NASA Selects SpaceX Falcon Heavy to Launch Psyche Metallic Asteroid Mission

NASA selects SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket to launch Psyche mission to metallic asteroid in 2022. File photo from Falcon Heavy 2 launch.  Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

28 February 2020

Ken Kremer – - For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM 

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL- NASA has selected the heavy lift SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket to launch the agency’s Psyche mission on the first ever mission to a metallic asteroid.

Liftoff of the Psyche mission currently is targeted to launch in July 2022 on the triple core Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Read the entire story at Space UpClose:
https://www.spaceupclose.com/2020/02/nasa-selects-spacex-falcon-heavy-to-launch-psyche-metallic-asteroid-mission/

NASA Mathematician and Racial Trailblazer Katherine Johnson Dies at Age 101

NASA research mathematician Katherine Johnson is photographed at her desk at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Born on Aug. 26, 1918, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, Johnson worked at Langley from 1953 until her retirement in 1986.  Credits: NASA

24 February 2020

Ken Kremer – - SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM 

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL –NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson who calculated critical flight trajectories that helped launch America’s first astronauts safely into space and back including Alan Shepard and John Glenn and later helped land NASA’s Apollo 11 astronauts on the Moon and who was also a legendary trailblazing leader in civil rights, racial and gender equality passed away today, Feb. 24, at the phenomenal age of 101.

Read the entire story at Space UpClose:

https://www.spaceupclose.com/2020/02/nasa-mathematician-and-racial-trailblazer-katherine-johnson-dies-at-age-101/

Space Adventures Announces Plan to Launch Private Space Tourists on SpaceX Crew Dragon

View inside SpaceX Crew Dragon. Credit: SpaceX

19 February 2020

Ken Kremer - - For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM 

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL –  Hot on the heels of SpaceX success in manufacturing, testing and delivering the first Crew Dragon spacecraft to Florida for launching NASA astronauts to space from American soil for the first time in nearly a decade, Space Adventures has contracted with SpaceX to launch private paying space tourists to Earth orbit for a multiday high frontier excursion as soon as late 2021.

Read the entire story at Space UpClose:
https://www.spaceupclose.com/2020/02/space-adventures-announces-plan-to-launch-private-space-tourists-on-spacex-crew-dragon/

Nine Finalists Selected for NASA's Mars 2020 Rover Naming Contest

This illustration depicts NASA's next Mars rover, which launches in July 2020. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

20 February 2020

Ken Kremer – - SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM 

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – After conducting a nationwide contest where kindergarten through 12^th grade students across the United States submitted essays to "Name the Rover" NASA has selected 9 candidate names as finalists “to come up with a fitting name for NASA's Mars 2020 rover.” 

Read the entire story at Space UpClose:

https://www.spaceupclose.com/2020/02/nine-finalists-selected-for-nasas-mars-2020-rover-naming-contest/

NASA Mars 2020 Rover Arrives at Kennedy Space Center Launch Base for July Blastoff

The Mars 2020 rover is offloaded from a C-17 aircraft at the Launch and Landing Facility, formerly the Shuttle Landing Facility, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 12, 2020. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

18 February 2020

Ken Kremer – - SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM 

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s Mars 2020 rover has arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Florida launch base for final processing ahead of blastoff  slated for July – after departing the only home she has ever known and where she was lovingly created by engineers working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.  

Read the entire story at Space UpClose:
https://www.spaceupclose.com/2020/02/nasa-mars-2020-rover-arrives-at-kennedy-space-center-launch-base-for-july-blastoff/

Beautiful Blastoff SpaceX Falcon 9 with 5th Batch Starlink Broadband Satellites, Misses Booster Landing: Photos

Recycled SpaceX Falcon 9 blasts off on 5th Starlink mission from  Space Launch Complex-40 at 10:05 a.m. ET on 17 Feb 2020 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida – as seen in this view from the Max Brewer Bridge along the Indian River Lagoon with exhaust flames reflecting in the water in between 2 boats with top half of NASA’s VAB bedecked in fog. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

17 February 2020

Ken Kremer - - For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL – Under foggy skies that enveloped the launch pad in the hours leading up to launch and for a time threatened to postpone liftoff, and after days of delays due to poor weather and technical problems with the SpaceX rocket, a quadruple recycled Falcon 9 booster blasted off successfully into a  mix of sun and low clouds-morning Monday morning Feb. 17 with the next batch of  Starlink broadband internet satellites from the Florida Space Coast. 

Read the entire story at Space UpClose:
https://www.spaceupclose.com/2020/02/beautiful-blastoff-spacex-falcon-9-with-5th-batch-starlink-broadband-satellites-photos/

SpaceX Falcon 9 Set for 5th Launch of Starlink Broadband Satellites Feb. 17: Photos/Watch Live

Up Close nose cone view of SpaceX Falcon 9 resting horizontal at Space Launch Complex-40 the day before planned launch on 5th Starlink mission on 17 Feb 2020 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

16 February 2020

Ken Kremer - - For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL – After days of delays due to poor weather and technical problems with the rocket, a recycled SpaceX Falcon 9 is slated to launch Monday morning Feb. 17 with the next batch of  Starlink broadband internet satellites – and the weather outlook is very good!

Read the entire story at Space UpClose:

https://www.spaceupclose.com/2020/02/spacex-falcon-9-set-for-5th-launch-of-starlink-broadband-satellites-feb-17-photos-watch-live/