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 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 – United Launch Alliance (ULA) has finished stacking their Atlas V carrier rocket destined for Boeing’s second unpiloted Starliner capsule test flight on a critical mission for NASA to prove the commercial system can safely carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) – with liftoff of the OFT-2 flight still remaining
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA and Northrop Grumman of Dulles, Virginia, have finalized a contract to develop the Habitation and Logistics module named HALO for the agency’s Lunar Gateway – a mini lunar space station that will orbit the Moon as a key element of Project Artemis to land humans on the lunar surface as soon
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, 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
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA and Boeing are targeting July 30 for liftoff of the Starliner’s second unpiloted test flight atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Florida’s Spaceport on a critical mission to prove the commercial system can safely carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS), following a botched first test
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, FL – In a major step towards launching NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) the components for the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket that will propel the Boeing Starliner commercial crew capsule to space were offloaded from the delivery ship R/S Rocketship Monday, June 21 after arrival
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Continuing its astounding first in flight foray on another world NASA’s history making Ingenuity Helicopter successfully completed its 7th test flight on the Red Planet last week and with “no anomalies” unlike the prior flight three weeks earlier – while landing again at a new airfield on its 2nd operational flight transitioning