Mission Controllers in Houston will send commands to the 57.7 foot long Canadarm2 to grapple the SpaceX Dragon space freighter Tuesday. The robotic arm will latch on to a grapple fixture ahead of next week’s release of Dragon from the Harmony module. It will splash down off the Pacific coast of Baja California loaded with …
Combustion Integration Rack (CIR): Virts removed the CIR alignment guides in preparation for a FLEX-2 run. The CIR is currently configured for MDCA FLame Extinguishment Experiment (FLEX)-2, binary droplet test session which uses small droplets of fuel to study the special burning characteristics of fire in space. The FLEX-2 experiment studies the rate and manner …
There are three docked space freighters at the International Space Station and two are scheduled to depart this month. The SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft is being loaded with research and gear for return and analysis back on Earth. The Canadarm2 will detach Dragon from the Harmony module then release it for a splashdown Feb. …
NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive spacecraft is in excellent health, Kent Kellogg, the SMAP project manager, announced during a post-launch press conference. “All subsystems are being powered on and checked out as planned,” he said. “Communications, guidance and control, computers and power are all operating nominally.” The observatory’s instruments won’t be turned on until 11 …
And all three ELaNa X missions are flying free now that ExoCube, a space weather satellite consisting of three CubeSat units, has been deployed.
The GEO-CAPE ROIC In-Flight Performance Experiment, or GRIFEX, has successfully separated from the Delta II. GRIFEX is a technology validation mission consisting of three CubeSat units.
The FIREBIRD-II (A and B) payload has been deployed! This is a two-Cubesat space weather project that will study electron microbursts in the Van Allen radiation belts.
SECO-3. The second-stage engine performed a brief burn in preparation for release of the P-PODs.
A camera on the second stage of the Delta II rocket captured this footage as the SMAP spacecraft pushed itself away from the rocket to complete the delivery of the Earth-observing spacecraft to its proper orbit.
NASA Launch Manager Tim Dunn reports all is well with the SMAP spacecraft following a successful countdown and flawless launch this morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. “We’re in contact with SMAP and everything looks good right now,” Dunn said. “Deployment of the solar arrays is underway. We just couldn’t be happier.” He …
