Live coverage of the countdown and launch of an Ariane 5 rocket with the MEASAT 3d and GSAT 24 communications satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
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An Ariane 5 rocket on its launch pad Tuesday evening at the Guiana Space Center. Credit: Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/P. Piron
Two geostationary communications satellites for India’s space agency and a Malaysian company will rocket into orbit from the jungle of South America on Wednesday on a European-built Ariane 5 launcher.
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NASA’s Artemis 1 moon rocket stands fully fueled on pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center soon after the conclusion of a wet dress rehearsal Monday evening. Credit: NASA
NASA loaded more than three-quarters of a million gallons of super-cold propellant into the first Space Launch System moon rocket Monday in Florida, achieving key milestones in a practice countdown but falling short of all the test objectives after discovering a new hydrogen leak.
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Live coverage of the wet dress rehearsal for the Space Launch System on NASA’s Artemis 1 mission. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
SFN Live
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A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with the Globalstar FM15 satellite. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX hauled a Globalstar communications satellite into orbit early Sunday from Cape Canaveral, pulling off the third Falcon 9 rocket flight in 36 hours, the fastest sequence of three missions
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STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION
The moon hangs in the sky behind NASA’s Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System moon rocket on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA/Ben SmegelskyCountdown clocks began ticking Saturday for NASA’s fourth attempt to complete a dress-rehearsal countdown and fueling test of its Space Launch System moon rocket, a requirement before the huge booster can be cleared for launch on its long-awaited maiden flight.
“There’s nobody that wants to get through this more than the EGS (Exploration Ground Systems) team, and all of our teams … to get this vehicle tanked, understand where we get to in the terminal count and then get back … out for launch,” said Jim Free, director of exploration development at NASA Headquarters.
The countdown began at 5:30 p.m. EDT and if all goes well, the two-day test will tick into its final hours Monday morning when engineers plan to remotely load the rocket’s first and second stages with three quarters of a million gallons of supercold liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel.
Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson and her team plan to count down to T-minus 33 seconds and then carry out a recycle that will mimic an unplanned hold before counting all the way down to just inside T-minus 10 seconds. At that point, just before the rocket’s four main engines would begin their start-up sequence in an actual launch, computers will stop the test.
The goal is to make sure complex launch control software, the rocket’s electrical, mechanical and propellant systems, along with their interfaces with launch pad support equipment, will work together as required to safely launch the most powerful booster ever built for NASA.
Those complexities were on display in three previous attempts to fuel the SLS as engineers ran into problems with launch pad subsystems, unexpected propellant temperature and pressure excursions, a jammed upper stage helium valve and leaks in a fitting that connects a hydrogen fuel line to the rocket’s first stage.
Originally hauled out to pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center on March 18, NASA moved the 330-foot-tall SLS rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building on April 25 to replace the helium valve, fix the hydrogen leak and carry out several other upgrades and improvements.
Hydrogen leaks are notoriously hard to pinpoint and eliminate because they typically don’t show up until the hardware is exposed to cryogenic temperatures. But Free is optimistic that work to tighten up a flange in the fuel line connector has resolved the problem.
“We fixed some things we saw around the area where we saw the leak, including going back to some of the procedures we used and the know how from the shuttle days, which we really benefited from,” he said. “Obviously, we won’t know the results of that until we actually flow the liquid hydrogen at the pad.
“We also worked on some of the loading procedures,” he continued. “We saw some things with LOX (liquid oxygen) and hydrogen that our team was actually able to go back in (and) automate those procedures, which we know will help us during the upcoming flow.”
Along with addressing the hydrogen leak, engineers replaced the helium valve after finding a bit of rubber debris lodged in the mechanism. They also modified fueling procedures to eliminate some of the pressure and temperature issues experienced earlier.
Mounted atop a powerful crawler-transporter, the SLS rocket and its mobile launch stage were hauled back out to the launch pad June 6, setting the stage for this weekend’s fourth attempt to complete the rehearsal.
