Tag Archives: Rocket
NASA awards Rocket Lab study contract for Mars Sample Return
NASA Space Technology WASHINGTON — NASA has awarded a contract to Rocket Lab to study alternative concepts for Mars Sample Return (MSR), joining several other efforts to improve the cost and schedule of the program.Rocket Lab said Oct. 7 that it received a contract to study what it called “a simplified, end-to-end mission concept” for MSR that would deliver samples being collected by the Perseverance rover to Earth for a “fraction” of currently projected costs, estimated to be as high as $11 billion, and several years earlier than 2040.NASA solicited concepts for industry studies to look at alternative architectures for MSR or key elements of it, like the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) rocket that will launch the collected samples into orbit around Mars. NASA selected seven companies in June for those studies, but Rocket Lab...
‘I think it was hard not to watch that rocket lift off without thinking, That’s my rocket and that’s my crew.’ How the NASA astronauts bumped from SpaceX’s Crew-9 watched their ride launch without them
NASA Space Technology Two astronauts who were supposed to be in space right now say they are still glad to be part of the ground team.Until recently, NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were assigned to SpaceX's Crew-9 mission. But their Crew Dragon spacecraft left without them on Saturday (Sept. 28) after their seats had to be reassigned in August to bring home two other NASA astronauts currently living on the International Space Station (ISS)."I think it was hard not to watch that rocket lift off without thinking, 'That's my rocket and that's my crew,'" Cardman said during the launch broadcast on NASA+, formerly NASA Television, of the Crew-9 astronauts who did leave Earth: NASA's Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos."It makes me feel very connected to this...
NASA Rocket Discovers New Energization Process in Upper Atmosphere
NASA Space Technology When it comes to discoveries about our upper atmosphere, it pays to know your surroundings.Using data from the Twin Rockets to Investigate Cusp Electrodynamics (TRICE-2) rocket launch, NASA scientist Francesca Di Mare and Gregory Howes from the University of Iowa studied waves traveling down Earth’s magnetic field lines into the polar atmosphere. These waves were known to accelerate electrons, which pick up speed as they “surf” along the electric field of the wave. But their effect on ions — a more heterogenous group of positively charged particles, which exist alongside electrons — was unknown.By estimating the ion mixture they were flying through — predominantly protons and singly-charged oxygen ions — the scientists discovered that these waves were accelerating protons as they circle about the Earth’s magnetic field lines as well as electrons...
NASA Ships Moon Rocket Stage Ahead of First Crewed Artemis Flight
NASA Space Technology NASA rolled out the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s core stage for the Artemis II test flight from its manufacturing facility in New Orleans on Tuesday for shipment to the agency’s spaceport in Florida. The rollout is key progress on the path to NASA’s first crewed mission to the Moon under the Artemis campaign.Using highly specialized transporters, engineers maneuvered the giant core stage from inside NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to the agency’s Pegasus barge. The barge will ferry the stage more than 900 miles to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where engineers will prepare it in the Vehicle Assembly Building for attachment to other rocket and Orion spacecraft elements.“With Artemis, we’ve set our sights on doing something big and incredibly complex that will inspire a new generation, advance...