Tag: NASA
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Atlas 5 rocket cleared for rollout to launch pad
CAPE CANAVERAL — Mission leaders Tuesday gave approval for rollout of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on Wednesday morning, leading to liftoff Thursday night of the Magnetospheric Multiscale science project for NASA. “We have built four, large, identical, very sensitive, spinning spacecraft that we will fly in formation,” said Craig Tooley, the MMS…
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Atlas/MMS launch timeline
CAPE CANAVERAL — This is the ascent timeline to be followed by the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket in launching NASA’s MMS mission on March 12 at 10:44 p.m. EDT. T+0:00:00.0 Liftoff With the RD-180 main engine running, the twin strap-on solid rocket boosters are lit as the Atlas 5 vehicle lifts off and…
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Preview: Atlas 5 rocket to launch NASA magnetic field study
CAPE CANAVERAL — A $1.1 billion science investigation involving four formation-flying satellites circling the Earth, each one identical, fitted with 25-instrument sensors and measuring 94 feet tall by 369 feet wide when fully deployed, will share a single Atlas 5 rocket launch Thursday night from Cape Canaveral to probe explosions in the magnetic field with…
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Flight Readiness Review passed for next week’s Atlas 5 launch
CAPE CANAVERAL — The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket and NASA’s four MMS satellite probes passed their Flight Readiness Review today that assessed the progress of work and affirmed plans to launch next Thursday night. There are no major constraints from the FRR and the “go” was given to press ahead with launch week.…
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Dawn completes historic arrival at Ceres
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has completed its historic arrival at the dwarf planet Ceres. With the completion of a multi-year mission and journey, Dawn slipped into Ceres orbit on Friday (March 6) to become the first human-made object to enter orbit of two separate celestial bodies and the first-ever human object to visit one of the…
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Photos: Shroud installed around satellite quartet, connected to Atlas 5
NASA’s four Magnetospheric Multiscale mission spacecraft were encapsulated Monday, Feb. 23 in the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket’s 45-foot-tall, 14-foot-diameter nose cone inside Building 9 at the commercial Astrotech processing campus in Titusville. In preparation for being encapsulated, team members removed over 700 protective covers from the spacecraft over the previous four days, working…
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Four satellites mated to Atlas 5 rocket
CAPE CANAVERAL — Four NASA satellites that will create a constellation of formation-flying spacecraft were placed aboard their shared United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket Friday. Liftoff of the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, or MMS, is targeted for March 12 at 10:44 p.m. EDT (0244 GMT), the opening of a 30-minute nighttime launch opportunity. Already…
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SMAP observatory unfurls large science antenna structure
CAPE CANAVERAL — Deploying its marquee element in space Tuesday, NASA’s new Soil Moisture Active Passive spacecraft took a major step towards realizing its science potential. SMAP unfurled a 19.7-foot lightweight, gold, rip-resistant, mesh reflector antenna atop a boom structure that will spin at 14.6 rpm, completing one rotation every four seconds. Having unfolded the…
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Video: Groundbreaking for commercial crew access tower
There was a groundbreaking Friday at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 to start building the astronaut access tower to board Boeing’s CST-100 capsules atop United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets.
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Launch America getting new access gantry for astronauts
CAPE CANAVERAL — A groundbreaking Friday ceremonially commenced construction of an astronaut access tower at United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 launch pad in Florida, a 200-foot-tall gantry that will add to the future of U.S. human spaceflight. Atlas 5 rockets will launch Boeing’s Crew Space Transportation-100 capsules starting in mid-2017, leading to NASA astronaut taxi…