Month: December 2020

Japanese Hayabusa 2 Capsule Lands in Australia with Pristine Asteroid Samples After 6 Year Voyage

For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL –  Japan’s ambitious Hayabusa 2 spacecraft successfully delivered a sample return capsule to a safe landing in the remote Australian outback today, Dec. 5, after surviving a scorching reentry plunge that created a dazzling fireball as  it streaked through the Earth’s atmosphere while carrying pristine soil and rock samples gathered from an ancient asteroid

1st Upgraded SpaceX Cargo Dragon ‘GO’ for Falcon 9 Blastoff to ISS Saturday Dec. 5: Watch Live/Photos

For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – The first of SpaceX’s newly upgraded commercial Cargo Dragon spacecraft is ‘GO’ for liftoff on a 4 times recycled Falcon 9 lunchtime Saturday, Dec. 5 from Florida’s space coast carrying over 3 tons of critical science and supplies and a new commercial airlock for science payloads bound for the International Space Station

China Change’5 Probe Collects Lunar Surface Samples, Blasts Off for Historic Return to Earth

For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – After an action packed 19 hours of intense precision work to successfully gather and store pristine samples of lunar soil and rocks yesterday, the ascent vehicle component of China’s bold and ambitious Change’5 moon probe blasted off today, Dec. 3, from Earths nearest neighbor to meet up with the orbiting return capsule