The debut of the Space Launch System (SLS) will send the Orion (MPCV) on a 7-10 day mission to the Moon, with an aim to qualify the Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLV) and Beyond Earth Orbit (BEO) Orion to carry humans into deep space. Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) involves sending Orion around the far side [...]
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The next NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) mission is being scheduled for June, with teams already preparing for a recon trip ahead of the exercise. The underwater training exercises are staged at the Aquarius underwater habitat in Key Largo, Florida – simulating the conditions and protocols for a real Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) mission.
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The Orion Parachute Test Vehicle (PTV) is on track for its drop test on February 29 at the US Proving Grounds in Yuma, Arizona. The vehicle has completed processing prior to boarding the C-17 aircraft for the test of the parachute system. Elsewhere, the Exploration Flight Test (EFT-1) Orion is continuing construction in New Orleans, while [...]
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United Launch Alliance’s Altas V has launched at the third attempt on Friday at 5:15pm Eastern, lofting the first of five U.S. Navy’s Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellites from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). The successful mission also marked the 200th launch of a Centaur upper stage.
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The Chinese were back in action on Friday, launching the fifth Compass-G satellite into orbit via their Long March 3C (Chang Zheng 3C) launch vehicle. The 16:12 UTC launch from the C2 launch complex of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, in Sichuan Province was China’s third launch of the year.
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This year will mark several major milestones for the development of the Space Launch System (SLS), with teams already pushing through a systems review process. The roadmap – which may include a “battleship” pathfinder core test at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in 2015 – runs through the opening mission in 2017, which has been named as Exploration Mission [...]
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Orbital Science Corporation held an investor conference this week, overviewing the results of their Fourth Quarter performance in 2011, at the same time as providing an interesting insight into the near-term plans for what is one of the most established companies in the space industry. The overview covered their entire space operations, including information on [...]
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With the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) falling silent after the retirement of the Space Shuttle, it’ll be at least five years before the public will see the iconic sight of NASA’s follow-on vehicle rising off the launch pad. Interestingly, the Space Launch System (SLS) will follow some of the Shuttle’s heritage of “Flight Operations” – [...]
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As the retired Shuttle fleet continue their Transition and Retirement (T&R) processing, efforts are being focused on Northern Virginia, as preparations are made on shuttle Enterprise for her final flight to the Intrepid Air and Space Museum. The move to New York will allow Discovery to take Enterprise’s place at the Smithsonian.
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Two Russian cosmonauts ventured outside the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday in order to conduct a Russian spacewalk, known by its official designation of Russian EVA-30. The six hours, 15 minute spacewalk, the first since August last year, included the relocation of external hardware between modules, while the installation of debris panels will now take [...]
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Engineers at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans are making good progress with the construction of the Orion spacecraft tasked with the Exploration Flight Test in 2014 (EFT-1). Construction of the Back Bone panels for the Crew Module was completed around the same time as the first tile was manufactured for the vehicle’s [...]
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International Launch Services (ILS) have launched their first Proton-M rocket of the year on Tuesday. Lift off came at 19:36 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, with the Proton’s Briz-M Upper Stage then tasked with deploying the large telecommunications satellite – which was successfully carried out after nine hours of flight.
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The US space agency announced a reduced FY13 budget proposal on Monday, with planetary science becoming this year’s major casualty. The Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion – as exploration – also received cuts, leading to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison issuing a warning that NASA should not cut any money from the Agency’s exploration vehicles.
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Europe has given birth to a new launch vehicle early on Monday, as Arianespace successfuly conducted the debut launch of their Vega rocket. The qualification flight lifted off at the start of a three hour launch window, which opened at 10:00 GMT. Vega carried a total of nine satellites from launch pad ELA-1 at the [...]
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Orion teams are in the final stages of preparing for the first Generation II Parachute Test Vehicle (PTV2) airdrop at the end of this month. Following the failure of the last Capsule Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) test, the new system will be hoping for a successful outcome, when the vehicle is deployed out of the [...]
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As NASA continues to struggle with gaining a clear direction for the future of human space exploration, the U.S. space agency’s international counterparts are wasting no time setting exploration goals for themselves. Specifically, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is aiming to capitalize off past success to enable further human and robotic exploration of the [...]
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SpaceX have announced a contract to launch two Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat) satellites. AsiaSat 6 and AsiaSat 8 will be launched via SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle, after the previous two AsiaSats were launched via the Russian Proton rocket, under the control of International Launch Services (ILS).
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International Space Station (ISS) Program managers at space agencies around the world are currently in the process of ironing out an extremely complex and busy integrated schedule of comings and goings at the station, in light of recent delays to Soyuz launches and the inaugural station visit by SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.
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Californian aerospace company Aerojet believe they are in a good position to continue their advancements in the development of rocket engines, ranging from the Next Generation Engine (NGE) for the US Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, through to environmentally “green” propellants for propulsion hardware.
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With Kennedy Space Center workers towing Orbiter Atlantis on Thursday “around the corner” of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) the day after they moved Endeavour out of the same place, one might have thought it was Groundhog Day, and by coincidence it just so happened it was.
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