Month: September 2019

Japanese Cargo Spaceship Successfully Joins Space Station – Home to 9 Humans

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL –  Following a belated but spectacular nighttime blastoff on Tuesday, Sept. 24 and a four day orbital chase Japan’s unpiloted HTV-8 cargo freighter arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) Saturday morning, Sept. 28 and was attached to the complex after grappling by NASA astronauts maneuvering Canada’s robotic arm – capping a hugely busy week of space action that ends

SLS Core Stage Pathfinder Arrives Kennedy Space Center to Support Artemis Moon Program: Photos

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – The 21 story tall core stage pathfinder vehicle for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket arrived at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on the agency’s upgraded Pegasus barge under sunny skies this afternoon, Sept. 27, for about 4 weeks of critical testing and stacking exercises in support of the Artemis moon exploration program aimed at landing US astronauts

Crew and Cargo Spaceships Successfully Launch Back to Back to Space Station – Home to 9 Humans

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Less than 24 hours apart a pair of critical crew and cargo spaceships successfully launched back to back to the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 24 & Sept. 25 – the Japanese HTV-8 cargo freighter from Japan and Russia’s Soyuz MS-15 crew vessel from Kazakhstan respectively, making for a hugely busy week of space action! Thus

NASA Completes Assembly of 1st SLS Core Stage Structure

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL/MICHOUD ASSEMBLY FACILITY, LA –  After years of effort and much delay engineers at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans have finally completed the assembly of the main structural components of the first core stage for the agency’s  mammoth Space Launch System (SLS) Moon rocket.  Boeing workers attached the last of five sections of the 212-foot-tall core stage on Sept. 19 –

Pegasus Barge Set to Deliver SLS Core Stage Pathfinder to Kennedy Space Center to Support Artemis Moon Program

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL/MICHOUD ASSEMBLY FACILITY, LA – NASA’s Pegasus barge is set to deliver the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) core stage pathfinder vehicle to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida for critical testing in support of the Artemis moon exploration program aimed at landing US astronauts on the lunar south pole by 2024.  The core stage is scheduled to arrive in

Hubble Space Telescope Detects Water Vapor on Habitable-Zone Exoplanet for 1st Time

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL –  For the first time ever researchers have detected water vapor signatures in the atmosphere of an exoplanet beyond our solar system that resides in the “habitable zone,” the region around a star in which liquid water could potentially pool on the surface of a rocky planet, according to NASA. The discovery of the first exoplanet with water vapor in a habitable zone

NASA Mars 2020 Rover Takes a Spin

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL –  Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have taken the agency’s SUV-sized Mars 2020 rover for a spin so to speak. And its all in the name of science ! As assembly of the Mars 2020 rover nears completion, the team needs to determine the six wheeled robots center of gravity so that it can travel smoothly and safely as she

Mars Helicopter Attached to NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL –  The first aircraft set to fly on another planet – namely NASA’s Mars Helicopter – has now been attached to the belly of NASA’s 2020 rover which will deliver it to the surface of the Red Planet during a soft landing via the skycrane maneuver targeted for Jezero Crater in Feb. 2021. “Engineers attached NASA’s Mars Helicopter, which will be the

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Has Been Assembled for First Time

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – The two major halves of NASA’s mammoth James  Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have been mechanically assembled together for the first time by prime contractor Northrop Grumman – marking a major milestone on the path to launch in Spring 2021. Engineers at Northrop Grumman’s Redondo Beach, California facility carefully and methodically combined the science instrument and telescope module