NASA’s nighttime Artemis 1 moon rocket launch will light up Florida’s coast (visibility map)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s planned launch of the Artemis 1 moon mission will light up the skies tonight, if all goes according to plan. The massive 322-foot (98 meters) Space Launch System (SLS) rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft will lift off during a two-hour window that opens at 1:04 a.m. EST (0604 GMT), if the current plan holds. The launch will illuminate the entirety of the Kennedy Space Center here in Florida but will also be visible for hundreds of miles around, according to a map released by NASA…

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Spacewalking NASA astronauts erect support frame for new ISS solar array

Two NASA astronauts completed the first in a series of three spacewalks to continue upgrading the power supply for the International Space Station (ISS).  Expedition 68 crewmates Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio worked together on Tuesday (Nov. 15) to prepare the exterior of the space station for the addition of two more upgraded solar arrays. Their extravehicular activity (EVA) was the sixth spacewalk since June 2021 to be dedicated to the new ISS Roll Out Solar Arrays, or iROSAs, which are augmenting the station’s existing solar panel wings. Cassada and…

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NASA fuels Artemis 1 moon rocket for long-delayed lunar test flight

 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA has begun fueling its giant new rocket for its first mission to the moon.  The agency began loading propellant into its Artemis 1 moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), at 4:32 p.m. EST (2132 GMT) on Tuesday (Nov. 15), a process expected to take about six hours. Artemis 1 is being fueled ahead of a two-hour launch window that opens at 1:04 a.m. EST (0604 GMT) on Wednesday (Nov. 16). If successful, the launch will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a 26-day mission…

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BlueWalker 3 satellite unfurls biggest commercial communications array ever

A record-breaking communication array just unfurled in space. AST SpaceMobile announced on Monday (Nov. 14) that its prototype BlueWalker 3 satellite had deployed its array. The milestone comes about two months after BlueWalker 3 launched to orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, along with a set of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites.  AST SpaceMobile bills BlueWalker 3’s gear as the largest commercial communications array ever deployed in low Earth orbit; its area is 693 square feet (64 square meters), or roughly the size of a small apartment.  Related: SpaceX and OneWeb…

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