The rocket standing ready on the pad with NASA's Lucy spacecraft at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, is a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 configuration. It is the workhorse of the Atlas V fleet, delivering about half of all Atlas V missions to date. The 401 designation …
Launch of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket with NASA's Lucy spacecraft is on track for Oct. 16, 2021 at 5:34 a.m. EDT, from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA's Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center, America's premier multi-user spaceport, is managing the launch. …
Teams gathered to hear presentations from key mission managers as part of an in-depth assessment on the launch readiness of the ULA Atlas V 401 rocket, mission operations, support functions, and the readiness of the Lucy team to support the launch. After the launch director polled each partner, it was determined that Lucy was ready …
NASA and the UK Space Agency have agreed to cooperate on NASA's heliophysics mission, the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP). The agreement, signed Sept. 22, 2021, will allow Imperial College London (ICL) to design and build one of IMAP's 10 instruments – a magnetometer called MAG – as well as provide ground support and personnel necessary to support the instrument and the IMAP science team.
NASA will provide coverage of upcoming prelaunch and launch activities for Lucy, the agency's first mission to explore the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Lucy is targeted to launch at 5:34 a.m. EDT Saturday, Oct. 16, on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station …
A mass of solar material that erupted from the Sun on Oct. 9, 2021, reached Earth on Oct. 12. The Earth-directed coronal mass ejection, or CME, elevated the Kp index, a measure of disturbance to Earth's magnetic field, to 6 (moderate level). Kp index levels range from 0 (quiet) to 9 (intense). The CME was …
NASA and United Launch Alliance (ULA) managers completed the Flight Readiness Review (FRR) this morning at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the agency's Lucy mission. The FRR focuses on the preparedness of NASA, ULA, and the Lucy team to support the flight and the certification of flight readiness. The final step is the Launch …
United Launch Alliance (ULA) has completed encapsulation of the payload fairing around NASA's Lucy spacecraft inside the Astrotech Space Operations Facility in Titusville, Florida. The payload fairing secures and protects the spacecraft during launch and ascent. Up next, the payload fairing will be transported to Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Space Force …
by Roberto Molar Candanosa Far up in northern Alaska, Logan Berner's legs are burning with pain from trekking over tussocks in grassy valley bottoms and rugged, cloud-choked mountain passes. He's spending a couple of weeks of 2021's summer traversing the mountainous Brook Range, carrying just the essentials to sustain him in the expanse of the …
On Sept. 29, NASA's Parker Solar Probe completed a quick maneuver that positioned the spacecraft for a flyby of Venus next month.
