For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Record-setting NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is set to return to Earth early Wednesday morning, March 30 just a few days shy of serving almost exactly one full year aboard the International Space Station (ISS) along with two Roscosmos Russian cosmonaut crewmates in a Russian Soyuz capsule. Vande Hei will wrap up a 355-day mission on
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – NASA’s first ever Space Launch System (SLS) Mega Moon rocket topped by the Orion deep space human capsule stands proudly tall at its launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) as of Friday morning, March 18, following its absolutely stunning ten and a half hour roll out from the iconic Vehicle
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – NASA’s maiden Space Launch System (SLS) Mega Moon rocket has rolled out in stunning fashion from the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on a spectacular 4 mile trip to the launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) – with its lunar objective for the Orion deep space crew capsule movingly visible
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Mega Moon rocket has been fully unveiled for the first time today, March 16, after technicians retracted the last two work platforms surrounding the 32 story tall rocket inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) where its components have been assembled together over the past year. NASA
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – NASA announced that the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) Mega Moon rocket is ready for its maiden rollout to the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) later this week to carry out a critical fueling test of the 322 foot tall vehicle in early April which will pave the
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER/CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, FL – Despite gusty ground winds America’s newest and most powerful weather observation satellite dubbed GOES-T blasted off Tuesday afternoon, March 1, into clear blue skies aboard a powerful United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Florida’s Space Coast and was successfully delivered to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO)
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – America’s newest and most powerful weather observation satellite dubbed GOES-T and which is a joint collaboration between NASA and NOAA rolled out to its launch pad atop a powerful United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket this morning, Monday, Feb. 28, and is targeting liftoff on Tuesday afternoon, March 1, from Florida’s
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – My Perseverance Mars rover mosaic titled ‘Perseverance Sol 354’ was published on Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) on Feb. 25, 2022 which I created to celebrate the first ‘landiversary’ of the six wheeled robot since touching down on the Red Planet one year ago, on Feb. 18, 2021 along with the first
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – Following a lengthy investigation and swap out of the engine controller unit on RS-25 engine number four that is integrated at the base of NASA’s first Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage for the Artemis 1 Moon, mission engineers have determined that a faulty memory chip is to blame for
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s Perseverance rover is celebrating the first ‘landiversary’ since touching down on the Red Planet one year ago, on Feb. 18, 2021 along with the first Martian helicopter her cohort Ingenuity, with a series of great scientific accomplishments – including collecting the first six rock core samples for return to Earth -and much more in store