The main engine has cut off, and second stage engine has ignited as planned on the Falcon 9 rocket carrying GRACE-FO to orbit. The payload fairing, which protects the payloads during launch, has been jettisoned.
The Expedition 55 crew members had a full complement of work today as they conducted microgravity research, trained to capture a resupply ship and prepared for a June spacewalk. Astronaut Norishige Kanai explored how living and working in space affects everything from fluid physics to the human body today. He first set up hardware to …
The SpaceX Falcon rocket lifted off Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force at 12:47 p.m. PDT, carrying the NASA/German Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On mission. In about two and a half minutes, a series of critical milestones will occur in rapid succession, starting with main engine cutoff.
As the GRACE Follow-On countdown continues, science teams in the U.S. and Germany and mission control team at the German Spacecraft Operations Center (GSOC, shown here) are both GO for launch. NASA’s GRACE-FO partner, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), subcontracted mission operations to the German Space Agency, which operates GSOC. Credit: NASA/Jim Round
The fueling of the SpaceX Falcon 9 has begun.
It’s a beautiful day for a launch. In several locations around Vandenberg Air Force Base, and at the German Space Operations Center near Munich, engineers and scientists from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission are at their computers and communications consoles for the countdown and go/no go poll to verify all systems …
Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) chilled out recently with a pressurization test of the liquid oxygen (LO2) tank at Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida – Pad 39B, recently upgraded by the EGS team for the agency’s new Space Launch System rocket. The six-hour test of the giant sphere checked for leaks …
The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the GRACE-FO twin satellites was raised into the vertical launch position this evening at Space Launch Complex 4E, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Liftoff is scheduled for 12:47 p.m. PDT tomorrow, May 22. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
At this morning’s briefing on the GRACE-FO mission at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, U.S. Air Force Capt. Jennifer Haden, weather officer with the 30th Space Wing, reported a greater than 90 percent chance of favorable weather for liftoff tomorrow, May 2.. For once, the central California coastline’s predominant fog is predicted to be …
Orbital-ATK 9 (OA-9) Launch: OA-9 launched from the Wallops Flight Facility this morning at 08:44:06 GMT (3:44 CT). The Cygnus solar arrays have been deployed nominally. OA-9 capture and berthing to the ISS is planned for Thursday 24-May. Atomization: This morning a crewmember set up and activated the Atomization hardware in the Multi-purpose Small Payload …
