Monthly Archives: June 2022

Delta Launch Readiness Review Concludes, Prelaunch News Conference Set for 11:00 p.m. EST

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen at sunset on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Crew-3 mission, Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission is the third crew rotation mission of the SpaceX…

SLS Booster Fired up to Test Improved Design for Future Artemis Missions

A team of NASA and Northrop Grumman engineers fired a 2-foot-diameter, subscale solid rocket booster on Dec. 2, 2021, at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This test, conducted in Marshall’s East Test Area, was the second of three tests supporting the Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) program, which will have an…

March Equinox Welcomes ‘Astronomical’ Spring

by Lance D. Davis Did you know our planet has two types of seasons? They are meteorological and astronomical. What’s the difference? “Meteorological seasons” follow the changing of the calendar, month to month, and are based on the annual temperature cycle – seasonal temperature variations modified by fluctuations in the amount of solar radiation received…

IXPE Checks Out X-rays from Extreme Objects

NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission, a joint effort with the Italian Space Agency, has returned data that no other spacecraft has obtained before from a few extreme cosmic objects. NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) Launched in December 2021, IXPE has detected polarized X-rays from three of its first six targets. Polarized X-rays…