Rockets vibrate, shake, and flex intensely as they climb into space, and spacecraft packed with delicate scientific instruments must survive those forces. Before any rocket leaves the ground, NASA engineers work to predict how those stresses will affect every part of a spacecraft. To do that, engineers in the Dynamic Environments Group with NASA’s Launch […]
In accordance with a contract on-ramp clause, NASA has added Blue Origin’s New Glenn 9×4 launch service to the NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract. The New Glenn 9×4 launch service will be available to NASA’s Launch Services Program Office to use for future missions. The NLS II contracts are multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts with an […]
NASA has selected SpaceX to provide launch services for the agency’s StarBurst mission, a small satellite designed to investigate neutron star mergers and the origins of short gamma-ray bursts. StarBurst will launch aboard a Bandwagon rideshare mission on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida […]
A NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract has been awarded by the agency to Relativity Space Inc., and its Terran R launch service in accordance with the contract’s on-ramp provision. The Terran R launch service will be available to NASA’s launch services to use for future missions. The NLS II contracts are multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts […]
Growing up on the central California coast, watching rocket launches with his father was part of Eric Fernandez’s childhood routine. Fernandez had posters of rockets on the wall, but despite being fascinated by them, he never imagined one day this would be his career. Because both of his grandparents had served at Vandenberg Air Force […]
NASA has selected Rocket Lab to provide the launch service for both the agency’s PolSIR (Polarized Submillimeter Ice-cloud Radiometer) and Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor-2 (TSIS-2) missions. The two selections are part of NASA’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract. This contract allows the agency to award fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity launch […]
Rohit Goeptar was born into a poor family in Suriname, South America, the kind where both parents work three jobs and they still can only provide food and shelter for their family. At around age six, his family moved to California to start a new life. Only two years later, he moved back to South America […]
NASA announced Friday that Brian Hughes will return to the agency as senior director of launch operations, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In this role, Hughes will provide enterprise-level leadership, strategic direction, and operational oversight for NASA’s launch infrastructure. Reporting to NASA Headquarters in Washington, Hughes will have direct responsibility for […]
Technicians at NASA’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida offloaded eight high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) wall modules and other ground support equipment on April 27. The equipment will support launch processing of the agency’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Each 1,800-pound module enhances the PHSF’s clean room systems, helping meet […]
Preparations are underway for launch of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope as soon as early September on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Roman space telescope will provide deep, panoramic views of the cosmos, generating never-before-seen pictures that will revolutionize our understanding of […]