After a two day stand down thanks to weather, SpaceX launched its first Falcon Heavy in 18 months from Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. It was the 12th Falcon Heavy mission overall and the 31st launch overall this year from Florida.
On a day that saw SpaceX scrub a Falcon Heavy launch inside the last minute thanks to a nearbyh shower, United Launch Alliance had far better weather conditions later as the dusk faded into the night. They launched an Atlas V 551 at 8:53:30 PM EDT, sending another 29 broadband satellites toward low Earth orbit for the Amazon Leo constellation. ULA confirmed deployment of all 29 spacecraft shortly after.
Today’s launch was the first commercial payload for New Glenn, the first time it has reused a booster, and the second time it has successfully landed a booster aboard Blue Origin’s drone ship, Jacklyn. Unfortunately, later in the mission, New Glenn’s second stage failed to deliver the payload into its intended orbit.
While the initial ascent was picture perfect, the end result was not. At roughly T+2h 15m into the mission, Blue Origin reported that the satellite was delivered into an off-nominal orbit.
At L-3, or three days until a planned launch, Artemis II stands at Launch Complex 36-B at Kennedy Space Center in the morning sun.
The launch of Artemis II is coming soon at Kennedy Space Center, and it is going to be unlike anything most people have seen in their lifetimes. The last time a crewed moon rocket launched from this pad at Kennedy was Apollo 17 in December 1972, and the Space Launch System is even more powerful than the Saturn V that carried those astronauts to the Moon. The plumes will be blinding, the sound will rattle your chest and your car windows, and the moment will be etched in your memory forever. If you are a photographer, you have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to document history.
This morning, NASA officially announced a no earlier than March 6th target launch date for Artemis II. That date is contingent on completion of some work at the launch pad, and a positive result from the upcoming Launch Readiness Review, which is scheduled for late next week.
NASA has released a sweeping investigation report into the propulsion system failures that plagued Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner during its Crewed Flight Test (CFT) last year. The report finds a cascade of hardware failures, qualification gaps, organizational breakdowns, and a culture that prioritized schedule and provider success over engineering rigor in the program.
NASA is moving ahead with a second wet dress rehearsal, or WDR-2, for the Artemis II mission. Launch controllers will take their positions in the Launch Control Center at 6:40 PM ET tonight (Feb. 17), kicking off a nearly 50-hour countdown sequence. The simulated launch window opens at 8:30 PM on February 19th and extends four hours.
SpaceX launched Falcon 9 early this morning, sending four astronauts on NASA’s Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 5:15 AM ET, with NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev aboard Crew Dragon capsule ‘Freedom.’
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.
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