For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Russia’s Pirs docking module was uncoupled from the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, July 26, and decommissioned after 20 years of excellent service to the station – towed away by the Russian Progress 77 cargo ship to which it was joined in order to make way at the newly opened docking port
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – NASA officials cleared the launch of Boeing’s Starliner CST-100 crew capsule ferry ship to conduct a second unpiloted test flight on July 30 on what amounts to a critical ‘redo’ mission to prove the commercial system can safely carry NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) after it failed
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Billionaire Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, achieved his lifelong dream Tuesday morning July 20 when he soared to the edge of space on the history making 1st human flight aboard his company’s New Shepard suborbital commercial rocket and capsule built by Blue Origin – the rocket company he founded and financed
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – After more than a year of hardware and software fixes and upgrades Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner crew spacecraft rolled out in the dead of night Saturday, July 17, from the company’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF) manufacturing building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on a trek to the launch pad on
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – 82-year-old Aviation pioneer Wally Funk, is all set, ready and willing to fly to space at last after she was chosen by Billionaire Jeff Bezos to fly with him as an honored guest and crew member aboard Blue Origin’s first New Shepard human flight to space on his company’s history making New
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – The ‘Big Build’ work is well underway now for NASA’s 1st Space Launch System (SLS) mega rocket inside the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) after stacking of the 1st core stage in between the two twin 177 foot tall solid rocket boosters atop the Mobile Launch Platform was completed last month
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – The Chinese space agency has released dramatic new videos showing the descent of the country’s Mars probe Tianwen-1 through the atmosphere during the landing the Red Planet in May as well as sounds and new images taken by its Mars rover Zhurong after driving down the landing platform and away to explore
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, FL – Under heavily overcast skies a veteran and heavily sooted SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 88 small satellites into polar orbit Wednesday afternoon, June 30 one day after the liftoff was scrubbed when a private helicopter suddenly intruded into restricted airspace violating the no fly zone in the final moments
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, FL – In the final moments of the countdown a rogue aircraft flew into the range exclusion zone violating restricted airspace and scrubbed today’s, (June 29) planned launch of a veteran SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in an unexpected and very undesired twist to the disappointment of all involved including the launch
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s groundbreaking Ingenuity Helicopter notched its 8th successful test flight on the Red Planet this week traveling for more than a minute and achieving a soft touchdown at another new ‘airfield’ – the fifth – after being upgraded with new flight software utilized for the 1st time now on its 3rd operational