NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida remains closed as Hurricane Milton moves off the coast.
The safety of everyone impacted by the storm remains our top priority as the agency begins the assessment and recovery process from the hurricane.
Once the winds subsided to a safe level, the center’s Ride Out Team and engineering teams began initial checkouts to ensure bridges are safe and useable. Later, a larger assessment team will thoroughly check the entire center.
The agency’s Europa Clipper launch team will schedule an official launch date when teams from NASA and SpaceX are able to perform their assessments, and confirm its safe to launch. Teams are working to protect launch opportunities no earlier than Sunday, Oct. 13. Clipper has launch opportunities through Wednesday, Nov. 6.
NASA will provide more information on Clipper launch opportunities as it becomes available.
Tag: kennedy space center
NASA, SpaceX Secure Europa Clipper Ahead of Hurricane
NASA and SpaceX are standing down from the Thursday, Oct. 10, launch attempt of the agency’s Europa Clipper mission due to anticipated hurricane conditions in the area. Hurricane Milton is expected to move from the Gulf of Mexico this week moving east to the Space Coast. High winds and heavy rain are expected in the Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island regions on Florida’s east coast. Launch teams have secured NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft in SpaceX’s hangar at Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of the severe weather, and the center began hurricane preparations Sunday.
“The safety of launch team personnel is our highest priority, and all precautions will be taken to protect the Europa Clipper spacecraft,” said Tim Dunn, senior launch director at NASA’s Launch Services Program.
On Oct. 4, workers transported NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft from the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in the hangar as part of final launch preparations ahead of its journey to Jupiter’s icy moon. While Europa Clipper’s launch period opens Oct. 10, the window provides launch opportunities until Wednesday, Nov. 6.
Once the storm passes, recovery teams will assess the safety of the spaceport before personnel return to work. Then launch teams will assess the launch processing facilities for damage from the storm.
“Once we have the ‘all-clear’ followed by facility assessment and any recovery actions, we will determine the next launch opportunity for this NASA flagship mission,” said Dunn.
NASA’s Mobile Launcher Rolls Ahead of Artemis II Preparation
NASA rolled closer to integrating elements of the Artemis II Moon rocket together as teams with the agency’s Exploration Ground Systems Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida began moving the mobile launcher 1 from Launch Complex 39B along a 4.2 mile stretch back to the Vehicle Assembly Building. First motion of the mobile launcher, atop NASA’s crawler-transporter 2, occurred at 12:09 a.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 3.
Teams rolled the mobile launcher out to Kennedy’s Pad 39B in August 2023 for upgrades and a series of ground demonstration tests in preparation for NASA’s Artemis II mission. These preparations ranged from a launch day demonstration for the crew, closeout crew, and the pad rescue team, to testing the emergency egress system, water flow system, and the new liquid hydrogen sphere at the launch pad.
On its way to transport the mobile launcher back from the pad, NASA’s crawler-transporter 2 also achieved a milestone nearly 60 years in the making. Already designated by Guinness World Records as the heaviest self-powered vehicle – larger than a baseball infield and weighing approximately 6.65 million pounds – the crawler reached 2,500 miles traveled since its construction in 1965.
The mobile launcher is expected to arrive outside the Vehicle Assembly Building around 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct.3, before the Exploration Ground Systems teams move it into High Bay 3 on Friday, Oct.4.
Follow the livestream of the mobile launcher on the move.
NASA Completes Flight Readiness Review for GOES-U Mission
NASA, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), SpaceX, and GOES-U (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-U) mission managers met on June 20 to conduct a Flight Readiness Review at NASA’S Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the review, teams provided an update on the mission status and certified the readiness to proceed with final launch preparation activities.
Teams will connect the weather satellite to a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as one of the final preparations for launch. Once the satellite and rocket are fully integrated, SpaceX will roll the Falcon Heavy rocket carrying NOAA’s GOES-U satellite from the hangar to the launch pad.
NASA is targeting launch Tuesday, June 25, with the two-hour launch window opening at 5:16 p.m. EDT. The mission will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at the Florida spaceport. This will be the first GOES mission to launch on a Falcon Heavy, and the 10th Falcon Heavy mission for SpaceX.
On board GOES-U are seven instruments, including a new, operational Compact Coronagraph-1 instrument. As a part of NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On Program, the coronagraph will observe the Sun’s outermost layer, called the corona, for large explosions of plasma that could produce geomagnetic solar storms. These solar storms can impact satellites, crewed space missions, and Earth and space-based infrastructure.
The GOES-U satellite is the fourth and final in NOAA’s GOES-R series of advanced satellites that provide rapid, high-resolution imagery and atmospheric measurements of Earth’s Western Hemisphere, real-time mapping of lightning activity, and monitoring of solar activity and space weather.
