Tag: Lockheed-Martin
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Managers clear InSight for launch after heat shield review
Ground crews oversee the installation of InSight’s heat shield last month. Credit: USAF 30th Space Wing/Aaron Taubman NASA officials have determined that the robotic InSight lander is ready for its mission to Mars after concluding that the probe should not suffer the same flaw that led to a crack in a heat shield undergoing tests…
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Photos: NASA’s InSight lander buttoned up for trip to Mars
The payload fairing of InSight’s Atlas 5 launcher was closed around the spacecraft April 16. Credit: USAF 30th Space Wing Now cocooned inside a heat shield and the nose shroud of an Atlas 5 rocket that will send it to Mars, NASA’s InSight lander is awaiting launch May 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.…
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NASA to replace cracked heat shield in time for Mars 2020 rover launch
Artist’s concept of the Mars Science Laboratory, containing the Curiosity rover, entering the Martian atmosphere. The Mars 2020 mission will use the same heat shield design. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA officials plan to replace the Mars 2020 rover’s heat shield after engineers discovered a crack in the structure earlier this month, but managers anticipate no delay…
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Atlas 5/InSight launch windows
Artist’s concept of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on its launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: NASA The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket carrying NASA’s InSight lander toward Mars will have a roughly two-hour predawn launch window each day from May 5 through June 8 to boost the science…
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InSight Mars lander joined with Atlas 5 launcher at Vandenberg Air Force Base
File photo of a payload being lifted atop an Atlas 5 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base before a previous mission. Credit: United Launch Alliance Ground crews at Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s Central Coast hoisted NASA’s InSight Mars lander atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket Monday, kicking off nearly two weeks…
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NASA is counting on long-lived Mars orbiter lasting another decade
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, seen here before its launch in 2005, carries the largest high-gain antenna ever sent to Mars for data relay and science downlinks. Credit: NASA NASA’s focus at the red planet has shifted to collecting and bringing rock samples back to Earth — a feat that could take a decade and leave…
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NASA’s InSight lander inside one month to launch toward Mars
InSight’s heat shield (left) will soon be re-installed on the Mars lander (right) in preparation for launch May 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: Alex Polimeni/Spaceflight Now NASA’s InSight Mars lander will be buttoned up for launch in the coming weeks at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, in preparation for its hoisting…
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Atlas 5 rocket assembled for first Mars mission launch from Vandenberg
The Atlas 5’s first stage booster for the InSight mission arrives at Space Launch Complex 3-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin Ground crews at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California raised a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on its launch pad earlier this month in preparation for liftoff May 5 with…
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New NOAA weather satellite reaches geostationary orbit
Artist’s concept of the GOES-17 satellite in orbit. Credit: Lockheed Martin Less than two weeks after its launch from Cape Canaveral, a new NOAA weather observatory has boosted itself into a circular orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator, and officials have renamed it GOES-17 ahead of a test series before it enters service…
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Photos: Atlas 5 blasts off with GOES-S weather satellite
NOAA’s newest weather satellite, heading for a perch with coverage over the western United States and the Pacific Ocean, launched March 1 from Cape Canaveral on top of an Atlas 5 rocket. The 197-foot-tall (60-meter) rocket, built by United Launch Alliance, lifted off at 5:02 p.m. EST (2202 GMT) on March 1 from Cape Canaveral’s…