Assuming the test goes well, NASA will move the rocket back to the VAB one more time for final flight preparations.
NASA hopes to finally launch the SLS in late August, boosting an unpiloted Orion crew capsule on a test flight beyond the moon and back. The first piloted mission, a flight carrying four astronauts around the moon, is planned for 2023 with a landing in the 2025 timeframe.
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Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida with the Globalstar FM15 voice and data relay satellite. Follow us on Twitter.
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SpaceX raised a Falcon 9 rocket vertical on pad 40 Saturday in preparation for launch with the Globalstar FM15 satellite. Credit: SpaceX
Globalstar is set to add a spare spacecraft to its commercial data relay network early Sunday with a launch from Cape Canaveral on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, but the satellite operator remained silent about the mission on the eve of liftoff.
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A Falcon 9 rocket soars by the moon in the sky over California’s Central Coast, carrying Germany’s SARah 1 military imaging satellite into orbit. Credit: Brian Sandoval / Spaceflight Now
A four-ton, cloud-penetrating radar observation satellite for the German military soared into orbit Saturday from California on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, beginning a 10-year mission to collect all-weather reconnaissance imagery.
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SpaceX launched 53 more Starlink internet satellites Friday on a Falcon 9 booster that flew for the 13th time. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 booster for a record-breaking 13th time Friday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, hauling 53 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit as astronomers renew concerns about the growing brightness of the latest generation of the broadband relay spacecraft.
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Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with the SARah 1 radar reconnaissance satellite for the German military. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
SpaceX Webcast
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A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready for launch with Germany’s SARah 1 radar satellite. Credit: SpaceX
The first satellite in a nearly billion-dollar program to provide the German military with improved radar surveillance imagery from space is set to rocket into a polar orbit Saturday from California’s Central Coast on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher.
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The first segment of SpaceX’s Starship launch tower moves by the Vehicle Assembly Building late Wednesday on the way to pad 39A. Credit: Steven Young / Spaceflight Now
The first segment of a new launch tower for SpaceX’s behemoth Starship rocket moved across the Kennedy Space Center late Wednesday to pad 39A, where the company is poised to erect one of the tallest structures at the Cape Canaveral spaceport.
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Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Starlink 4-19 mission launched SpaceX’s next batch of 53 Starlink broadband satellites. Follow us on Twitter.
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Artist’s concept of the Lunar Pathfinder spacecraft. Credit: SSTL
NASA and the European Space Agency have agreed that a pathfinder data relay satellite to support missions on the polar regions and the far side of the moon will be launched on a commercial U.S. rocket, deepening trans-Atlantic ties on the Artemis lunar program, officials said Wednesday.
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File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket on pad 39A on Dec. 8, 2021. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
SpaceX teams in Florida and California are preparing for three missions from three launch pads in three days, beginning Friday with a launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with a reusable Falcon 9 booster flying for a record 13th time.
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The UltraFlex solar arrays on NASA’s Lucy spacecraft unfold during a ground test at a Lockheed Martin test facility in Colorado. Credit: Lockheed Martin
Engineers have made progress in attempts to fully unfurl a solar array wing that snagged on NASA’s Lucy asteroid explorer shortly after launch last October, adding to optimism that the spacecraft can complete its 12-year mission as planned.
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Momentus’ Vigoride orbital transfer vehicle. Credit: Niall David / Momentus
The first test flight of a commercial orbital transfer vehicle from Momentus is suffering from a problem with its solar panels after launching last month on a SpaceX rocket, and the company said Monday that its confidence in completing the spacecraft’s demonstrations has “substantially declined.”
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An aerial photo of SpaceX’s Starship launch complex near Boca Chica Beach, Texas. Credit: SpaceX
The FAA will require SpaceX to take more than 75 actions to reduce the environmental effects of flying its gigantic 40-story-tall Starship rocket from South Texas, but regulators found no significant impacts and moved SpaceX a step closer to receiving a launch license.
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