NASA – Spaceflight Now

Next-generation weather satellite shipped to launch base in California

September 6, 2017

A new weather observatory that will track storms across the globe as it orbits from pole to pole has been trucked to its launch site in California for a long-awaited ascent into space this November.

NASA data relay craft successfully blossoms in space

August 29, 2017

NASA’s new communications satellite, launched to a preliminary orbit August 18, has ascended to geosynchronous altitude more than 22,000 miles up, deployed its giant antennas and extended twin solar arrays to begin in-space commissioning.

Johnson Space Center closed as major flooding hits Houston area

August 27, 2017

The gates to the Johnson Space Center have been closed to all but essential personnel as heavy rains from Tropical Storm Harvey inundate the Houston area. Flight controllers are on lock down at the Mission Control Center but continue to monitor the health of the International Space Station as usual.

Photos: Atlas sends up new NASA satellite

August 19, 2017

NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M, a communications router for the space station and dozens of science spacecraft, blasted off from Cape Canaveral at 8:29 a.m. EDT on Friday atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.

Videos: Replays from successful Atlas 5 launch of TDRS-M

August 18, 2017

Isolated camera views from various locations around Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center show the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifting off with NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M.

Atlas 5 rocket delivers NASA data router into space for astronauts and satellites

August 18, 2017

Bulking up NASA’s constellation of tracking stations in the sky that provides critical links between orbiting spacecraft and ground control, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket successfully deployed a new communications hub in space today.

Video: TDRS-M takes flight atop Atlas 5

August 18, 2017

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, standing 191 feet tall and and weighing 745,000 pounds, generates 860,000 pounds of thrust from its main engine to launch NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M.

Video: Atlas/TDRS-M pre-launch news briefing

August 17, 2017

Watch the pre-launch news conference held Thursday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to preview liftoff of the agency’s TDRS-M data relay satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral.

Multimedia: Atlas 5 rolled out with TDRS-M

August 16, 2017

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket was transferred from its assembly building to the pad at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 today for Friday’s launch of NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M that directly supports the International Space Station and various science missions.

Live coverage: Atlas 5 countdown and launch journal

August 16, 2017

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 8:29 a.m. EDT (1229 GMT) today to place NASA’s new tracking station into the sky. The data router will relay video, telemetry and science information from the space station and dozens of research satellites to a central ground terminal. Follow the ascent in our live journal.