For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s Perseverance rover extended and flexed her high-tech robotic arm for the first time Monday, March 8 on Sol 17 while commanding it to perform multiple maneuvers with the arm and science instrument turret raised high and outward to begin check out and test its functionality which will be critical for coring soil
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM TITUSVILLE/CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – SpaceX successfully conducted a static fire test on a recycled Falcon 9 booster at dusk Monday, March 8, and is now targeting launch of the next batch of 60 Starlink broadband internet satellites for Tuesday evening March 9 from pad 40 on Florida’s Spaceport – and the weather looks great for both
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Soon after NASA’s Perseverance rover performed her first test drive on Martian terrain, the six wheeled robot captured a unique pair of images I’m naming the ‘Shadow of a Martian Robot – Perseverance’ on Sol 15, Saturday, March 6 and which I have stitched into a beautiful shadow selfie mosaic that
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s Perseverance rover performed its first test drive drive on Martian terrain on March 4, or Sol 14, the mission team announced with the release of a batch of dramatic new images captured at the landing site now bearing the name “Octavia E. Butler Landing” where the six wheeled robot touched down safely
TITUSVILLE, FL – The much delayed liftoff of a veteran SpaceX Falcon 9 booster finally took place overnight in the wee hours this morning Thursday March 4 and quickly disappeared behind a thick layer of low clouds and from Florida’s Spaceport and successfully delivered the next batch of 60 Starlink internet satellites to low Earth orbit. The middle-of-the-night blastoff of
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA and Boeing have decided to slip the launch of Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test to no earlier than NET April 2 to carry our more testing and processing to ensure the spacecraft is ready to safely and effectively carry out the Orbital Flight Test-2 mission to the International Space Station as part
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Just a few Sols, or Martian Days, after the surviving the harrowing ‘7 Minutes of Terror’ on Feb. 18, NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover has been spotted and imaged at her landing site on the surface of the Red Planet by another Martian orbiter namely the ExoMars orbiter along with the parachute,
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA has selected the SpaceX Falcon Heavy to launch the first two elements of the Lunar orbiting Gateway platform on a commercial rocket for a flight targeting no earlier than May 2024. Gateway will become the first permanent mini space station around the moon and be launched into the near-rectilinear halo orbit
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s Parker Solar Probe captured an absolutely stunning glimpse of Venus during its third close flyby of the planet in July 2020, seen in this newly released image from NASA and the science team – see above. Although the Sun is the focus of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe seven-year long mission to
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Three Sols, or Martian Days, after surviving the ‘7 minutes of Terror’ and accomplishing a safe touchdown NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover snapped her first high-definition 360-degree panorama around her Mars landing site and new home at Jezero Crater on Feb. 21, using the rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument. NASA released the Mastcam-Z panorama on Feb.