A massive crane lifts NASA’s Orion spacecraft out of the Final Assembly and System Testing cell and moves it to the altitude chamber to complete further testing on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024, inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The altitude chamber simulates deep space vacuum conditions, and the testing will provide additional data to augment data gained during testing earlier this summer. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett Media are invited to visit NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to capture imagery of…
Read MoreTag: Artemis 2
How to Fly NASA’s Orion Spacecraft
During the Artemis II mission to the Moon, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover will take control and manually fly Orion for the first time, evaluating the handling qualities of the spacecraft during a key test called the proximity operations demonstration. This is how to fly Orion. On NASA’s Artemis II test flight, the first crewed mission under the agency’s Artemis campaign, astronauts will take the controls of the Orion spacecraft and periodically fly it manually during the flight around the Moon and back. The mission provides the first…
Read MoreArtemis II Stacking Operations Update
Engineers and technicians with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program integrate the right forward center segment onto mobile launcher 1 inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. The boosters will help support the remaining rocket components and the Orion spacecraft during final assembly of the Artemis II Moon rocket and provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS (Space Launch System) thrust during liftoff from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B NASA/Kim Shiflett Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program continue…
Read MoreNASA Kennedy Ground Systems Prepping Hardware for Artemis II, Beyond
Teams with NASA are gaining momentum as work progresses toward future lunar missions for the benefit of humanity as numerous flight hardware shipments from across the world arrived at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the first crewed Artemis flight test and follow-on lunar missions. The skyline at Kennedy will soon see added structures as teams build up the ground systems needed to support them. Crews are well underway with parallel preparations for the Artemis II flight, as well as buildup of NASA’s mobile launcher 2 tower for…
Read MoreMedia Day with Artemis II Crews
NASA/Kim Shiflett From left, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jenni Gibbons, NASA astronaut Andre Douglas, CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman participate in a media day event on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Gibbons and Douglas are Artemis II backup crew members. The Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew under the Artemis campaign, sending astronauts on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back. Image…
Read MoreNASA’s Kennedy Space Center Looks to Thrive in 2025
Photographers at NASA capture the sunset on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024, near the headquarters building of the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA/Ben Smegelsky As NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida wraps up a year that will see more than 90 government, commercial, and private missions launch from Florida’s Space Coast, a look to 2025 shows the missions, partnerships, projects, and programs at the agency’s main launch site will continue innovating, inspiring, and pushing the boundaries of exploration for the benefit of humanity. “The next year promises to be…
Read MoreNASA Kennedy Top 24 Stories of 2024
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:06 p.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. SpaceX From sending crew members to the International Space Station to launching a spacecraft to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa to determine if it could support life, 2024 was a busy record setting year for NASA and its partners at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. JANUARYFirst Lunar Lander Takes Flight The first flight of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload…
Read MoreNew Artemis Virtual Meeting Backgrounds Released Celebrating Artemis I, Looking to Artemis II and Beyond
8 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Virtual meetings feeling a little stale? NASA has just unveiled a suite of new Artemis backgrounds to elevate your digital workspace. From the majesty of the Artemis I launch lighting up the night sky to the iconic image of the Orion spacecraft with the Moon and Earth in view, these virtual backgrounds allow viewers to relive the awe-inspiring moments of Artemis I and glimpse the bright future that lies ahead as the Artemis campaign enables humans to live and…
Read MoreSix Ways Supercomputing Advances Our Understanding of the Universe
At NASA, high-end computing is essential for many agency missions. This technology helps us advance our understanding of the universe – from our planet to the farthest reaches of the cosmos. Supercomputers enable projects across diverse research, such as making discoveries about the Sun’s activity that affects technologies in space and life on Earth, building artificial intelligence-based models for innovative weather and climate science, and helping redesign the launch pad that will send astronauts to space with Artemis II. These projects are just a sample of the many on display in…
Read MoreRescuers at the Ready at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
3 Min Read Rescuers at the Ready at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Credits: NASA/Kim Shiflett If there’s an emergency at the launch pad during a launch countdown, there’s a special team engineers at Kennedy Space Center teams can call on – the Pad Rescue team. Trained to quickly rescue personnel at the launch pad and take them to safety in the event of an unlikely emergency, NASA’s Pad Rescue team at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida has been in place since the Apollo Program. Today they help support crewed…
Read More