Category Archives: Spacecraft

A vehicle that is designed to fly in outer space.

Spacecraft, Travel

Artemis I on Launch Complex 39B

Two trips to central Florida and the Kennedy Space Center in late August and early September with launch tickets in hand have unfortunately resulted in two scrubbed launch attempts of NASA’s first spaceflight of the Artemis Program.

Known as Artemis I, technically a flight test of the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that NASA will use to get back to the Moon.  This mission, if all goes as planned, should last 25.5 days and will take the unmanned Orion spacecraft to the Moon for a series of orbits and then back to Earth. Artemis I is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration to the Moon and Mars.

So why were the launch attempts scrubbed? An issue with one of the RS-25 engines not reaching adequate temperature halted one. The RS-25 rocket engines are the same powerplants once used by the Space Shuttle. They are the three big engines found on the back of the orbiter. There are four that are used on the SLS. Leaks during the fueling process caused the other attempts to be scrubbed. Then Hurricane Ian popped up on the radar and it was decided to call in the massive crawler to move the rocket stack back to the Vehicle Assembly Building to ride out the storm. As of this writing that is where Artemis I sits today.

However, things are starting to spin back up after Ian demolished much of the west coast of Florida and NASA announced today that the next attempt to launch Artemis I will come very early on Monday, Nov. 14 during a 69 minute launch window which opens at 12:07 a.m. EST. NASA has said that they plan to transport the rocket back to Launch Complex 39B as early as Friday, Nov. 4.

The gallery above contains a few shots of Artemis I as seen from the Apollo Saturn V Complex at KSC and from across the Indian River in Titusville, FL.

Moon, Spacecraft

Christmas Eve 1968

Earthrise

 Almost 50 years ago the famous Apollo 8 mission to the Moon was well underway.  It was Christmas Eve 1968 and the spacecraft had just entered lunar orbit that same day. That evening, astronauts Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and moon as seen from their spacecraft. Said Lovell, “The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth.” They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Genesis. You can relive that historic moment by clicking the video below. Merry Christmas!

Spacecraft

Send Your Name on the InSight Mars Lander

In March 2016 NASA’s InSight Mars lander is scheduled to blast off. “InSight: short for (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) is a NASA Discovery Program mission that will place a single geophysical lander on Mars to study its deep interior.

The solar arrays on NASA's InSight lander are deployed in this test inside a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.
The solar arrays on NASA’s InSight lander are deployed in this test inside a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

 

InSight will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, in March 2016 and land on Mars Sept. 28, 2016.

Mars enthusiasts around the world can participate in NASA’s journey to Mars by adding their names to a silicon microchip headed to the Red Planet aboard NASA’s InSight Mars lander.

“Our next step in the journey to Mars is another fantastic mission to the surface,” said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “By participating in this opportunity to send your name aboard InSight to the Red Planet, you’re showing that you’re part of that journey and the future of space exploration.”

Submissions will be accepted until Sept. 8. To send your name to Mars aboard InSight, go to:

http://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/insight/

 

Dwarf Planet, Spacecraft

New Horizons @ Pluto

Are you ready for the Plutonian system? After more than nine years in route the New Horizons spacecraft will be arriving at Pluto and it’s moons on July 14, 2015. The excitement is building for this historic occasion and the secrets unlocked by New Horizons will surely prove remarkable. At this writing we are 20 days away!

New Horizons Spacecraft and instruments.

The Spacecraft instruments will be searching for answers such as: what Pluto’s atmosphere is made of, how the planet itself behaves, what the surface of Pluto looks like and how the solar wind interacts with Pluto’s atmosphere?

Continue reading New Horizons @ Pluto →

Dwarf Planet, Spacecraft

Ceres in Sight! Dawn Approaches Dwarf Planet

The largest object located in the main asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) is the dwarf planet named Ceres.  At 590 miles across and with it’s spherical shape Ceres was once referred to as a planet. It’s probably the planet you’ve never heard of and over time it was demoted to asteroid status until 2006 when it was properly branded a “dwarf planet” by the IAU. This mysterious and elusive world was discovered in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi, an Italian Catholic priest, mathematician, and astronomer.

Continue reading Ceres in Sight! Dawn Approaches Dwarf Planet →

Satellites, Spacecraft

Spotting Earth Orbiting Satellites

Interest in watching for satellites has really increased over the past decade mainly due to the International Space Station being assembled in orbit, growing in size and brightness, etc.  The amount of hardware orbiting over head has also increased. With all this stuff circling around above, your chances of seeing one of these spacecraft glide across the pre-dawn or evening sky only increases. Perhaps you’ve seen a “moving star” yourself and wondered what it might be? An airplane perhaps? But wait, there were no navigation lights blinking to give it away. Maybe it was a UFO? Chances are what you saw was a satellite silently sweeping across the sky, and possibly looking down at you.

Continue reading Spotting Earth Orbiting Satellites →

Asteroids, Spacecraft

Hitch a ride on the OSIRIS-REx Mission to Asteroid Bennu

OSIRIS-RExThe Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) planetary science mission is scheduled for launch in September 2016. This is the third mission in the New Frontiers Program, along with Juno and New Horizons. OSIRIS-REx will study and return a sample of asteroid 101955 Bennu to Earth in 2023. Material returned is expected to enable scientists to learn more about the time before the formation and evolution of the Solar System, initial stages of planet formation, and the source of organic compounds which led to the formation of life.

After traveling about two years, the spacecraft will rendezvous with asteroid Bennu and start to surface map that object at a distance of approximately 3 miles for about a year and half. Interestingly, the spacecraft will be guided down close enough to Bennu to extend its robotic arm to reach out and collect a sample of the asteroid. That sample will be returned to Earth in a capsule ultimately landing in Utah in 2023. The capsule will then be transported to the Johnson Space Center for processing and research.

OSIRIS SpacecraftYou can tag alone with the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Well sort of. NASA and The Planetary Society are inviting you to submit your name for a round-trip ride to asteroid Bennu. Your name will hitch a ride to the asteroid, spend 500 days there, and return in the Sample Return Capsule. Plus your name will be on the spacecraft, which will remain in space long after returning the sample return capsule to Earth. Sound like fun?

Sign up here!

Spacecraft

ISS Over DFW This Evening

The International Space Station will be making a very nice pass over the Dallas/Fort Worth area beginning at about 9:30 PM tonight.  If you can see through the pop up thunderstorms and pull yourself away from either the Ranger’s game OR preseason Cowboy game the ISS will be bright at – 3.5 magnitude.  Go out and look up.

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Spacecraft

Submit your name and a message to be sent to Mars on MAVEN.

MAVEN Spacecraft

At this posting there are less than 60 days left to get your name and a message added to the MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) mission. According to the MAVEN web site everybody on the planet is welcome to participate. Your name will be written to a DVD and sent into Mars orbit on the spacecraft.

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN), set to launch this year, will explore the planet’s upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with the sun and solar wind. Scientists will use MAVEN data to determine the role that loss of volatile compounds, such as CO2, N2, and H2O, from the Mars atmosphere to space has played over time, giving insight into the history of Mars atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability.