NASA – Page 101 – Spaceflight Now

Probe hoisted aboard launcher to leave Earth next week on asteroid adventure

August 29, 2016 Justin Ray

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft today moved a step closer to starting a voyage to explore an uncharted world in our solar system — the mountain-sized Asteroid Bennu — by joining the booster rocket that will propel it from Earth next week.

Photos: Atlas 5 rocket assembled for launch of asteroid sample return probe

August 25, 2016 Justin Ray

At Cape Canaveral’s Vertical Integration Facility, adjacent to the Complex 41 launch pad, workers with United Launch Alliance stacked the Atlas 5 rocket that will propel NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on its voyage to Asteroid Bennu.

Atlas 5 rocket rehearses countdown for upcoming launch to Asteroid Bennu

August 25, 2016 Justin Ray

Running through a practice countdown to check systems before launching a NASA sample-return probe to Asteroid Bennu in exactly two weeks, an Atlas 5 successfully completed its Wet Dress Rehearsal today.

NASA ‘hears’ from lost spacecraft after nearly two years

August 23, 2016 William Harwood

NASA re-established contact with a wayward sun-watching science satellite Sunday nearly two years after the spacecraft suddenly dropped off line during a test, the agency said in a statement Monday.

Sophisticated new U.S. weather observatory being readied for launch

August 22, 2016 Justin Ray

On the cusp of advancing U.S. weather forecasting, a powerful new satellite was shipped from its Denver factory to the Cape today in preparation for launch in November.

Video: Preview of the OSIRIS-REx mission to sample an asteroid

August 21, 2016 Justin Ray

Watch the pre-flight news conference that introduces NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on Sept. 8. It will capture a sample of Asteroid Bennu for return to Earth.

Photos: Solar arrays attached to asteroid-bound OSIRIS-REx spacecraft

August 12, 2016 Justin Ray

At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, workers have finished the pre-launch assembly and fueling of OSIRIS-REx for the asteroid sample return spacecraft for liftoff Sept. 8.

Buildup of unusual launcher begins for NASA’s asteroid sample return mission

August 8, 2016 Justin Ray

It is a rocket like no other, a vehicle with a single solid-fuel booster mounted to its side, that will launch NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe next month to bring back a sample of Asteroid Bennu.

NASA books nuclear-certified Atlas 5 rocket for Mars 2020 rover launch

July 25, 2016 Justin Ray

America’s next Mars rover, a $2.1 billion nuclear-powered vehicle to search for evidence that life once existed there, will be launched to the Red Planet in the summer of 2020 by a powerful Atlas 5 rocket.

Delta 2 rocket being assembled at Vandenberg for penultimate launch

July 12, 2016 Justin Ray

The next-to-last Delta 2 rocket is being stacked at its California launch site to take flight in January to put a civilian weather satellite into polar orbit.