Following a Flight Readiness Review NASA Launch Director Omar Baez and the mission team confirmed the Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket will be ready for its targeted launch date for the agency's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite. The spacecraft will be boosted to Earth orbit during a launch window between 10:01 to 10:38 a.m. …
NASA has selected a science mission planned for launch in 2024 that will sample, analyze, and map particles streaming to Earth from the edges of interstellar space.
A solar array illumination test is performed on NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite in the Building 1555 clean room Friday, May 4, 2018, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The test checks for any imperfections and confirms that the solar arrays are functioning properly.
NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft is on its way to Mars. InSight launched on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 rocket at 4:05 a.m. PDT (7:05 a.m. EDT) this morning, May 5, from Space Launch Complex-3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. There were no …
It's an exciting day for NASA. The agency's twin Mars Cube One (MarCO) mini-spacecraft have launched from dispensers mounted on the aft bulkhead carrier of the Atlas V Centaur second stage. Designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, MarCO will be the first test of CubeSat technology in deep space. They …
We have spacecraft separation. Cheers and applause can be heard from the launch teams as the InSight spacecraft separates from the United Launch Alliance Centaur upper stage to fly freely for the first time.
The second engine burn of the Centaur upper stage has begun and will last for about five minutes.
InSight Countdown to T-Zero, Episode 1: From the West Coast to the Red Planet The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket reaches another major milestone on the road to T-Zero, as NASA's InSight spacecraft prepares for launch. Stacking the rocket begins with the booster – the largest component – and continues with the addition of …
The first engine burn of the Centaur upper stage has ended. Centaur with NASA's InSight spacecraft and MarCO is now in a coast phase.
The Centaur upper stage main engine has started its burn following on-time booster engine cutoff and Atlas/Centaur separation. The first of two burns for the Centaur main engine start will last nearly eight minutes. The payload fairing has been jettisoned.