Artemis
Mission Reports
Delta 4
Live coverage: Delta 4-Heavy rocket launches from California
United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4-Heavy rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 3:25 p.m. PDT (6:25 p.m. EDT; 2225 GMT) Saturday with a classified spacecraft for the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. government’s spy satellite agency. The heavy-lifter launched for the final time from California, with two more Delta 4-Heavy flights remaining from Cape Canaveral before the rocket’s retirement.
Delta 4
Photos: Delta 4-Heavy rocket on the launch pad in California
These views show United Launch Alliance’s 233-foot-tall Delta 4-Heavy rocket standing on Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the eve of liftoff with a classified spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. This will be the final Delta launch from the West Coast.
Delta 4
Historic launch pad faces uncertain future after final West Coast Delta 4 mission
United Launch Alliance will move out of historic Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California following the flight of a Delta 4-Heavy rocket set for Saturday, leaving the military to find a new tenant for the launch pad once intended to host space shuttle missions on the West Coast.
Artemis
Mission Reports
JWST shows Neptune’s splendor amid landscape of galaxies
Fresh images from the James Webb Space Telescope show the faraway planet Neptune hung amid a tapestry of even more distant galaxies, the latest view from a now-regular flow of observations from astronomers’ new eye on the universe. Scientists released Webb’s first views of Neptune and Mars this week.
Artemis
NASA completes cryogenic tanking test on Artemis 1 moon rocket
Engineers filled up the Artemis 1 moon rocket with more than 750,000 gallons of super-cold propellants in a tanking test Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center after successfully troubleshooting another hydrogen leak. NASA’s launch director said she was “extremely encouraged” by the test, but officials have not yet committed to another attempt to launch the uncrewed test flight to the moon at the next opportunity Sept. 27.
Mission Reports
Mission Reports
Live coverage: Two Russians, one American arrive at space station
Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin were joined by NASA astronaut Frank Rubio for launch Wednesday to begin a six-month expedition on the International Space Station. The crew lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:54 a.m. EDT (1354 GMT) aboard a Soyuz rocket, and docked with the space station at 1:06 p.m. EDT (1706 GMT).
Artemis
Live coverage: NASA fully loads Artemis 1 moon rocket in cryogenic test
NASA’s launch team says they got a hydrogen leak under control in a fueling line near the bottom of the Artemis 1 moon rocket’s core stage, allowing engineers to continue with a cryogenic tanking test on pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday. The leak temporarily halted operations to load more than 750,000 gallons of super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the Space Launch System.