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As the GRACE Follow-On countdown continues, science teams in the U.S. and Germany and mission control team at the German Spacecraft Operations Center (GSOC, shown here) are both GO for launch. NASA's GRACE-FO partner, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), subcontracted mission operations to the German Space Agency, which operates GSOC. Credit: NASA/Jim Round

The fueling of the SpaceX Falcon 9 has begun.

It's a beautiful day for a launch. In several locations around Vandenberg Air Force Base, and at the German Space Operations Center near Munich, engineers and scientists from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission are at their computers and communications consoles for the countdown and go/no go poll to verify all systems …

Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) chilled out recently with a pressurization test of the liquid oxygen (LO2) tank at Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida – Pad 39B, recently upgraded by the EGS team for the agency’s new Space Launch System rocket. The six-hour test of the giant sphere checked for leaks …

The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the GRACE-FO twin satellites was raised into the vertical launch position this evening at Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Liftoff is scheduled for 12:47 p.m. PDT tomorrow, May 22. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

At this morning's briefing on the GRACE-FO mission at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, U.S. Air Force Capt. Jennifer Haden, weather officer with the 30th Space Wing, reported a greater than 90 percent chance of favorable weather for liftoff tomorrow, May 2.. For once, the central California coastline's predominant fog is predicted to be …

Orbital-ATK 9 (OA-9) Launch: OA-9 launched from the Wallops Flight Facility this morning at 08:44:06 GMT (3:44 CT).  The Cygnus solar arrays have been deployed nominally.  OA-9 capture and berthing to the ISS is planned for Thursday 24-May. Atomization:  This morning a crewmember set up and activated the Atomization hardware in the Multi-purpose Small Payload …

The Expedition 55 crew is unloading the Orbital ATK Cygnus space freighter today ahead of next week’s crew swap at the International Space Station. On top of the cargo transfers and crew departure activities, the orbital residents are also running space experiments to benefit humans on Earth and astronauts in space. NASA Flight Engineer Scott …

Throughout its seven-year mission, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will swoop through the Sun’s atmosphere 24 times, getting closer to our star than any spacecraft has gone before. The spacecraft will carry more than scientific instruments on this historic journey — it will also hold more than 1.1 million names submitted by the public to go to the Sun.

The Cygnus spacecraft’s solar arrays have deployed. See the launch of Cygnus on Instagram The cargo ship will rendezvous with the International Space Station on Thursday, May 24. Expedition 55 Flight Engineer Scott Tingle will grapple the spacecraft at approximately 5:20 a.m. EDT, backed by Ricky Arnold, and Drew Feustel will monitor Cygnus systems during …