For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – A Soyuz trio including veteran NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy returned safely to Earth after living and working in Earth’s orbit for 196 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS) making a soft touchdown in Kazakhstan late Wednesday. The Russian American trio of spaceflyers comprising Expedition 63 cosmonauts Ivan Vagner and Anatoly Ivanishin of
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – After a four year journey NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft successfully unfurled its robotic arm and briefly landed on and touched Asteroid Bennu as planned to attempt NASA’s first ever sample collection of asteroidal dust and pebbles from the surface for delivery to Earth in 2023. It then rapidly
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is all set for the first sampling attempt at Asteroid Bennu targeted to happen Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 20 – after a four year journey from Earth and arriving in orbit 2 years ago for detailed science imaging, spectroscopy, analysis and site selection! This is NASA’s first asteroid sample
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – Sunday morning Oct. 18 brought another spectacular sunrise blastoff of a SpaceX recycled Falcon 9 carrying 60 Starlink internet satellite to low Earth orbit (LEO) from the Kennedy Space Center – just shy of two weeks after the prior Starlink launch on Oct. 6 from Florida’s Space Coast. Moreover this counts
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM PORT CANAVERAL, FL – Following last Thursday’s (Oct. 8) stellar sunset return of the 3x flown and landed SpaceX Falcon 9 1st stage from the 13th Starlink mission to Port Canaveral and Florida’s Space Coast atop the ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ (OSICLY) droneship the crane crew hoisted the booster off the ship and onto
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – After years of hard work and long hours by many teams of dedicated workers NASA’s fully assembled James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has at last fully and successfully completed all of the very harsh prelaunch environmental stress testing involving acoustics and vibrations required to clear the mammoth observatory for a rocket launch to space
NASA Astronaut Kate Rubins Launches to Space Station with Russian Crewmates on Historic Soyuz Flight
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and her two Russian cosmonaut crewmates successfully blasted off for the International Space Station early this morning aboard their Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft on a milestone mission marking the historic end of an era for American astronauts aboard the Russian vessels that also counts as the 2oth anniversary of continuous, uninterrupted human
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – NASA announced today that the launch of 4 astronauts aboard a Space X Crew Dragon spacecraft on the commercial Crew-1 human mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has been delayed from Halloween to no earlier than (NET) early-to-mid November to investigate concerns with the Merlin engines that power their Falcon
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – Just two and a half days after its scrub streak breaking Starlink launch the 3x flown and landed SpaceX Falcon 9 1st stage from Tuesdays Starlink mission staged an absolutely stellar and uncommon sunset return to Port Canaveral and Florida’s Space Coast atop the ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ (OSICLY)
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Veteran NASA astronaut Chris Ferguson who commanded the last NASA space shuttle flight in 2011 and who was to command the first crewed Boeing Starliner commercial crew mission on a test flight to the International Space Station (ISS) next year has announced that he will step down from leading the three person crew