For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Japan’s ambitious Hayabusa 2 spacecraft successfully delivered a sample return capsule to a safe landing in the remote Australian outback today, Dec. 5, after surviving a scorching reentry plunge that created a dazzling fireball as it streaked through the Earth’s atmosphere while carrying pristine soil and rock samples gathered from an ancient asteroid
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – The first of SpaceX’s newly upgraded commercial Cargo Dragon spacecraft is ‘GO’ for liftoff on a 4 times recycled Falcon 9 lunchtime Saturday, Dec. 5 from Florida’s space coast carrying over 3 tons of critical science and supplies and a new commercial airlock for science payloads bound for the International Space Station
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – Just over 27 and a half hours after Sunday’s (Nov. 15) flawless blastoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket, the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience successfully docked to the International Space Station (ISS) at 11:01 p.m. EST Monday (0401 GMT Tuesday), carrying the very precious cargo
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – A multinational team of four astronauts from the US and Japan is en route to the International Space Station (ISS) on NASA’s Crew-1 mission following a spectacular nighttime launch on the first operational mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft Sunday evening, Nov. 15 from historic pad 39A on the Kennedy
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – Continuing weather concerns on and off shore have forced NASA and SpaceX to postpone the historic launch of 4 astronauts on the first operational mission of the Crew Dragon spacecraft by one day from Saturday to Sunday Nov. 15 from the Florida’s spaceport to the International Space Station (ISS) for six
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEMTITUSVILLE/KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – SpaceX engineers successfully completed a crucial static fire test on the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage engines Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 11 amidst continuing positively gloomy weather from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Eta impacting much of Florida including the Space Coast and is currently still targeting liftoff of the NASA Crew-1 mission with 4 astronauts
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s daring OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has successfully stowed and sealed the overflowing huge sample estimated at perhaps a kilogram (1 pound) or more of asteroid Bennu inside the probes Sample Return Capsule (SRC) for the return trip to Earth. “On Wednesday, Oct. 28, the mission team sent commands to the spacecraft, instructing it
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Scientists utilizing NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) airborne telescope observatory have made the first ever unambiguous discovery of water molecules on the sunlit surface of Earth’s Moon – centered at Clavius crater in the Moon’s southern hemisphere. These results could potentially aid NASA’s Project Artemis plans for human lunar landings. This
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s bold OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has started the complex process to carefully stow the huge stash of asteroidal samples collected from asteroid Bennu last week on Oct. 20 in the sampling head into the sample return capsule for the return trip to Earth. NASA reported that the OSIRIS-REx mission team commanded the
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – After a journey of over 200 million miles (321 million km) from Earth NASA’s daring OSIRIS-REx mission touched and sampleg Asteroid Bennu for six seconds with its pogo stick like TAGSAM robotic arm exactly as planned with incredible precision on Oct. 20 and successfully collected NASA’s first ever samples of asteroidal dust