Tag: NASA
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CRS-23 Dragon returns home following ISS supply run
Following a launch in late August and a month-long stay in orbit, SpaceX and NASA welcomed the return of the CRS-23 (Commercial Resupply Services 23) mission from the International Space Station (ISS). Cargo Dragon undocked from the station on Thursday, September 30, at 13:12 UTC, with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean occurring on schedule…
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EGS, Jacobs completing first round of Artemis 1 pre-launch integrated tests prior to Orion stacking
NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) program and prime launch support contractor Jacobs are working to complete the first round of Artemis 1 pre-launch testing before the end of September. The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the lunar orbit mission is stacked on Mobile Launcher-1 (ML-1) in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building…
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NASA’s Landsat 9 successfully launched aboard Atlas V from Vandenberg
United Launch Alliance has launched NASA’s most powerful Earth-imaging satellite, Landsat 9, on an Atlas V rocket. Liftoff occurred at 11:12 AM PDT (18:12 UTC) on Monday, September 27, from Space Launch Complex-3 East (SLC-3E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Atlas V placed the satellite into a near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude…
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Lucy’s Principal Investigator discusses upcoming mission to Jupiter’s Trojans
Of the varying types of celestial objects humans have sent spacecraft to investigate, there remains a select group of asteroids, located in two separate locations in our solar system, that we have yet to visit — the Trojan asteroids. Trojan asteroids are located at Jupiter’s L4 and L5 Lagrange points, 60 degrees ahead of and…
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NASA completes umbilical test for SLS Artemis 1 mission
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket completed another milestone on its way to launch with the Umbilical Release and Retract Test (URRT). The URRT was performed on the rocket on September 19 while it stood in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). During the test, the swing arms and T0 umbilicals at…
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Court filings shed light on Blue Origin vs. SpaceX lunar lander fight, with dark spots
An artist’s conception shows SpaceX’s Starship rocket ship on the moon. (SpaceX Illustration) Redacted versions of documents relating to Blue Origin’s federal lawsuit against the federal government and SpaceX lay out further details about the dispute over a multibillion-dollar NASA lunar lander contract, but the details that are left out are arguably just as intriguing.…
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NASA VIPER rover and Astrobotic Griffin lander select moon landing site for 2023
The NASA VIPER rover – a precursor mission to human landings in the south polar region of the Moon, and a mission started in 2019 under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program – has had its landing site selected for its 2023 mission. The rover, known as the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, is now…
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Blue Origin and four other companies win millions to keep lunar lander dreams alive
An artist’s conception shows an astronaut stepping onto the lunar surface. (NASA Illustration) Months after losing out to SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture and two of its partners in a lunar lander project will be getting fresh infusions of financial support from NASA, thanks to a follow-up program aimed at boosting capabilities for…
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SpaceX Cargo Dragon CRS-23 arrived at the ISS
SpaceX and NASA conducted a Sunday’s launch of the CRS-23 (Commercial Resupply Services 23) mission to the International Space Station on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center. A previous attempt on Saturday from LC-39A was scrubbed in the final minutes due to weather constraints over the Cape. Sunday’s launch occurred at 03:14:48…
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Blue Origin launches NS-17 suborbital science mission
A month after New Shepard’s first flight carrying people into space, a science flight without crew onboard has launched from Blue Origin’s facility near Van Horn, Texas. The flight, the fourth of the year for the New Shepard program, was originally scheduled for August 25, 2021, but was delayed due to a payload integration issue.…