To learn more about the GOES-U mission, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/goes/
Continue checking NASA’s GOES blog for additional mission updates, or join the conversation and get updates on social media by following these accounts:
X: @NASA, @NASA_LSP, @NASAKennedy, @NOAASatellites, @NASAGoddard
Facebook: NASA, NASA LSP, NASA Kennedy, NOAA Satellites, NASA Goddard
Instagram: NASA, NASA Kennedy, NOAA Satellites
Advanced Weather Satellite Moves Closer to Launch
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U (GOES-U) has now passed several important milestones ahead of its upcoming launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Technicians at Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, Florida lifted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) GOES-U satellite onto the payload adapter and the payload attach fitting on June 10, enabling GOES-U to securely attach to the top of its Falcon Heavy rocket.
This milestone follows recent fueling operations where teams loaded over 5,000 pounds of hypergolic propellant and oxidizer into the satellite, which will be used to provide it with thrust in orbit. The GOES-U satellite now weighs a total of 10,956 pounds.
Teams next encapsulated the 20-foot-tall satellite inside two payload fairing halves in preparation for connecting it to the rocket on June 13.
During the ascent phase of the launch, the fairing halves will protect GOES-U from aerodynamic pressure and heating. Once GOES-U no longer requires this protection, approximately four minutes after liftoff, the halves will be jettisoned and return to Earth, where SpaceX crews will recover them for use on future missions.
After encapsulation, workers transported the spacecraft from Astrotech’s facility to NASA Kennedy and SpaceX’s hangar at the spaceport’s Launch Complex 39A, on June 15.
The next mission milestone includes connecting the encapsulated GOES-U to the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket ahead of rolling the stack out to the launch pad.
NASA is targeting a two-hour window opening at 5:16 p.m. EDT on June 25, for the launch of GOES-U aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy. Following launch, the spacecraft will complete a nearly three-week journey to its destination in geostationary orbit 22,236 miles above the equator, allowing the satellites to continually view the Western Hemisphere.
As the fourth and final satellite in NOAA’s GOES-R Series, GOES-U will enhance meteorologists’ ability to provide advanced weather forecasting and warning capabilities. GOES-U also will improve detection and monitoring of space weather hazards using a new compact coronagraph instrument.
NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, manages the launch service for the GOES-U mission. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland oversees the acquisition of the spacecraft and instruments. Lockheed Martin designs, builds, and tests the GOES-R series satellites. L3Harris Technologies provides the primary instrument, the Advanced Baseline Imager, along with the ground system, which includes the antenna system for data reception.
Continue checking NASA’s GOES blog for additional mission updates, or join the conversation and get updates on social media by following these accounts:
X: @NASA, @NASA_LSP, @NASAKennedy, @NOAASatellites, @NASAGoddard
Facebook: NASA, NASA LSP, NASA Kennedy, NOAA Satellites, NASA Goddard
Instagram: NASA, NASA Kennedy, NOAA Satellites
NASA Hosts Prelaunch Media Viewing of NOAA’s GOES-U
NASA hosted members of the media to view the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U (GOES-U), on June 6, at the Astrotech Space Operations facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Subject matter experts from NASA, NOAA, Lockheed Martin, and L3Harris Technologies provided a mission overview and answered questions about the satellite’s capabilities to assist meteorologists with predicting, observing, and tracking hazardous weather events on Earth and in space.
The opportunity provided media with a last look at the final weather-observing and environmental monitoring satellite in NOAA’s GOES-R Series before technicians prepare it for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
The satellite will carry a suite of instruments for advanced imagery, atmospheric measurements, real-time mapping of lightning activity, and detecting approaching space weather hazards. The satellite also includes a new compact coronagraph that will image the outer layer of the Sun’s atmosphere to detect and characterize coronal mass ejections.
The two-hour launch window for GOES-U opens at 5:16 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, June 25, from Launch Complex 39A at the Florida spaceport.
NASA’s Europa Clipper Makes Cross Country Flight to Florida
NASA’s Europa Clipper, a spacecraft designed to investigate Jupiter’s icy moon Europa and its potential to support life, arrived in Florida on May 23. The spacecraft, assembled at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, landed aboard a United States Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft at the Launch and Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
The mission aims to gather detailed measurements of the moon’s surface, interior, and space environment by performing approximately 50 close flybys, some as low as 16 miles from the surface of Europa, which holds a global ocean underneath its ice shell.
“My job for Europa Clipper is to ensure the team meets all the ground and flight requirements to place the spacecraft in the proper orbit to initiate the long journey to Jupiter,” said Armando Piloto, Europa Clipper mission manager for NASA’s Launch Services Program. “The team is excited that the spacecraft is in Florida for processing. We’re pairing Europa Clipper with a fully expendable SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket to ensure it provides the required performance to explore a destination very far away from Earth.”
Teams at Kennedy spent several hours offloading Europa Clipper before transferring it to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, where they will process the spacecraft and perform final checkouts as part of prelaunch preparations.
Europa Clipper joins the spacecraft’s two five-panel solar arrays that arrived at Kennedy in March. The arrays, each 46.5 feet long (14.2 meters), will collect enough sunlight to power the spacecraft on its way to Jupiter’s moon. Technicians will install the arrays on the spacecraft before launch.
