United Launch Alliance successfully launched its Vulcan Centaur rocket early Thursday morning, carrying a national security payload for the U.S. Space Force on the USSF-87 mission.
Liftoff occurred at 4:22 AM ET from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, about midway through a two-hour window that opened at 3:30 AM.
A few photos from February 1, 2026, of Artemis II from Beach Road at Kennedy Space Center.
On one of those rare nights where it is actually winter on the Space Coast, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station carrying the GPS III SV09 satellite to orbit for the US Space Force. Liftoff was at 11:53 PM ET into clear, chilly skies.
SLS began its slow and deliberate journey to Launch Pad 39B from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) early on January 17 at Kennedy Space Center, marking a major milestone in the agency’s quest to return astronauts to the Moon for the first time in more than half a century.
The 322-foot-tall rocket emerged from the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building at 7:04 a.m. EST, carried atop Crawler-Transporter 2 for the four-mile trek to the historic launch complex. The combined stack — rocket, Orion capsule, and mobile launcher — weighs approximately 11 million pounds and is traveling at a top speed of just under one mile per hour.
A complaint often made about photographs is that it “doesn’t look real.” That’s a mistake: believing that photography captures a scene “as it was.” It doesn’t because it can’t.
No camera captures reality as the eyes see it. No camera ever has. No camera ever will. From the moment light passes through glass and strikes a recording medium, reality undergoes a transformation—a beautiful, necessary betrayal that photographers have spent nearly two centuries learning to exploit rather than lament.
This isn’t a flaw to be corrected. It’s what makes photography an art form. Understanding how cameras deceive us is the first step toward using that deception intentionally.
Artemis II, NASA’s return to lunar space, is expected to be rolled out to the launch pad this month, with a launch planned for February. That seemed like a good time to review my old Artemis I shots, and I found a few that were pretty good.
SpaceX opened the books on 2026 when it launched a new Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-88 mission aboard an all-new Falcon 9 to low-Earth orbit early this morning. Liftoff was at 01:48:10 am Eastern Time (06:48:10 Z) under broken skies and a bright moon.
This was an all-new rocket, with Booster B1101 making its first flight. The second stage is always new, of course, so it was a rare night for Falcon 9: it was all white.
The Space Force doesn’t do press viewing for Starlink launches, a good thing since there are so many of them. That said, there are some really interesting views from public viewing spots, like this one on 528W in Cape Canaveral. Click here to see my favorite public viewing spots.
SpaceX added to its roster of Starlink satellites when it launched the Starlink Group 6-90 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. Liftoff was at 3:26 PM ET and into clear skies with temperatures hovering around 70ºF (21ºC)
Blue Origin’s New Glenn first stage “Never Tell Me The Odds” made a happy return to Port Canaveral this morning, marking the first time that Blue Origin returned with a New Glenn booster after a successful flight and landing.
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