For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – In another major mission milestone NASA’s Perseverance rover has just ejected the belly pan cover protecting the Sample Caching System and dropped it flat onto the Martian surface on March 12 and 13 (Sol 21 and 22)- and thereby successfully exposed the sample collection system critical to gathering and storing cored samples
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – After completing repairs to a balky liquid oxygen pre-valve NASA announced that the agency is targeting Thursday, March 18 to perform a second Green Run hot fire test on the Space Launch System (SLS) mega Moon rocket’s core stage planned for the Artemis-1 moon launch. The second test is a direct result
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – A recycled SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket established a new record by launching and landing the first time ever for the ninth time after blasting off at pre- sunrise this morning Sunday, March 14, and successfully delivered another tranche of 60 Starlink broadband internet satellites to orbit – marking the 3rd Falcon 9
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – In a very late in the flow change of plans NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei has joined the crew of the next Russian Soyuz mission blasting off in less than 4 weeks time to the International Space Station – as has been rumored recently in space circles Both NASA and Roscosmos confirmed the assignment in
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s Perseverance rover extended and flexed her high-tech robotic arm for the first time Monday, March 8 on Sol 17 while commanding it to perform multiple maneuvers with the arm and science instrument turret raised high and outward to begin check out and test its functionality which will be critical for coring soil
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Soon after NASA’s Perseverance rover performed her first test drive on Martian terrain, the six wheeled robot captured a unique pair of images I’m naming the ‘Shadow of a Martian Robot – Perseverance’ on Sol 15, Saturday, March 6 and which I have stitched into a beautiful shadow selfie mosaic that
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s Perseverance rover performed its first test drive drive on Martian terrain on March 4, or Sol 14, the mission team announced with the release of a batch of dramatic new images captured at the landing site now bearing the name “Octavia E. Butler Landing” where the six wheeled robot touched down safely
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA and Boeing have decided to slip the launch of Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test to no earlier than NET April 2 to carry our more testing and processing to ensure the spacecraft is ready to safely and effectively carry out the Orbital Flight Test-2 mission to the International Space Station as part
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Just a few Sols, or Martian Days, after the surviving the harrowing ‘7 Minutes of Terror’ on Feb. 18, NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover has been spotted and imaged at her landing site on the surface of the Red Planet by another Martian orbiter namely the ExoMars orbiter along with the parachute,
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s Parker Solar Probe captured an absolutely stunning glimpse of Venus during its third close flyby of the planet in July 2020, seen in this newly released image from NASA and the science team – see above. Although the Sun is the focus of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe seven-year long mission to