The spacecraft was designed to withstand the pummeling of radiation from Jupiter and gather the measurements needed to investigate Europa’s surface, interior, and space environment.
Europa Clipper has nine dedicated science instruments, including cameras, spectrometers, a magnetometer, and an ice-penetrating radar. These instruments will study Europa’s icy shell, the ocean beneath, and the composition of the gases in the moon’s atmosphere and surface geology, and provide insights into the moon’s potential habitability. The spacecraft also will carry a thermal instrument to pinpoint locations of warmer ice and any possible eruptions of water vapor. Strong evidence shows the ocean beneath Europa’s crust is twice the volume of all the Earth’s oceans combined.
The Europa Clipper mission demonstrates NASA’s commitment to exploring our solar system and searching for habitability beyond Earth. The data will contribute to our understanding of the Jovian system and will help pave the way for potential future missions to study Europa and other potentially habitable worlds.
Europa Clipper is expected to reach the Jupiter system in April 2030, and it will accomplish a few milestones along the way, including a Mars flyby in February 2025 that will help propel the spacecraft toward Jupiter’s moon through a Mars-Earth gravity assist trajectory.
“After two years of painstaking work on the spacecraft here at JPL, with the help of our partners, it was bittersweet to see the spacecraft encased in its shipping container and on its way to Florida,” said Jordan Evans, Europa Clipper project manager at JPL. “But we already have Europa Clipper engineers and technicians at Kennedy who are welcoming this precious cargo and are set to accomplish the final assembly and testing so that we’re ready for launch.”
NASA and SpaceX are targeting launch aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy later this year. The launch period opens on Oct. 10. After testing and final preparations are complete, the spacecraft will be encapsulated in a protective payload fairing and moved to the SpaceX hangar at the launch complex.
Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The main spacecraft body was designed by APL in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.
NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, manages the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
Dreams Become Reality for NASA’s Boeing Flight Test Crew
Momentum is building for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test launch, scheduled for Monday, May 6, 2024.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived in a T-38 jet April 25 at the Launch and Landing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a short flight from Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA leaders welcomed Wilmore and Williams and held a short news conference.
“Our hearts and souls are in this spacecraft and a little part of us will be lifting off with Butch and Suni,” said NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Deputy Manager Dana Hutcherson, who has been with the program for 13 years.
Wilmore and Williams are targeting 10:34 p.m. EDT Monday, May 6, for launch aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and ULA’s (United Launch Alliance) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This will be the first crewed flight of Starliner for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
Click below to watch the earlier broadcast of the welcome ceremony.
NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test Astronauts Enter Quarantine for Mission
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who are set to launch to the International Space Station on Monday, May 6, entered pre-flight quarantine in preparation for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test mission.
Flight crew health stabilization is a standard process ahead of any human spaceflight mission to ensure the health and safety of the crew prior to liftoff, as well as prevent sickness of the astronauts at the space station. During quarantine, astronaut contact is limited, and most interactions are remote – although family and some launch team members also may be in quarantine or cleared before interacting with the crew.
Wilmore and Williams will launch aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on a ULA (United Launch Alliance) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The duo will make history as the first people to fly on the Starliner spacecraft.
Wilmore and Williams will quarantine at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston before traveling to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlier than Thursday, April 25, where they’ll remain in quarantine until launch.
Meanwhile, teams also are preparing for the Flight Test Readiness Review, which will take place over the course of two days – Wednesday, April 24, and April 25. That review brings together teams from NASA, Boeing, ULA, and its international partners to verify mission readiness including all systems, facilities, and teams that will support the end-to-end test of the Starliner.
Following a successful flight test, NASA will begin certifying the Starliner system for regular crew rotation missions to space station for the agency.
Launch is scheduled no earlier than 10:34 p.m. EDT May 6.
Learn more about NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test by following the mission blog, the commercial crew blog, @commercial_crew on X, and commercial crew on Facebook.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
NASA, Boeing Update Launch Date for Starliner’s First Astronaut Flight
The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is lifted at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on May 4, 2022. Photo credit: NASA/Frank MichauxFollowing a review of the International Space Station operations, NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test now is targeting no earlier than Monday, May 6, for Starliner’s first launch with astronauts to the orbital complex. The date adjustment optimizes space station schedule of activities planned toward the end of April, including a cargo spacecraft undocking and a crew spacecraft port relocation required for Starliner docking. NASA and Boeing also are performing prelaunch closeout work and completing final certification for flight.
Starliner will carry NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the space station for a docking to the forward port of the Harmony module. Ahead of Starliner’s launch, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 crewmates will board the Dragon spacecraft, currently docked to the forward port, for a relocation to the zenith port of Harmony to allow for Starliner docking. The date shift also allows additional time for the crew aboard the microgravity laboratory to complete science and cargo logistics ahead of the departure of the Dragon cargo spacecraft.
As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, Starliner will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Williams and Wilmore will spend about a week docked to the space station ahead of a return to Earth in the western United States. The flight test will help NASA verify whether the Starliner system is ready to fly regular crew rotation missions to space station for the agency.