A regularly updated listing of planned missions from spaceports around the globe.

Spaceflight Now | Tracking Station | Worldwide launch schedule

A private space firm with orbital aspirations has revamped its plans for a crew-carrying spacecraft.

Poway, California-based aerospace firm SpaceDev has a new design for its Dream Chaser vehicle and hopes to offer suborbital rides within two years, with orbital flights to follow.

Private Spacecraft Developer Settles on New Design

A large deficit in NASA's troubled shuttle program threatens to seriously delay and possibly cripple President Bush's space exploration initiative unless the number of planned flights is cut virtually in half or the White House agrees to add billions of dollars to the human spaceflight budget.

Bush's Space Plan in Danger

Sheerin entered the Ansari X Prize with plans for a V2 rocket-derived, reusable manned spacecraft dubbed the Canadian Arrow. ARCA – short for Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association – also cast its Orizont vehicle in the manned suborbital contest with plans for a reusable rocket engine built from composite materials.

Somehow, I hadn't heard that detail before. Now where was it that I'd heard this idea before...

Former X Prize Rivals Announce Partnership

"We have invaded space with our rocket and for the first time - mark this well - have used space as a bridge between two points on the earth; we have proved rocket propulsion practicable for space travel. This third day of October, 1942, is the first of a new era of transportation, that of space travel."

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V2ROCKET.COM - The A-4/V-2 Resource Site - The V-2 Rocket

Contact with Venus Express was established by ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) at Darmstadt, Germany approximately two hours after lift-off. The spacecraft has correctly oriented itself in relation to the sun and has deployed its solar arrays.

Not like they know anything about rocket science in Darmstadt (*cough* vergeltungswaffe zwei *cough*)

Venus Express en route to probe the planet's hidden mysteries

NASA intends to spend around $500 million over the next several years subsidizing development of commercial services for delivering cargo and possibly people to the International Space Station (ISS).

It seems like Delta (Boeing) and Atlas (Lockheed) are perfectly capable of doing this job, probably more cost-effectively than NASA can.

NASA Aims To Stimulate Commercial ISS Resupply Services

Launched in April 2005 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., XSS-11 has also completed more than 75 natural motion circumnavigations of the expended rocket body. During its projected 12 to 18month flight, the spacecraft will conduct rendezvous and proximity maneuvers with several U.S.-owned dead or inactive resident space objects near its orbit, as well as will demonstrate more autonomy as the project continues.

"US-owned dead or inactive resident space objects..."

Cutting edge microsatellite achieves milestones

The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) partners in the U.S.A., Italy and Germany are pleased to announce that they chieved "First Light" on Oct. 12, 2005. These exceptional images were obtained with one of the telescope's two primary mirrors in place and are being released today on the World Wide Web, http://www.lbto.org.

The image is stunning.

Large Binoccular Telescope Successfully Achieves First Light

The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to let NASA continue buying Russian spaceships to deliver astronauts and supplies to the space station until 2012.

Soyuz is way cheaper than STS for logistics missions.

House Passes Bill to Allow NASA to Buy Soyuz Spacecraft