The Canadarm 2 reaches out to grapple a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft and prepare it to be pulled into its port on the International Space Station. Dragon was installed on the Harmony module where remained for the next five weeks. Photo credit: NASA
Next Commercial Resupply Services Mission:SpaceX CRS-13
Space Lift Off:Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Launch Vehicle:SpaceX Falcon 9, 230 feet-tall Spacecraft:Dragon, 20 feet high, 12 feet-in diameter Payload:Dragon will deliver about 4,800 pounds of cargo and material to support science investigations aboard the space station. Return to Earth:After about one month attached to the space station, Dragon will return with results of earlier experiments, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California. Payloads on Board:https://go.nasa.gov/2mMUdSY
NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System-1 spacecraft and a host of small satellites known as CubeSats are beginning their missions following this morning’s successful launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. The on-time liftoff occurred at 1:47:36 a.m. PST (4:47:36 EST) from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
“Things went absolutely perfect today. The weather cooperated, the upper-level winds cooperated, and so did the vehicle, spacecraft and range instruments,” said NASA Launch Manager Omar Baez after launch and ascent activities were complete. “We couldn’t ask for better.”
JPSS-1 is the first in NOAA’s series of four, next-generation operational environmental satellites designed to circle the Earth in a polar orbit. JPSS represents significant technological and scientific advancements in observations used for severe weather prediction and environmental monitoring. This data is used by NOAA’s National Weather Service for numerical forecast models, ultimately helping emergency managers make timely decisions on life-saving early warnings and evacuations. JPSS-1 was Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado.
“The nation has another wonderful weather asset in space,” Baez said.
In the parking lot of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a member of Goodwill Industries loads used household material for recycling. During the two-day event, employees dropped off items as part of America Recycles Day. The center partnered with Goodwill Industries and several other local organizations to collect items for reprocessing. The annual event is a program of Keep America Beautiful, dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling. Photo credit: NASA/ Michelle Stone
Electronic devices such as televisions, computers and cellular telephones play a vital role in daily life. Over time, however, these modern wonders wear out and become waste. NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida recently partnered with Goodwill Industries and several other local organizations to collect these and other used household items as part of America Recycles Day.
The annual event is a nationally recognized program of Keep America Beautiful, dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the U.S. Each year around mid-November, America Recycles Day organizers work to tell Americans about the value of not discarding no-longer-needed items.
Keep America Beautiful Senior Vice President of Recycling Brenda Pulley emphasized the organization’s goal while speaking at a congressional staff briefing during last year’s event.
“Since 1953, Keep America Beautiful has worked to fulfill a vision of a country where every community is a clean, green and beautiful place to live,” she said. “Our mission is to inspire and educate people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment.”
On Nov. 14 and 15, Kennedy employees worked to keep communities around the spaceport clean and green by bringing in items for recycling, dropping them off in the parking lots of the Kennedy Data Center and Vehicle Assembly Building. While much of what was turned in was electronic waste, items included everything from gently used household products, to greeting cards and serviceable eyeglasses.
All totaled, spaceport employees made approximately 295 drop-offs.
These efforts are paying off. According to the website of Keep America Beautiful, over the past 30 years the national recycling rate in the United States has increased by 34 percent.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that electronic products are made from valuable resources and materials. Recycling consumer electronics conserves natural resources and avoids air and water pollution, as well as greenhouse gas emissions caused by manufacturing. Recycling one million laptop computers saves the energy equivalent to the electricity used annually by more than 3,500 U.S. homes. For every million cellphones recycled, 35,000 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered.
The Delta II rocket set to launch NOAA’s JPSS-1 spacecraft stands at Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in this photo taken Nov. 13. Photo credit: NASA/Glenn Benson
The launch of a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket carrying the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 mission for NASA and NOAA is confirmed on the Western Range for Saturday, Nov. 18. The launch time is 1:47 a.m. PST (4:47 a.m. EST).
Join us for updates from the countdown beginning at 1:15 a.m. PST (4:15 a.m. EST) on the JPSS-1 Launch Blog and on NASA TV.
NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System-1 spacecraft will launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Space Launch Complex 2 at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. Launch managers are working to determine a launch date after today’s planned liftoff was scrubbed due to upper-level winds.
The launch of a United Launch Alliance Delta II carrying the JPSS-1 mission for NASA and NOAA was scrubbed today due to a red range and a late launch vehicle alarm. Due to the short window there was insufficient time to fully coordinate a resolution.
The launch is planned for Wednesday, Nov. 15, from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The launch time is 1:47 a.m. PT.
