Northrop Grumman’s L-1011 Stargazer aircraft is on the runway at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip, FL on Nov. 2, 2018. The company’s air-launched Pegasus XL rocket, containing NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite is attached to the belly beneath the aircraft. Launch NET Nov 7, 2018. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com Ken Kremer  —  SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM—  3 November

Video Caption: Dramatic video from the Soyuz MS-10 launch on Oct. 11, 2018 showing the moment of separation and its destructive aftermath of booster collision– taken from a rear facing camera on the side of the Soyuz FG booster. The two person Russian-American crew survived unharmed. Credit: Roscosmos Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —   2 November 2018 CAPE CANAVERAL, FL –

This illustration depicts NASA’s exoplanet hunter, the Kepler space telescope. The agency announced on Oct. 30, 2018, that Kepler has run out of fuel and is being retired within its current and safe orbit, away from Earth. Kepler leaves a legacy of more than 2,600 exoplanet discoveries.  Credits: NASA/Wendy Stenzel Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —   31 October 2018 CAPE CANAVERAL,

Parker Solar Probe, shown in this animation, became the closest-ever spacecraft to the Sun on Oct. 29, 2018, when it passed within 26.55 million miles (43 million km) of the Sun’s surface. Credit:  NASA/JHUAPL Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —   30 October 2018 CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – In a truly groundbreaking feat, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe became the closest human-made object

This pre-dust storm panoramic mosaic view was one of the last ones taken by NASA’s Opportunity rover and shows the spectacular view from her approximate current position as of June 2018 after traveling halfway down the fluid carved slope of Perseverance Valley – while peeing into the interior of vast Endeavour Crater.  This navcam camera photo mosaic was assembled by

Northrop Grumman built Cygnus NG-10 cargo spacecraft is prepped inside darkened clean room High Bay facility at NASA Wallops with range finding lights illuminated to aid station astronauts verify the correct attitude and position on approach in space.  It was named in honor of NASA astronaut and Apollo 16 moonwalker John Young on Oct. 24, 2018.  Blastoff on Antares rocket

The view from Parker Solar Probe’s WISPR instrument on Sept. 25, 2018, shows Earth, the bright sphere near the middle of the right-hand panel. The elongated mark toward the bottom of the panel is a lens reflection from the WISPR instrument. Credits: NASA/Naval Research Laboratory/Parker Solar Probe Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —   27 October 2018 KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – 

The Northrop Grumman built Cygnus NG-10 cargo spacecraft is prepped inside clean room High Bay facility at NASA Wallops and named in honor NASA astronaut and Apollo 16 moonwalker John Young on Oct. 24, 2018.  Blastoff on Antares rocket is slated for Nov. 15, 2018 from pad 0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia bound for the International Space

One of NASA’s twin MarCO spacecraft took this image of Mars on October 2, 2018 — the first time a CubeSat, a kind of low-cost, briefcase-sized spacecraft — has done so.  Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech Ken Kremer  —   SpaceUpClose.com  —   22 October 2018 CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s first ever interplanetary cubesats – named MarCO- have snapped an image of Mars for

Up Close Engine view of the fiery fury spewing from the five first stage Aerojet Rocketdyne solid rocket boosters and liquid fueled Russian made RD-180 engine after launch of the ULA Atlas V carrying the Advanced Extremely High Frequency AEHF-4 jam resistant military communications satellite for the U.S. Air Force on Oct. 17, 2018 at 12:15 a.m. ET from Space