For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Precisely 50 years to the day when humans last landed on the Moon on Apollo 17, NASA’s next generation human rated lunar capsule Orion safely returned to Earth, Sunday, Dec. 11, capping a history making month long demonstration mission around the Moon and back with a successful ocean splashdown off the coast
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, FL – In the dead of the night Sunday, Dec. 11, SpaceX successfully launched a pair of science missions to the Moon placing the commercially built Japanese HAKUTO-R robotic lunar lander for iSpace and NASA’s Lunar Flashlight rideshare cubesat searching for lunar water ice into a lunar transfer orbit from Florida’s
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, LAUNCH COMPLEX 34, FL – SpaceX staged an absolutely spectacular sunset KSC launch and Cape landing for their global connectivity competitor OneWeb, Thursday, Dec. 8 on the first of three commercial missions under contract for the Space Coast with satellites built on the Space Coast just outside the gates of NASA’s Kennedy
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s Orion Artemis 1 spacecraft snapped a series of staggeringly beautiful selfie views with the cratered lunar surface and the crescent Earth rising against an eerie backdrop of the blackness of space as it conducted the critical return flyby powered (RPF) maneuver Monday, Dec. 5 – that irreversibly committed the capsule to
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s Orion Artemis 1 spacecraft captured stunning up close imagery of the tortured lunar surface terrain during the unpiloted vehicles 1st close flyby orbiting around the Moon’s far side on Flight Day 6 of the test flight mission on 21 Nov. 2022. I’ve created a trio of up close lunar mosaics from
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – NASA’s uncrewed Orion spacecraft has departed lunar orbit after successfully completing the critical distant retrograde orbit departure burn on Thursday afternoon, Dec. 1 – the first of two thruster firings that sets the spacecraft up for its final close lunar flyby and starts the return journey to Earth with a splashdown
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – NASA’s uncrewed Orion spacecraft reached the farthest distance from Earth it will travel during the groundbreaking Artemis 1 mission — while also reaching the halfway mark of the flight during Flight Day 13, on Monday, Nov. 28 of the 25.5 day long test flight. The spacecraft also captured stunning imagery of Earth and the
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL –NASA’s Orion crew capsule entered its a distant retrograde orbit (DRO) trajectory around the Moon after completing a critical thruster firing on Friday afternoon, Nov. 25, of the main engine required for lunar orbit insertion on Flight Day 10 of the 25.5-day long Artemis 1 unpiloted test flight mission. Orion’s Orbital Maneuvering
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – SpaceX successfully launched its 26th commercial resupply mission for NASA using a brand new Falcon 9 rocket and cargo Dragon spacecraft loaded with nearly four tons of science and supplies including a new pair of roll out solar panels to the International Space Station (ISS), into sunny blue skies Saturday afternoon,
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – On Flight Day 9 (Nov. 24) while enroute to its critical thruster firing for insertion into a distant retrograde orbit (DRO) trajectory on Flight Day 10 (Nov. 25), NASA’s Orion crew capsule snapped stunning selfies looking forward and back to the Moon and Earth during the Artemis 1 test flight. The