Tag: KSC
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Kennedy Space Center Expands as Launch Complex 48 Opens for Operations
After planning began in 2016 for a small, multi-user launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Launch Complex 48 is now ready to support small to medium lift launch vehicles. The complex is the first new launch pad built at Kennedy since the 1960s when the much larger LC-39A and B pads, which have…
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NASA’s ML-1 Completes Testing at LC-39B ahead of SLS Stacking
NASA’s Mobile Launcher-1, or ML-1, has rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building after completing a series of tests at Launch Complex-39B (LC-39B). This marks the last trip to the launch pad for ML-1 until the first fully stacked Space Launch System rocket rolls out for the Artemis I mission. (Lead photo via Stephen Marr…
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SpaceX Falcon 9 launches latest Starlink mission
SpaceX continued deploying its Starlink constellation with the launch of another sixty satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday. Liftoff from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center occurred at 08:25 Eastern Time (12:25 UTC). Sunday’s launch was the thirteenth Falcon 9 mission to deploy operational Starlink satellites, designated Starlink v1.0 L13. This continues the first phase…
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SpaceX launches latest Starlink mission
As SpaceX continued to roll through its 2020 launch campaign, the company launched another batch of Starlink internet satellites to help complement the current constellation in low Earth orbit. The mission launched on a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket from historic LC-39A on Thursday morning. Lead image by Julia Bergeron for NSF. Starlink V1.0 L11 was…
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Solid Rocket Boosters arrive at Kennedy for Artemis 1 and OmegA
For the first time in ten years, Solid Rocket Booster segments have arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for flight operations. Successfully completing the cross-country train trip were all 10 propellant segments for the Artemis 1 mission of the SLS rocket as well as inert Castor-series segments for the company’s upcoming OmegA rocket,…
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Perseverance Mars rover in critical pre-launch testing at Kennedy
With its launch just over three months away, NASA’s Perseverance rover is undergoing final critical pre-launch testing and checkouts at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The series of verification and validation activities not only occurred on the rover itself but also on the helicopter it will take with it to the Red Planet. Presently,…
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SLS debut slips to April 2021, KSC teams working through launch sims
Preparations continue at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the first launch of the Space Launch System, or SLS rocket – NASA’s gigantic rocket the agency hopes to use to launch humans to the lunar surface and to the commercial-rocket constructed Lunar Gateway. But while Kennedy prepares for the rocket’s arrival and first mission,…
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NASA EGS completes first SLS Mobile Launcher fueling tests
Across two weekends in November NASA Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) and prime Test and Operations Support Contractor (TOSC) Jacobs successfully completed the first flow tests of liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX/LO2) between the refurbished and updated Launch Pad 39B infrastructure and Mobile Launcher-1 (ML-1) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The…
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45th Space Wing/Air Force discuss polar launch corridor from Florida
When it was quietly announced in December 2017 that U.S. Space Command and the 45th Space Wing of the Air Force at Cape Canaveral had certified a polar launch corridor from Florida’s east coast, the news was met with quiet regard. While the newly reestablished polar launch corridor would open up options for launch providers…
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Kennedy Space Center, Cape largely spared by Hurricane Dorian
Hurricane Dorian passed 129 km (80 miles) east of the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with sustained winds of 110 mph. While the storm avoided landfall, it brought 62 mph sustained winds and gusts of 90 mph to the spaceport. Teams will conduct a thorough inspection of all KSC/CCAFS facilities on…