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
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – A Soyuz trio including veteran NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy returned safely to Earth after living and working in Earth’s orbit for 196 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS) making a soft touchdown in Kazakhstan late Wednesday. The Russian American trio of spaceflyers comprising Expedition 63 cosmonauts Ivan Vagner and Anatoly Ivanishin of
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – After a four year journey NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft successfully unfurled its robotic arm and briefly landed on and touched Asteroid Bennu as planned to attempt NASA’s first ever sample collection of asteroidal dust and pebbles from the surface for delivery to Earth in 2023. It then rapidly
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is all set for the first sampling attempt at Asteroid Bennu targeted to happen Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 20 – after a four year journey from Earth and arriving in orbit 2 years ago for detailed science imaging, spectroscopy, analysis and site selection! This is NASA’s first asteroid sample
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – After years of hard work and long hours by many teams of dedicated workers NASA’s fully assembled James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has at last fully and successfully completed all of the very harsh prelaunch environmental stress testing involving acoustics and vibrations required to clear the mammoth observatory for a rocket launch to space
NASA Astronaut Kate Rubins Launches to Space Station with Russian Crewmates on Historic Soyuz Flight
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and her two Russian cosmonaut crewmates successfully blasted off for the International Space Station early this morning aboard their Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft on a milestone mission marking the historic end of an era for American astronauts aboard the Russian vessels that also counts as the 2oth anniversary of continuous, uninterrupted human
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – NASA announced today that the launch of 4 astronauts aboard a Space X Crew Dragon spacecraft on the commercial Crew-1 human mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has been delayed from Halloween to no earlier than (NET) early-to-mid November to investigate concerns with the Merlin engines that power their Falcon