Artist’s impression of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft encountering 2014 MU69, a Kuiper Belt object that orbits one billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto, on Jan. 1, 2019. With public input, the team has selected the nickname “Ultima Thule” for the object, which will be the most primitive and most distant world ever explored by spacecraft.  Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Steve Gribben Ken

GOES-S view of Earth from its checkout location.  Credit: NOAA Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —   14 Mar 2018 KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL –  Less than 2 weeks after the dinnertime blastoff of the GOES-S weather observatory put on a stunningly delicious launch display from the Florida Space Coast on March 1, 2018, the revolutionary satellite that will track extreme weather

Lockheed Martin delivered NASA’s InSight spacecraft to its California launch site on Feb. 28, 2018. The Mars lander was shipped aboard a U.S. Air Force transport plane from Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado to Vandenberg Air Force Base where it will undergo final processing in preparation for a May 2018 launch. Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —   13 Mar 2018 CAPE

Robert M. Lightfoot Jr., NASA Acting Administrator speaks at National Space Council   Space Summit at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb 21, 2018.  Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot, a highly regarded propulsion and spaceflight engineer, announced his retirement from the space agency effective the end of April in a letter to

Illustration of the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft approaching the Sun.  Credits: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —   9 Mar 2018 CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA is inviting the public from all across the world to send their names to touch the sun on the agencies groundbreaking Parker Solar Probe mission launching in summer 2018. NASA’s

The 50th  SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL with the Hispasat 30W-6 telecomsat for spanish operator Hispasat at 12:33 a.m. EST on March 6, 2018.  The 6 ton satellite was delivered to geostationary transfer orbit. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —   7 Mar 2018 CAPE CANAVERAL AIR

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket streaks to orbit after launching from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL at 12:33 a.m. EST on March 6, 2018, carrying the Hispasat 30W-6 telecomsat for spanish operator Hispasat.  Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —   6 Mar 2018 CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL – SpaceX marked the

A SpaceX Falcon 9 is poised for liftoff from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL with the Hispasat 30W-6 telecomsat for Spain shortly after midnight on March 6, 2018.  Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —   5 Mar 2018 CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL – A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is poised for

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES-S at 5:02 p.m. EST on March 1, 2018.  GOES-S is the second satellite in a series of next-generation weather satellites. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – The nations newest

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the NOAA/NASA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES-S, at 5:02 p.m. EST on March 1, 2018. GOES-S is the second satellite in a series of next-generation weather satellites. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —   1 Mar 2018