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Tuesday’s launch attempt of NOAA’s DSCOVR spacecraft aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was scrubbed because upper level winds were outside of limits established to ensure safe flight through the atmosphere. Today, data from the first weather balloon are characterized as “dramatically improved” and upper level winds currently are “Green.” As on Tuesday, managers and …

The Expedition 42 crew worked on numerous science investigations Wednesday after releasing the SpaceX Dragon for its splashdown Tuesday. The six orbital lab assistants studied such things as exercise loads in space, plant growth and changes to vision during long duration space missions. The Force Shoes study will help researchers design better training programs and …

NOAA’s DSCOVR is slated to launch today at 6:03:32 p.m. EST aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It is an instantaneous launch window. Our continuous countdown coverage will begin at 5 p.m. on NASA Television and here on the NASA Blog. There is …

SpaceX’s Dragon cargo spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at about 7:44 p.m. EST 259 miles southwest of Long Beach, California, marking the end of the company’s fifth contracted cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. The spacecraft is returning about 3,700 pounds of NASA cargo and science samples from the International Space …

Dragon conducted its deorbit burn on time at 5:49pm Central time, 6:49pm Eastern time and is headed for its parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific some 259 statute miles southwest of Long Beach, California. Splashdown time remains approximately 6:44pm Central time, 7:44pm Eastern time (4:44pm at the splashdown site, about 2 hours, 4 minutes before sunset).

The launch teams are resetting for another launch attempt tomorrow, Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 6:03 p.m. EST. The weather forecast calls for a 90 percent chance of acceptable conditions. We will update the countdown status as events warrant here on the blog and our continuous coverage will begin at 5 p.m. along with that of …

The launch team called off today’s launch attempt after upper-level winds continued to be outside acceptable levels.

The launch teams are expecting to begin analyzing the final weather balloon soon as upper-level winds remain red this evening. The data from the next-to-last balloon revealed conditions that are still outside the allowed limits.

It takes a team to launch effective spacecraft and DSCOVR is an example of that. NOAA has worked with NASA to get the spacecraft ready for launch and the U.S. Air Force is providing the SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch DSCOVR. Once in place, DSCOVR will serve NOAA and the nation as an observatory of …

Liquid oxygen at minus-297 degrees F is being pumped into the SpaceX Falcon 9 at this hour as the countdown continues toward a 6:05 p.m. EST liftoff. A portion of the propellant boils off during the countdown and is vented producing the cloud beside the rocket in this image. A trickle of liquid oxygen will …