With 13 weeks to go before the launch period of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover opens, final preparations of the spacecraft continue at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. On April 8, the assembly, test and launch operations team completed a crucial mass properties test of the rover. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-04-nasa-mars-perseverance-rover.html…
Tag: Kennedy Space Center
Mars helicopter attached to NASA’s Perseverance rover
With the launch period of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover opening in 14 weeks, final preparations of the spacecraft continue at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In the past week, the assembly, test and launch operations team completed important milestones, fueling the descent stage—also known as the sky crane—and attaching the Mars Helicopter, which will be the first aircraft in…
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover gets its wheels and air brakes
Final assembly and testing of NASA’s Perseverance rover continues at Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the July launch window approaches. In some of the last steps required prior to stacking the spacecraft components in the configuration they’ll be in atop the Atlas V rocket, the rover’s wheels and parachute have been installed. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-04-nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-wheels.html…
10.9 million names now aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover
NASA’s “Send Your Name to Mars” campaign invited people around the world to submit their names to ride aboard the agency’s next rover to the Red Planet. Some 10,932,295 people did just that. The names were stenciled by electron beam onto three fingernail-sized silicon chips, along with the essays of the 155 finalists in NASA’s “Name the Rover” contest.The chips were…
NASA’s Mars perseverance rover gets its sample handling system
With the launch period for NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover opening in a little less than four months, the six-wheeler is reaching significant pre-launch milestones almost daily at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rover had some components removed prior to being shipped from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to the Cape in early February. Last week,…
Falcon 9 Rocket Overcomes Engine Failure To Deploy 60 Starlink Satellites
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket overcame a rare in-flight engine failure soon after launch from Florida’s Space Coast Wednesday to place 60 satellites in orbit for the company’s Starlink Internet network. Spaceflight Now reports: One of the rocket’s nine first stage engines shut down prematurely around 2 minutes, 22 seconds, after liftoff from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in…
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover goes coast-to-coast to prep for launch
NASA’s next Mars rover has arrived in Florida to begin final preparations for its launch to the Red Planet this July. Two Air Force C-17 Globemaster cargo planes carrying the Mars 2020 rover as well as the cruise stage, descent stage and Mars Helicopter touched down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at about 3 p.m. EST (12 p.m. PST) today, completing…
Solar Orbiter: Ready for launch
The fairing of the US Atlas V 411 rocket with ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft inside at the Astrotech payload processing facility near Kennedy Space Center in Florida during launch preparations on 21 January 2020. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-02-solar-orbiter-ready.html…
Day of remembrance: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
After 24 successful missions, shuttle launches seemed routine. That’s why those watching the launch of the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986, started out excited, but soon were in a state of disbelief. Then NASA confirmed the worst. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/this-date-in-science-space-shuttle-challenger-disaster…
‘Watch SpaceX Blow Up a Falcon 9 Rocket in a Safety Test Saturday’
“SpaceX is setting out to prove a critical safety system will be able to save astronaut lives in the event of a launch emergency during ascent,” reports CNET: The Crew Dragon in-flight abort test is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 18. This is a required step before NASA will allow astronauts to fly to the International Space Station in the SpaceX capsule…