This week NASA announced a list of launch opportunities for Artemis II , the mission that will bring 4 astronauts including North Carolina's own Christina Koch. But how is each selected?

Florida's Space Coast — home of NASA's Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station — remains the reigning rocket launch capital of the world. Last year ushered in a new annual record of 109 orbital launches,

NASA has selected a McLean-based company to provide launch range operations support at its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Wallops Range Contract has a total potential value of $339.8 million,

NASA also announced that the next crewed mission, Crew-12, which for now is targeting a Feb. 15 launch, will be from SLC-40. Normally SpaceX uses Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A for its Crew Dragon flights, but did use SLC-40 once for Crew-9 in 2024. All four of SpaceX’s 2025 human spaceflights were from KSC.

NASA could be sending a crew on the Orion spacecraft out past the moon in less than a month if everything falls into place. But first the agency has to get its rocket to the launch pad.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying about 40 payloads, including NASA's Pandora exoplanet satellite, launched from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sunday (Jan. 11) at 8:44 a.m.

Operating hours at Playalinda Beach near Titusville will shrink during NASA's Artemis II preparations, then the beaches will close starting Jan. 31.