The next generation of American spacecraft designed to carry people into low-Earth orbit will be required to function as a lifeboat for the International Space Station for up to seven months. This service has not been provided by an American spacecraft since an Apollo command module remained docked to Skylab for about three months from […]
NASA
NASA Partnerships Launch Multi-User Spaceport
Teamed with its industry partners, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is well on its way to establishing a multi-user spaceport to help meet America’s spacefaring needs for the 21st century. Counterparts from companies who are operating several space center facilities recently met with agency officials to discuss ongoing partnerships and plans for the center’s […]
NASA Outlines Future Path To Human Mars Exploration
I will join 11 senior NASA officials in a public forum about NASA’s exploration path to Mars. This will be another important opportunity for members of the NASA Family to learn how all of our exploration resources are being leveraged to support our bold human missions to an asteroid and Mars. As you all know, […]
Dragon Begins Third ISS Resupply Mission; First Stage Recovery Test Success
A GoPro Captures Launch Of A SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Carrying Dragon CRS-3 Dodging a gloomy weather forecast, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roared into space this afternoon to begin a critical resupply mission to the International Space Station and test a revolutionary booster stage recovery system that could change the economics of the […]
Space Launch System Core Stage Model ‘Sounds’ Off for Testing
A 5-percent scale model of the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage fires up for another round of acoustic testing at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. SLS, NASA’s new rocket, will be the largest, most powerful rocket ever built for deep space missions. The SLS core stage, towering more than 200 feet […]
NASA Selects New Suborbital Technology Payloads
NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program has selected 13 space technology payloads for flights on commercial reusable launch vehicles, and a commercial parabolic aircraft. These flights provide cutting-edge technologies with a valuable platform to conduct tests, before they enter use in the harsh environment of space.
Air Force Releases Details Of Incident That Scrubbed Atlas And Falcon Launches
In the wake of serious outage on the U.S. Air Force Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral, officials this morning released a few new details into the nature of the problem that took a tracking station out of commission. The loss of the station, due to a short circuit in a critical radar system, consequently forced […]
Atlas 5 Rocket Launches To Successfully Deploy NASA’s Newest TDRS Satellite
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket thundered into space carrying NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite satellite on a nearly two hour-long ride to geosynchronous orbit. Lighting up the night sky at 9:33 p.m. EST January 23 from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex-41, the successful launch marked the first of 15 ULA launches scheduled […]
Dragon Passes Another Milestone With Sucessful Parachute Drop Test Over Pacific Ocean
Engineers and safety specialists from NASA and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) gathered in Morro Bay, Calif., in late December to demonstrate how the company’s Dragon spacecraft’s parachute system would function in the event of an emergency on the launch pad or during ascent.
2013 NASA Safety Report Highlights Funding Uncertainty, Commercial Crew Progress
The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), an advisory committee that reports to NASA and Congress, has released its 2013 annual report examining NASA’s safety performance over the past year and highlighting issues and concerns to agency and government officials. Download the report HERE (PDF)