28-hour … Read more

For the second time in a row, SpaceX was forced to call off an attempt to launch its giant Super Heavy-Starship rocket on the program’s 10th test flight, a milestone mission to demonstrate fixes and upgrades in the wake of three catastrophic failures earlier this year.  A launch attempt Sunday at SpaceX’s sprawling Starbase facility … Read more

Running two days late, SpaceX launched its huge Super Heavy-Starship on Tuesday, chalking up what appeared to be a remarkably successful test flight in the wake of three back-to-back failures earlier this year. While reentry heating damaged a protective “skirt” around the engines of the upper stage Starship, along with partially melting a control flap … Read more

A new image shows the growing tail of a comet from another star system streaking across our solar system.  The image of comet 3I/ATLAS was captured on Aug. 27 using one of the telescopes at the International Gemini Observatory in Chile during a public outreach event allowing students to work with astronomers.  The comet is … Read more