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A tiny asteroid explorer that launched on NASA's moon mission last week still hasn't phoned home. Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout was one of 10 cubesats that hitched a ride to space on NASA's Artemis 1 mission, which launched on Nov. 16. The spacecraft was designed to sail on sunlight to fly past a small asteroid dubbed 2020 GE about a year from now. NEA Scout personnel are hoping that the spacecraft's unusual propulsion strategy could help them track down the cubesat. Packed into the small satellite was a reflective, silvery solar sail that unfolds to 924 square feet (86 square...

NASA unexpectedly lost contact with its moonbound Orion capsule early Wednesday morning (Nov. 23), for reasons that remain unclear. Mission controllers lost communication with Orion at 1:09 a.m. EST (0609 GMT) while reconfiguring a link between the capsule and the Deep Space Network, the set of radio dishes that NASA uses to talk to its farflung spacecraft. Orion is gearing up for a crucial maneuver: It's scheduled to perform an engine burn on Friday (Nov. 25) that will insert the capsule into orbit around the moon. If all goes well, Orion will stay in that orbit for about a week,...

Annis and the other two members of the crew, Billy Cairns and Chad Garrett, were sent to the mobile launch platform at the base of SLS to tighten down "packing nuts," hardware that helps form a tight seal on the replenishment valves through which liquid hydrogen was pumped into the Artemis 1 moon rocket's core stage after the main tanking procedure. Because hydrogen is such a small molecule, it manages to find its way out of even the tightest seals, meaning NASA has to keep replenishing the hydrogen fuel tanks throughout the launch countdown even after main fueling procedures have...

NASA is counting down to the launch of its Artemis 1 mission to the moon at 1:04 a.m. EST (0604 GMT) on Nov. 16. You can watch the launch live in the video stream above.

With a tropical system bearing down on the Sunshine State, NASA has decided to leave the $4.1 billion Artemis 1 rocket on the Cape Canaveral launch pad. This decision has left some worried that the anticipated launch of this rocket may be delayed indefinitely if it receives damage, but NASA is confident that it will be fine. Trending: GOP Governor Receives Unexpected Phone Call After Midterm Victory According to a Tuesday blog post, the space agency stated that they are “working with U.S. Space Force and the National Hurricane Center to monitor Subtropical Storm Nicole.” “NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in...

NASA's star-crossed Space Launch System moon rocket was grounded Saturday for the second time in five days after engineers tried and failed to remotely stop a hydrogen leak in a quick-disconnect fitting where propellants are fed into the giant booster's first stage. Engineers made three attempts to properly "seat" a suspect seal in the 8-inch fitting, but none of them worked and after a "no-go" recommendation from the engineers working the problem, Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson called off the countdown at 11:17 a.m. EDT.

On Monday, NASA failed in its first attempt to launch the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission, with engineers struggling to resolve an engine cooling issue. It’s a wholly unsurprising result, given that NASA was unable to complete a single wet dress rehearsal, of which four were attempted earlier in the year. The space agency appears to be winging it, with the botched launch attempt effectively serving as the fifth wet dress rehearsal, in what is a troubling sign. NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) was supposed to take flight on Monday morning, but instead we’re left wondering about the state of the...

NASA's first female launch director, called her team to their stations in Firing Room 1 at the Kennedy Space Center and began the carefully-scripted 46-hour, 10-minute countdown at 10:23 a.m. EDT. Shortly after the briefing, lightning struck two of the three 600-foot-tall protective towers around the SLS rocket at launch pad 39B. The strike prompted a review of data to make sure no sensitive electrical systems were affected, but initial checks indicated the strikes were "low magnitude." SPACEFLIGHTNOW.COM One question mark going into the countdown is the status of a 4-inch liquid hydrogen quick-disconnect fitting that leaked during a practice...

The SLS will also be carrying a secondary payload, a series of shoeboxes sized satellites that it will jettison as it travels towards the moon. Though the SLS can host 17 of these diminutive science experiments, the Artemis 1 payload will be comprised of 10 units. Cubesats are remarkable for their efficiency, low cost, and compatibility with larger payloads. Though they are usually restricted in mass to between 2.2 and 22 lbs (1 and 10 kilograms), cubesats are usually measured and classified by 'units' (U) with each unit representing a cube of 10 centimeters (3.93 inches) each side. The majority...

