There was a time over a generation ago when people still talked about men walking on the Moon like it was yesterday, where the space shuttle was still something of the future and memories of the Vietnam War still burned painfully in the minds of many. It was five years after Gene Cernan and company […]
Launches
NASA’s Lunar Dust Explorer Blasts Off From Virginia Spaceport
UPDATE: NASA has confirmed that the reaction wheels of its Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) were successfully brought back on-line and the spacecraft has acquired its safe-mode attitude profile. Last night during technical checkouts the LADEE spacecraft commanded itself to shut down the reaction wheels used to position and stabilize the spacecraft. According […]
NASA Prepares LADEE for First Virginia Coast Launch to Moon
In an attempt to answer prevailing questions about our moon, NASA is making final preparations to launch a probe at 11:27 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 6, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. The small car-sized Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is a robotic mission that will orbit the moon to […]
NASA Wallops Launch Facility To Host A Moon Mission Celebration August 21
The upcoming moon mission at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility will be celebrated at the NASA Visitor Center from 1 to 9 p.m. August 21 through a day of children’s activities, speakers, and observing the sun and moon. All events are free. The NASA Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer is scheduled for launch on […]
NASA Selects Technology Demonstration Projects for Suborbital Research Flights
NASA has selected for possible flight demonstration 10 proposals from six U.S. states for reusable, suborbital technology payloads and vehicle capability enhancements with the potential to revolutionize future space missions. After the concepts are developed, NASA may choose to fly the technologies to the edge of space and back on U.S. commercial suborbital vehicles and […]
NASA Launches Suborbital RockSat-X Mission With Student Payloads
A Terrier-Improved Malemute suborbital rocket carrying experiments developed by university students nationwide in the RockSat-X program was successfully launched at 6 a.m. EDT August 13 from NASA’s launch range at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The RockSat-X program is conducted with the Colorado Space Grant Consortium. The goal of the program is to provide […]
Delta IV Rocket Successfully Launches Sixth Wideband Global Satcom Military Satellite
Blazing through the evening skies over Florida, a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket blasted off at 8:29 p.m. EDT on August 7, beginning another successful mission to delivery a Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) satellite to geosynchronous orbit for the United States Air Force. Forty minutes after blasting off from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex […]
One Special Day in the Life of Planet Earth Shining Brightly In The Black Void
Color and black-and-white images of Earth taken by two NASA interplanetary spacecraft July 19 show our planet and its moon as bright beacons from millions of miles away in space. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured the color images of Earth and the moon from its perch in the Saturn system nearly 900 million miles (1.5 billion […]
Atlas V 551 Launches Its Heaviest Payload Yet, MUOS-2 For The U.S. Navy
Rattling windows as it pierced cloudy skies above Cape Canaveral, the most powerful version of the Atlas V rocket blasted off from Space Launch Complex 41 at 9 .a.m. EDT today on the 6th mission this year for launch provider United Launch Alliance. An hour later, Atlas successfully deployed the second Mobile User Objective System […]
Eastern Range (ER) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) Spaceport Concept
Introduction: This concept explores the Eastern Range (ER) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) being managed as a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-licensed commercial launch site (i.e., a spaceport). The concept to be discussed is that launch programs (U.S., commercial, civil, and national security space sector launch and test and evaluation (T&E) programs) would contract […]