Launch

The mystery of why the first orbital mission launched from the UK fell into the sea on January 9 had some light shed on it today as Virgin Orbital announced that telemetry indicated that the second stage engine shut down prematurely.

Britain's attempt to launch its first orbital rocket in over half a century and the first from UK soil failed today as the second stage of the mission's Virgin Orbit rocket malfunctioned due to an undisclosed problem.

SpaceX has today fired up its mighty Falcon Heavy rocket, the most powerful in operation today, for the first time since 2019 to successfully lift a set of satellites into orbit for the US Space Force.

Space startup SpinLaunch's kinetic launch system will require payloads to endure 10,000 g and speeds of 5,000 mph (8,000 km/h) and in this regard, the company may have just passed its biggest test yet.

Texan startup Firefly Aerospace has joined the growing group of orbit-capable space startups, with the successful launch of its Alpha rocket over the weekend, which saw a set of satellites deployed into low-Earth orbit.

Virgin Orbit has ticked off another milestone in its fledgling launch business, successfully carrying out its first night-time mission over the weekend and deploying satellites into low-Earth orbit for the US Space Force.

NASA took its first step today in establishing its Gateway orbital lunar outpost with the launch of its CAPSTONE CubeSat that will be used to test a new lunar orbit slated for the future space station.

SpinLaunch has released on-board footage from its eighth suborbital flight test, giving us a unique opportunity to imagine what it'd be like to be hurled skyward out of a centrifugal accelerator at more than a thousand miles per hour.

NASA has signed up to test SpinLaunch's extraordinary whirl 'n' hurl space launch technology, which accelerates a launch vehicle to hypersonic speeds using an electric centrifuge arm instead of a rocket, hurling it skyward like a space discus.

Northrop Grumman's SpaceLogistics subsidiary has signed an agreement with SpaceX and Australian telecommunications company Optus to put its Mission Robotic Vehicle (MRV) spacecraft and Mission Extension Pod (MEP) into regular commercial service.

NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) X-ray space telescope has roared into orbit to start its mission studying polarized X-rays from a variety of cosmic sources, including black holes, neutron stars, pulsars, quasars, and galactic nuclei.

After years of setbacks, the James Webb Space Telescope will finally launch next month. NASA has given the green light to begin fueling the observatory for launch, after engineering teams found no sign of damage from an incident last week.