NASA’s Orion spacecraft will fly a two-orbit, four-hour mission for Exploration Flight Test No. 1 in Earth orbit to test systems. This map shows the track the United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy launch vehicle and Orion will follow.
It’s one thing to watch a spouse blast off on a rocketship, especially when the spacecraft is making its first flight with people on board. But it’s altogether another matter when the anxious spouse is an astronaut as well.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will boost NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M, or TDRS-M, into space from Cape Canaveral on Aug. 18 at 8:03 a.m. EDT (1203 GMT).
China’s Tianwen 1 spacecraft — in orbit around Mars since February — is scheduled to deploy a descent module to attempt the country’s first landing on the Red Planet in mid-May. Officials plan to share the Mars rover’s scientific data with researchers around the world, a senior Chinese scientist said last week.