In this photo taken Nov. 13, the tower has rolled away from the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket at Space Launch Complex 2 at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. The rocket now is poised to boost the JPSS-1 satellite to a polar orbit. Photo credit: NASA/Glenn Benson
The tower at Space Launch Complex 2 was rolled back late yesterday, leaving the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket and NOAA’s JPSS-1 satellite poised for liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Liftoff is scheduled for 1:47:35 a.m. PST today. Live countdown coverage begins at 1:15 a.m. on the JPSS-1 Launch Blog and on NASA TV.
Having been dropped from an altitude of 12,500 feet, Sierra Nevada Corp’s Dream Chaser lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California, as part of a successful free flight on Nov. 11, 2017. It was a crucial milestone to help finalize the design for the cargo version of the spacecraft for future resupply missions to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Carla Thomas
Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser spacecraft recently glided to a successful landing at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center located on Edwards Air Force Base in California. Completion of Dream Chaser’s free flight test on Nov. 11, 2017, was a major milestone under a space act agreement with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
NASA selected Sierra Nevada Corporation, along with Orbital ATK and SpaceX, for the agency’s second commercial resupply contracts to deliver critical science, research and technology demonstrations to the International Space Station from 2019 to 2024.
For the free flight test, a Columbia Helicopters model 234-UT heavy-lift helicopter carried aloft an uncrewed Dream Chaser test article, suspended at the end of a cable. The lifting-body, winged spacecraft had all the same outer mold line specifications as a flight-ready vehicle. A lifting body is a fixed-wing aircraft or spacecraft shaped so that the vehicle body itself produces lift.
After release, Dream Chaser glided on its own and landed in a manner similar to NASA’s space shuttles.
“It is very exciting that Sierra Nevada Corporation successfully completed this important free-flight test,” said Steve Stich, deputy manager NASA Commercial Crew Program. “The Dream Chaser team has done an amazing job preparing for and executing this test and the Commercial Crew Program has been with them along the way. The Flight computers and avionics systems are the same as the orbital vehicle so this test will pave the way for future landings for the International Space Station missions.”
For the complete story on Dream Chaser’s first free flight, read the full article at: https://go.nasa.gov/2huQdVo .
At the Heroes and Legends exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, a memorial wreath was placed following a ceremony to honor the memory of former NASA astronaut Richard Gordon. He performed two spacewalks during Gemini XI in 1966 and was command module pilot for Apollo 12 in 1969. Photo credit: NASA/Michelle Stone
In memory of NASA astronaut Richard Gordon, a memorial wreath was placed in the Heroes and Legends exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The brief ceremony took place on the morning of Nov. 9, 2017. Gordon died Nov. 6, 2017, in San Marcos, California at the age of 88.
“NASA and the nation have lost one of our early space pioneers,” acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot said in a statement. “We send our condolences to the family and loved ones of Gemini and Apollo astronaut Richard Gordon, a hero from NASA’s third class of astronauts.”
“Ride ’em cowboy,” said Gemini XI command pilot Pete Conrad as pilot Richard Gordon attaches a tether from the Agena target vehicle to his spacecraft. The tether was later used in an experiment to test the feasibility of creating artificial gravity. Photo credit: NASA
Gordon served as pilot with Pete Conrad on Gemini XI during Sept. 12-15, 1966. On that mission he performed two spacewalks during which he attached a tether from the Agena target vehicle to his spacecraft. Gordon and Conrad also set what was then a world altitude record of 850 miles.
Three years later, Gordon was command module pilot on the Apollo 12 Moon landing mission with Conrad as commander and Alan Bean as lunar module pilot. As Conrad and Bean landed on the Moon on Nov. 19, 1969, Gordon remained in lunar orbit just 60 miles above the surface, taking photographs and conducting experiments. Altogether, he spent more than 316 hours in space during his two space flights.
At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Apollo 12 command module pilot Richard Gordon works in a simulator during training for the lunar mission. Photo credit: NASA
Gordon was born in Seattle, Washington in 1929. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Washington in 1951.
In 1953, Gordon became a naval aviator and attended the All-Weather Flight School and jet transitional training. Gordon attended the Navy’s Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland, in 1957, serving as a flight test pilot until 1960.
Gordon was a member of the group of astronauts selected by NASA in October 1963.
After retiring from the agency and the U.S. Navy in 1972, Gordon served as executive vice president of the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League and held executive positions at several companies in the oil and gas, engineering and technology industries.
Gordon was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in March 1993. In November 2005, he was honored by NASA with an Ambassador of Exploration Award. NASA presented this prestigious recognition to those who flew in the nation’s Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs from 1961 to 1972. Ambassadors of Exploration help NASA communicate the benefits and excitement of space exploration.
The ULA Delta II rocket carrying the JPSS-1 mission for NASA and NOAA is delayed due to a faulty battery. The delay allows the team time to replace the battery on the Delta II booster. The vehicle and spacecraft remain stable. Launch of the JPSS-1 mission is scheduled for no earlier than Tuesday, Nov. 14.
