Artist’s concept of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket powered by Blue Origin BE-4 booster engine launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL. Credit: ULA Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —   27 September 2018 CAPE CANAVERAL, FL –   Following several years of work and intense speculation rocket builder United launch Alliance (ULA) has at least made the highly anticipated selection

NASA’s Opportunity rover appears as a blip in the center of this square. This image taken on Sept. 20, 2018 by HiRISE, a high-resolution camera onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows the dust storm over Perseverance Valley has substantially cleared. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona  Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —   25 September 2018 CAPE CANAVERAL, FL –   Still silent after

These are the first images from WISPR, short for the Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe taken on Sept. 9, 2018. Researchers studied the images to determine the instrument was pointed as expected, using celestial landmarks as their guide. The left image shows the Milky Way, looking at the galactic center. In the right image, there is a distinctive cluster

Legless SpaceX Falcon 9 recovered first stage is transported horizontally from Port Canaveral into Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop multi-wheel transporter on Sept. 15, 2018, after detachment of all four landing legs utilizing square shaped ‘Booster Lift/Leg Retraction Device’ (BLLRD) apparatus bolted on top of the booster and since removed.  From Telstar 18v launch. For eventual launch recycling –

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) took this snapshot of the Large Magellanic Cloud (right) and the bright star R Doradus (left) with just a single detector of one of its cameras on Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2018. The frame is part of a swath of the southern sky TESS captured in its “first light” science image as part of its

SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk (left) announces and Yusaku Maezawa, (right) founder of the Japanese retail site Zozo, as the private paying passenger for SpaceX’s private BFR lunar mission launching in 2023, at SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, on Sept. 17, 2018. Credit: SpaceX webcast screenshot Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —   17 September 2018 CAPE CANAVERAL, FL –  Japanese

SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage landing leg is being retracted in a post landing operation against the side of the recovered core on Sept. 13, 2018 (from Telstar 18v launch) using hoisting 2 cables pulled from the top of the newly utilized square shaped BLLRD apparatus bolted on top of the booster.  As observed from Port Canaveral, FL. Credit: Ken

Artists rendition of SpaceX BFR rocket intended to send 1st private passenger on a mission around the Moon. Credit: SpaceX Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —   15 September 2018 CAPE CANAVERAL, FL –  SpaceX announced they will reveal the name of the first private passenger who will fly to the Moon on the firm’s BFR rocket currently under development, in a

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II rocket with the NASA Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) onboard is seen shortly after the mobile service tower at SLC-2 was rolled back, Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The ICESat-2 mission will measure the changing height of Earth’s ice.  Credits: NASA/ Bill Ingalls Ken Kremer 

SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster arrives back into Port Canaveral, FL on Sep. 12, 2018 guided by SpaceX Naval fleet atop the ocean going OCISLY droneship platform upon which it landed after launching the Telstar 18v comsat on Sep 10 from Space Launch Complex-40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL.  Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —