by terranovabay
SpaceX launched its sixteenth Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-16) to the International Space Station (ISS) at 1:16 p.m. on 5 December 2018 from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Click to view the photo gallery.
Categories: Rocket Launch • Tags: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Commercial Resupply Services, CRS-16, Dragon, Falcon 9, International Space Station, ISS, NASA, SpaceX
by terranovabay
After launching on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on 8 September 2016, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft arrived on 3 December 2018 at its destination — the asteroid Bennu. Classified as a near-Earth asteroid, Bennu is small, about 0.3 miles in diameter but its makeup dates back to the beginnings of the solar system. OSIRIS-REx will study the asteroid for about two years before landing on its surface to retrieve a sample to […]
Categories: Space Age Bulletins • Tags: Atlas V, Bennu, NASA, Near-Earth Asteroid, OSIRIS-REx, United Launch Alliance
by terranovabay
STS-126 on a construction, resupply, and crew transfer mission to the International Space Station carried out by the Space Shuttle Endeavour launched from Kennedy Space Center at 7:55 p.m. on 14 November 2008 into a sky lit bright by the full Moon. This view is the full wide-angle image of the launch, which includes the Moon blown out at right by the long time exposure capturing the streak of the Space Shuttle’s flight as seen from a cow pasture at […]
Categories: Space Age Bulletins • Tags: Endeavour, Florida Cattle Ranch, International Space Station, ISS, Kennedy Space Center, NASA, Space Shuttle, STS-126, Treasure Hammock Ranch
by terranovabay
Spacecraft running out of fuel after many years of successful service seems to be the theme the last week or so. First it was the Dawn spacecraft out in the asteroid belt and, now, it is the Kepler spacecraft built to search for alien worlds around distant stars. I captured the launch of Kepler aboard a Delta 2 rocket from a lonely cow pasture late at night way back in March 2009 as seen below: Read more about the mission’s […]
Categories: Space Age Bulletins • Tags: Delta 2, Kepler Space Telescope, NASA
by terranovabay
From the 1 November 2018 NASA press release: NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has gone silent, ending a historic mission that studied time capsules from the solar system’s earliest chapter. Dawn missed scheduled communications sessions with NASA’s Deep Space Network on Wednesday, Oct. 31, and Thursday, Nov. 1. After the flight team eliminated other possible causes for the missed communications, mission managers concluded that the spacecraft finally ran out of hydrazine, the fuel that enables the spacecraft to control its pointing. Dawn […]
Categories: Space Age Bulletins • Tags: Asteroid, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Ceres, dawn, Delta 2, NASA, Vesta
by terranovabay
Traveling at a top speed of .7-mile-per-hour, the mobile launcher made its inaugural trek along the crawlerway to Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39B for a quick fit check during late August and early September 2018. Key systems being checked out over the next several days include ensuring the water suppression systems align and the environmental control system that provides air and gaseous nitrogen purges to the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket through the umbilicals hooks up properly with the […]
Categories: Space Age Bulletins • Tags: Kennedy Space Center, Launch Complex 39B, Mars, Mobile Launcher, Moon, NASA, Orion, Pied-billed Grebe, SLS, Space Launch System, VAB, Vehicle Assembly Building
by terranovabay
The mobile launcher (ML) is the ground structure that will be used to assemble, process and launch NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center for missions to deep space destinations, such as the Moon, Mars and beyond. The SLS, topped by the Orion spacecraft, will be stacked atop the mobile launcher while inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Afterward the mobile launcher will be moved by the crawler-transporter over four […]
Categories: Space Age Bulletins • Tags: Kennedy Space Center, Launch Complex 39B, Mars, Mobile Launcher, Moon, NASA, Orion, SLS, Space Launch System, VAB, Vehicle Assembly Building
by terranovabay
Another image from my Parker Solar Probe launch gallery.
Categories: Rocket Launch • Tags: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Delta IV Heavy, NASA, Parker Solar Probe, SLC 37, Space Launch Complex 37, Sun, ULA, United Launch Alliance
by terranovabay
A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket launched NASA’s Parker Solar Probe on 12 August 2018 at 3:31 a.m. from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Parker Solar Probe is humanity’s first mission to the sun. After launch, it will orbit directly through the solar atmosphere – the corona – closer to the surface than any human-made object has ever gone. While facing brutal heat and radiation, the mission will reveal fundamental science behind what […]
Categories: Rocket Launch • Tags: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Delta IV Heavy, NASA, Parker Solar Probe, SLC 37, Space Launch Complex 37, Sun, ULA, United Launch Alliance
by terranovabay
Technical problems plagued the 11 August 2018 liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket poised to send NASA’s Parker Solar Probe towards its rendezvous with the Sun from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Launch attempts at 3:53 a.m. and 4:28 a.m. both ran into snags that could not be fixed before the launch window closed at 4:38 a.m. on a rather dewy morning scrubbing the launch for the day. The launch team […]
Categories: Rocket Launch • Tags: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Delta IV Heavy, Launch Complex 37, NASA, Parker Solar Probe, Sun, ULA, United Launch Alliance
