The five-ton Prichal docking module and its modified, uncrewed Russian Progress delivery spacecraft are safely in orbit headed for the International Space Station following launch at 8:06 a.m. (6:06 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Prichal, named for the Russian word for port or berth, has five available docking ports to accommodate …
NASA and SpaceX are targeting Tuesday, Dec. 21, at 5:06 a.m. EST for launch of the 24th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station. The Dragon spacecraft will lift off aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Dragon will bring food, supplies, and scientific …
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the world’s first full-scale mission to test technology for defending Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards, launched Wednesday at 1:21 a.m. EST on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Just one part of NASA’s larger planetary …
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft has separated from the Falcon 9 second stage and is flying on its own.
A series of events occur after launch. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage main engine will cut off, followed by separation from the second stage. The second stage will ignite, followed by payload fairing jettison from the DART spacecraft about three minutes after liftoff. The second stage will cut off and then restart a …
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft has launched from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Launch time was 10:21 p.m. PST on Nov. 23 (1:21 a.m. Nov. 24). DART will soon be on its voyage to rendezvous with an asteroid.
DART will be the first Launch Services Program (LSP) mission to fly on a previously flown Falcon 9 booster DART will be the first interplanetary mission flown on a Falcon 9 LSP contracted with SpaceX for the DART launch in 2019 through the NASA Launch Services II Contract This is the 97th LSP Launch (since …
The weather officer with Space Launch Delta 30 reports that weather is still 90 percent “go” at launch time for NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission. Conditions at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California are favorable for launch. Winds are 18 miles per hour and temperature is 48 degrees Fahrenheit.
Fueling of the SpaceX Falcon 9 first and second stages is underway. NASA and SpaceX mission and launch managers will begin the final poll for launch. Latest weather update is 90 percent “go” for a launch.
The DART spacecraft and its single instrument, the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical (DRACO) navigation, was built by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in California. DRACO will capture images of the asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos, and support autonomous optical navigation for the DART spacecraft. DART contains several new technologies, including the …
