The United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket lifts off with NASA’s SMAP observatory at 6:22 a.m. local time on Saturday, Jan. 31 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Photo credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Scriptunas Photo
The United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket lifts off with NASA’s SMAP observatory at 6:22 a.m. local time on Saturday, Jan. 31 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Photo credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Scriptunas Photo
If all goes according to plan, engineers in southern Mississippi later this month will load cryogenic propellants into the core stage of a rocket NASA says will launch astronauts back to the moon, exposing its tankage and internal plumbing to extreme operating conditions hundreds of degrees below zero for the first time. The fueling test — a major milestone in its own right — is a precursor to a high-stakes eight-minute test-firing of the Space Launch System’s four shuttle-era main engines planned as soon as November.
© 1999-2024 Spaceflight Now Inc