This week Firefly Aerospace signed a deal with Northrop Grumman to replace the first stage of the Antares rocket with the first stage of Firefly Beta, this will eliminate the dependence on Russian engines and bring the manufacturing of the major structural parts into the US.Firefly Will Replace Russian Engines On Antares Rocket With Beta Booster | August 11, 2022 | Scott Manley

Live event coverage will air on Space.com courtesy of NASA Television, the NASA mobile app(opens in new tab), and the agency's official website(opens in new tab), with prelaunch activities on Monday, Aug. 22. For anxious toe-tappers, the launch countdown(opens in new tab)starts Saturday, Aug. 27, at 10:23 a.m. ET. Sure, it might not provide the same epic experience that the Earth-shuddering blastoff will offer, but it's the next best thing and you don’t have to worry about the heat, parking hassles, or huge crowds. The stages of the Artemis 1 mission to the moon. (Image credit: NASA) The Artemis 1...

Ticket sales for the Artemis 1 launch, which is targeted for Aug. 29, were so popular after opening Tuesday (Aug. 2) that the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's website was briefly overwhelmed, Florida Today reported(opens in new tab) late last week. A "quick fix" to the website, however, allowed the complex to sell out two of the three package deals within 2.5 hours of opening ticket sales, the report added. The news comes amid expectations that more than 100,000 people will show up on the Space Coast of Florida, which includes the Kennedy Space Center and the nearby Cape Canaveral...

Moonkin Campos — named after Arturo Campus, an electrical engineer who was a key player in bringing the Apollo 13 mission safely back to Earth — is a human-sized test dummy that is now strapped into the commander's chair at the head of the capsule. During the mission, Moonkin will provide NASA scientists with vital data on what future human crew members may experience during flight. Artemis 1 is NASA's first launch test of the Space Launch System megarocket and an uncrewed test flight to the moon for NASA's Artemis program. The data from Moonikin will help NASA prepare astronauts...

The rollout will start Monday at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) and take the Artemis 1 stack on a 4-mile (6.4 kilometers), 8-to-12-hour trek from KSC's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to Pad 39B. You can watch parts of it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA; the agency will apparently livestream views from the VAB when rollout begins and from Pad 39B when the SLS and Orion get there. This will be the second rollout for Artemis 1. The first occurred in mid-March, when SLS and Orion emerged from the VAB around sunset before an audience of hundreds, backdropped by...

One of the dual digital computer units (DCU) in the engine controller for the number four RS-25, Engine 2060, stopped responding beginning on November 23. All four controllers were being powered up for Program Specific Engineering Testing (PSET) on the SLS Core Stage, which is stacked with the full Artemis 1 vehicle in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The dual channels on all four controller units powered up successfully on November 12 during other checkout testing prior to the failure on the 23rd. The engine controller units (ECU)...

The steel cylinder, which will help form one of the two, five-segment motors to be mounted to the Artemis 1 SLS core stage, was among the hardware that was delivered by train to NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Friday (June 12). The segments' cross-country journey began seven days earlier at Northrop Grumman's facility in Promontory, Utah, where the hardware had been serviced and loaded with the solid propellant that will provide more than 75% of the initial thrust for the planned 2021 uncrewed launch. The segments' arrival on the Florida East Coast railroad marked the first delivery of the booster...

NASA is in final preparation stages for its Artemis 1 moon mission, which will be the first in its Artemis series of missions which intend to return an American man to the Moon, and bring an American woman to the surface of Earth’s natural satellite for the first time. The 335-ft tall mobile launch tower that will send Artemis 1’s Orion capsule to lunar orbit atop a Space Launch System rocket is now on the pad for its last round fo testing before the real thing. NASA’s Artemis 1 mission will fly the Orion crew capsule to space, where it’ll...

NASA's lunar mobile launcher is one step closer to sending its first spacecraft to the moon. The launcher is now in final testing for Artemis 1 — an uncrewed test trip around the moon of the Orion spacecraft slated for 2020 or so — after making its last solo trip to the Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39B on June 27. The launcher will remain at the pad for two months before going inside the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to join the Orion capsule and its rocket, called the Space Launch System (SLS). One day, this same system could...

When a rocket carrying the first module of the International Space Station blasted off from Kazakhstan in November of 1998, NASA officials said that the station would serve as an orbiting home for astronauts and cosmonauts for at least 15 years. It's now been over 18 years that the station has been continuously occupied by people. The place is impressive, with more living space than a six-bedroom house, two bathrooms and a large bay window for looking down at Earth. NASA and its international partners have spent decades and more than $100 billion to make the station a reality. The...