It’s been a long time coming, but NASA’s next moon rocket is just months from liftoff on its first uncrewed test flight. The Space Launch System (SLS) is a super heavy-lift vehicle capable of delivering 95 tons to Low Earth Orbit, but its primary purpose will be to deliver humans to lunar orbit and, eventually, to the lunar surface. SLS has been in development since 2,011 and it’s faced a series of delays, but launch day is finally within sight. Earlier this month, the rocket was fully stacked for the first time in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center, and the Orion capsule (the spacecraft’s crew cabin) was attached to the top. The full stack stands an impressive 322 feet tall, just shy of the Saturn V’s 363 feet.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson (a former astronaut himself) told reporters that “with stacking and integration of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft complete, we’re getting closer and closer to embarking on a new era of human deep space exploration…Thanks to the team’s hard work designing, manufacturing, testing, and now completing assembly of NASA’s new rocket and spacecraft, we’re in the home stretch of preparations for the first launch on the Artemis I mission, paving the way to explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond for many years to come.”
With stacking complete, the next major task will be to roll the rocket out to the pad, where a full wet dress rehearsal will take place. The wet rehearsal involves loading propellant into the vehicle and performing a countdown, testing every aspect of the mission just shy of actually blasting off. The exact date for liftoff of Artemis 1 will be determined after the wet dress rehearsal ensures everything is in good working order.
Starbase, the city that never sleeps.
As the Federal Aviation Administration conducts research into SpaceX’s Texas project, a new video shows the company hard at work on its big rocket.
It takes seven months to get to Mars in an efficiently engineered spaceship, covering the distance of 480 million kilometers. On this journey, a crew would have to survive in a confined space with no opportunity to experience nature or interact with new people. It is easy to imagine how this much isolation could have a severe impact on the crew’s well-being and productivity.
The challenges long-duration space travelers experience are not foreign to regular folk, although to … See more.
A historian traces the Tesla founder’s passion for space exploration and other futuristic pursuits to dystopian novels and a grandfather’s eccentric convictions.
With the maiden orbital flight of Starship approaching, Orbital Launch Pad A in Starbase, Texas, is being built up to launch readiness. Over a year of construction has brought the complex’s various elements to the verge of launching the most powerful rocket in history.
Assembly Timeline
SpaceX started construction of the orbital launch pad on June 22 2020, when teams began to install the concrete rebar for the six pillars of the orbital launch mount. After building up steel rebar for reinforcement, a steel cylinder was sleeved over the rebar and each pillar was filled with concrete, covered, then left to cure.
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The third Crew Dragon mission to the ISS will launch on Halloween. Here’s your guide to the launch schedule and how to see it live.
SpaceX had to fix the toilet on its capsule before this mission could fly.
Early in the morning on October 31st, SpaceX will launch its next astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA, part of the company’s Crew-3 mission. Liftoff is scheduled for 2:21AM ET out of Cape Canaveral, Florida.