For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – United Launch Alliance (ULA) has finished stacking their Atlas V carrier rocket destined for Boeing’s second unpiloted Starliner capsule test flight on a critical mission for NASA to prove the commercial system can safely carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) – with liftoff of the OFT-2 flight still remaining
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA and Northrop Grumman of Dulles, Virginia, have finalized a contract to develop the Habitation and Logistics module named HALO for the agency’s Lunar Gateway – a mini lunar space station that will orbit the Moon as a key element of Project Artemis to land humans on the lunar surface as soon
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – British Billionaire Richard Branson soared to the edge of space on a memorable history making day Sunday morning, July 11, experiencing the ‘Journey of a Lifetime’ and fulfilling a lifelong dream aboard his own private air-launched and rocket powered Virgin Galactic VSS Unity spaceplane that was designed and developed by the rocket
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Billionaire Richard Branson is all set to soar to the edge of space Sunday morning, July 11, on the private rocket powered Virgin Galactic spaceplane that was designed and developed by the rocket company he founded and financed using billions of his own dollars, on a suborbital test flight with a crew
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – The ‘Big Build’ work is well underway now for NASA’s 1st Space Launch System (SLS) mega rocket inside the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) after stacking of the 1st core stage in between the two twin 177 foot tall solid rocket boosters atop the Mobile Launch Platform was completed last month
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – A pair of Chinese astronauts have successfully completed the first ever spacewalk in support of construction of China’s new space station on July 4 (Beijing time) and were aided by a robotic arm during an extravehicular activity (EVA) conducted outside the Tianhe core module. This counts as only the second ever EVA
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – The Chinese space agency has released dramatic new videos showing the descent of the country’s Mars probe Tianwen-1 through the atmosphere during the landing the Red Planet in May as well as sounds and new images taken by its Mars rover Zhurong after driving down the landing platform and away to explore
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, FL – Under heavily overcast skies a veteran and heavily sooted SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 88 small satellites into polar orbit Wednesday afternoon, June 30 one day after the liftoff was scrubbed when a private helicopter suddenly intruded into restricted airspace violating the no fly zone in the final moments
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, FL – In the final moments of the countdown a rogue aircraft flew into the range exclusion zone violating restricted airspace and scrubbed today’s, (June 29) planned launch of a veteran SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in an unexpected and very undesired twist to the disappointment of all involved including the launch
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s groundbreaking Ingenuity Helicopter notched its 8th successful test flight on the Red Planet this week traveling for more than a minute and achieving a soft touchdown at another new ‘airfield’ – the fifth – after being upgraded with new flight software utilized for the 1st time now on its 3rd operational