For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM JETTY PARK, FL – A T Zero telemetry issue detected upon ignition of the first stage engines forced Astra – a new small sat mission launch provider – to scrub the 2nd attempt to launch their 1st operational rocket on an orbital flight test from Cape Canaveral on a demonstration mission with four cubesats sponsored by
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Culminating an arduous two decade long development and million mile journey since launching on Christmas Day, the massive international James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) finally arrived at its final orbital destination at the L2 Lagrange Point on 24 Jan. 2022, sliding gently into its new home a million miles from earth –
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM JETTY PARK, FL – Astra was forced to scrub the 1st attempt to launch their 1st operational rocket on an orbital flight test from Cape Canaveral on a cubesat mission sponsored by NASA due to a failure in a critical radar hardware system operated by the U.S. Space Force in the Eastern Range that must be
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has at last fully unfurled from its origami like prelaunch state after engineers successfully completed the last major deployment Saturday, Jan. 8, and swung open the last of two three segment side wings to wholly unfold and lock in place its 21-foot (6.5 m) gold-coated primary
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – In another major milestone NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the tripod assembly holding the observatory’s secondary mirror successfully unfolded and latched to deploy the 2.4-foot (0.74-meter) mirror into place – which is essential for reflecting light from the distant Universe gathered by the primary mirror into the powerful science instruments so
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Mission controllers with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have successfully completed the deployment, separation and tensioning of the observatory’s massive five-layered sunshield to pull them completely taut into final operational position on Tuesday, Jan. 4 – which is considered as the most riskiest of actions of the telescopes entire month-long extremely
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – U.S. President Joe Biden has approved a long-term extension of operations of the International Space Station (ISS) through 2030, as announced by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, shortly before ringing in the new year and coming on the heels of a phenomenally successful year for the space
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Mission controllers with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have successfully commanded the full unfurling of the massive 5 layered sunshield on New Year’s Eve Friday evening. Dec. 31 – thereby accomplishing one of the most nail-biting operations of the entire high-stakes month long deployment sequence at a distance of some 400,000
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Mission controllers with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have successfully started the high stakes sunshield deployment phase of the mammoth observatory which is critical to cooling the probe to the utterly cold operating temperatures required so it can detect infrared light for which it was designed in order to carry out
For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s mammoth James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has successfully deployed its high data rate antenna critical for transmitting the huge volumes to be collected by the observatory and also carried out its first two mid-course correction burns placing it on course for the voyage to its final operational destination at a unique