Exploring The Frontier Of Space
Using existing and in development technologies provides the head start needed to meet NASA’s goal of landing at the South Pole of the Moon. Lockheed Martin’s Ascent Element is based on Orion; Northrop Grumman’s Transfer Element is based on Cygnus; and Blue Origin’s Descent Element is based on the Blue Moon lander and BE-7 engine, […]
Two NASA sounding rockets successfully flew over the Norwegian Sea early in the morning December 8 carrying an experiment to study the electrodynamics of the polar cusp. The Twin Rockets to Investigate Cusp Electrodynamics or TRICE-2 were launched at 3:26 and 3:28 a.m. EST from the Andoya Space Center in Andenes, Norway. The first rocket […]
SpaceX’s 16th Commercial Resupply Services mission successfully blasted off Wednesday carrying 5,600 pounds of supplies to the International Space Station. The company’s Dragon spacecraft lifted off at 1:16 p.m. EST on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. On its way to the space station, […]
NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft completed its 1.2 billion-mile (2 billion-kilometer) journey to arrive at the asteroid Bennu Monday. The spacecraft executed a maneuver that transitioned it from flying toward Bennu to operating around the asteroid. Now, at about 11.8 miles (19 kilometers) from Bennu’s Sun-facing surface, OSIRIS-REx will begin a preliminary […]
Mars has just received its newest robotic resident. NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander successfully touched down on the Red Planet after an almost seven-month, 300-million-mile (458-million-kilometer) journey from Earth. InSight’s two-year mission will be to study the deep interior of Mars to learn how all celestial bodies with […]
You know the feeling of pride and achievement when you’ve worked really hard on a term paper, and finally turn it in? That’s how the critical design review team for NASA’s Space Launch System is feeling this week as the program completed its review. The in-depth review – the first in almost 40 years for […]
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida took another step forward in its transformation to a 21st Century multi-user spaceport with the completion of the new Small Class Vehicle Launch Pad, designated 39C, in the Launch Pad 39B area. This designated pad to test smaller rockets will make it more affordable for smaller aerospace companies to […]
As Boeing and SpaceX continue working toward the goal of conducting human spaceflight launches in the next few years, NASA announced today that the agency has selected the first four of its astronauts to prepare for the first flights of commercial human spacecraft. The selection begins the familiarization and training process that will eventually see […]
Following the successful pad abort test in May, SpaceX began developing a plan that would move its in-flight abort test to provide higher fidelity data and reduce risk to future crews launched to the International Space Station in the Crew Dragon spacecraft. NASA and SpaceX agreed to consider this proposed change prior to the mishap […]
Sunday’s loss of the 19th Falcon 9 rocket on its seventh mission to deliver cargo to the International Space Station has left SpaceX searching for answers and facing a potentially months-long grounding of its flagship launch vehicle. Complicating matters for the ISS program, the loss of the Dragon CRS-7 spacecraft follows on the heels of […]