Tag: NASA
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Blue Origin leaving humans behind as next mission will carry scientific and research payloads
(Blue Origin Photo) Jeff Bezos and his crewmates won’t be hopping aboard for a suborbital redo on the next New Shepard mission. The Amazon founder’s space venture announced Wednesday that the 17th flight of the reusable rocket ship will carry scientific and research payloads. Blue Origin scheduled the launch for 6:35 a.m. PT on Aug.…
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From Apollo to multi-user, the changing yet similar nature of Launch Complex 39
As the Artemis 1 SLS vehicle prepares to take its place on LC-39B later this year for its first round of pad testing ahead of its debut mission, the Space Launch System (SLS) and Artemis program represent yet another major alteration to the LC-39 area of the Kennedy Space Center, originally designed to meet President…
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NASA EGS, Jacobs power up Artemis 1 vehicle to begin system checkouts in the VAB
After stacking the stages of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for NASA’s Artemis 1 mission in June and July, EGS and TOSC powered up the Core Stage for the first time in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on August 6. The initial power up was a…
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Perseverance’s first sample collection fails, new science points to subsurface Martian clay lakes
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover recently attempted its first-ever sample collection of the Martian surface on August 6. However, data shows that while the rover’s drill successfully drilled into the surface, no regolith was collected in the sample tube. Meanwhile, as Perseverance was preparing for the sample collection event, a team of researchers using ESA’s Mars…
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NASA, Rocket Lab move first Artemis Moon launch – CAPSTONE – to New Zealand
New Zealand is now set to host the first launch of the Artemis Program, as Rocket Lab is now planning to launch the CAPSTONE mission from their operational launch pad at Launch Complex 1 on the Māhia Peninsula. This is the first lunar mission for Rocket Lab, currently scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter…
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Atlas V’s launch of Starliner OFT-2 test flight delayed
Boeing has scrubbed Tuesday’s planned launch of their Starliner spacecraft on its second uncrewed Orbital Test Flight, called OFT-2, aboard United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket. The issue at hand, according to Boeing, related to incorrect valve position indications in the propulsion system. The issues were first detected during checkouts after thunderstorms storms over launch…
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GAO denies Blue Origin’s protest of NASA’s lunar lander contract award to SpaceX
An artist’s conception shows the human landing system that was being developed by Blue Origin and its industry partners in the foreground, and a cargo lander in the background. (Blue Origin Illustration) The Government Accountability Office today turned back protests from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture and Alabama-based Dynetics, ruling that NASA was within…
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NASA cites Falcon flight heritage to select SpaceX to launch Europa Clipper
On Friday, July 23, NASA announced that SpaceX was the winner of a commercial procurement to launch the Europa Clipper mission, which will closely study the icy Galilean moon of Jupiter in search of signs of life and/or ongoing geological activity. The mission is due to launch no earlier than October 2024. SpaceX’s heavy-lift Falcon…
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Exploring VERITAS, one of NASA’s new missions to Venus
Selected as a finalist alongside three other missions for NASA’s next Discovery program missions in February 2020, the Jet Propulsion Lab’s VERITAS mission was chosen by NASA as one of the agency’s next two planetary research missions on June 2, 2021. VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy), like the European Space Agency’s…
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Exploring VERITAS, one of NASA’s new missions to Venus
Selected as a finalist alongside three other missions for NASA’s next Discovery program missions in February 2020, the Jet Propulsion Lab’s VERITAS mission was chosen by NASA as one of the agency’s next two planetary research missions on June 2, 2021. VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy), like the European Space Agency’s…