Weather officials with Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron predict an 80% chance of favorable weather conditions for Thursday’s early morning launch of NASA’s Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) spacecraft from the Space Coast, with the cumulus cloud rule and thick cloud layer rule serving as the primary weather concerns. IXPE is scheduled …
Editor’s Note, Dec. 8, 2021: This post has been updated with more accurate fueling figures. In preparation for launch later this month, ground teams have successfully completed the delicate operation of loading the James Webb Space Telescope with the propellant it will use to steer itself while in space. In order to make critical course …
On Wednesday, Nov. 17, NASA Headquarters held its final review for the mission prior to launch. A week later, on Nov. 24, a review committee approved Webb’s transition to the next stage in its preparations for launch. This week we’ve asked NASA’s Randy Kimble, Webb’s integration, test, and commissioning project scientist, to tell us how …
Earth’s Interface to Space Welcome to Earth’s upper atmosphere, where things get weird. Home to: Earth’s hottest (4,500 degrees F) AND coldest (-120 degrees F) temperatures 50 tons of incoming meteors, daily Air that is literally electric Satellite communications The ionosphere Lucky for us, the Sun’s most harmful rays don’t reach the ground. Instead they’re …
A Total Solar Eclipse in Antarctica! Early this morning, there was a total solar eclipse across Antarctica! During a total solar eclipse, the Moon blocks out the Sun, creating the illusion of night during the day and a breathtaking sight in our sky. Join NASA Edge at 1:30 p.m. EST on NASA TV to see …
Greetings from Earth! Our solar tour begins on Earth. From here, one star shines brighter than all the rest. It’s the closest star and the center of our solar system: our Sun. Earth is in the Goldilocks zone, just the right distance from the Sun to be habitable. A mission to touch the Sun We …
ISS Deboost: On Wednesday, US tracking sources identified a debris conjunction of concern with Object 39915 with a Time of Closest Approach (TCA) of 337/10:33 GMT. Due to this risk, this morning ISS performed a 0.3 m/s retrograde Predetermined Debris Avoidance Maneuver (PDAM) at 07:58 GMT. This conjunction remained at actionable levels since initial notification, …
The Geospace Dynamics Constellation mission – or GDC – is a team of satellites that will study Earth’s upper atmosphere and provide the first direct global measurements of our planet’s dynamic and complex interface with the space environment. This boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space is called the ionosphere-thermosphere (I-T) system.
NASA’s Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) spacecraft recently eclipsed multiple key milestones at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Following a series of “aliveness” tests to verify the health of the spacecraft, teams mated the structure to the payload adapter – a ring that interfaces between the spacecraft and the top of the rocket. …
At 1:58 a.m. CST, 2:58 a.m. EST this morning, the Russian Progress 79, attached to the space station, fired its thrusters for 2 minutes and 41 seconds to slightly lower the station’s orbit. This maneuver provided a healthy margin of separation from a fragment of Pegasus rocket debris (object 39915) that ballistics specialists have been …
