Orion Spacecraft's Boosters for First Flight Test Arrive at Port Canaveral, Florida

A barge arrives at the U.S. Army Outpost wharf at Port Canaveral in Florida, carrying two of the three United Launch Alliance Delta IV heavy boosters for NASA’s upcoming Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) with the Orion (MPCV) spacecraft.

The core booster and starboard booster will be offloaded and then transported to the Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF), at Space Launch Complex 37 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The port booster and the upper stage are planned to be shipped to Cape Canaveral in April. 

At the HIF, all three boosters will be processed and checked out before being moved to the nearby launch pad and hoisted into position.

Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to destinations in deep space, including an asteroid and Mars.

It will have emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. 

During the uncrewed EFT-1 flight, Orion will travel 3,600 miles into space -- farther than a spacecraft built for humans has been in more than 40 years -- and orbit the Earth twice.

The capsule will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at speeds approaching 20,000 mph, generating temperatures as high as 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

The data gathered during the flight will influence design decisions, validate existing computer models and innovative new approaches to space systems development, as well as reduce overall mission risks and costs for later Orion flights.

Image Credit: NASA

NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis on Display - Video

Space shuttle Atlantis, is on display inside the new $100 million "Space Shuttle Atlantis" exhibit that opened Saturday, June 29, 2013, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. 

The guests' experiences begin even before they enter the building. 

Outside, a towering replica of the shuttle's solid rocket boosters and massive external fuel tank serve as a gateway for the exhibit. 

The facility, itself, was designed to evoke a shuttle returning from space, using iridescent hues of orange and gold to represent the glow of re-entry and a shimmering tile pattern similar in appearance to the orbiter's underbelly.

US National Hurricane Centre: Watching Hurricane Irene

Eric Blake works on tracking Hurricane Irene at the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami, Florida

Picture: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

NOAA Image: Hurricane Irene

A satellite image made and released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on 25 August 2011 at 12:15 GMT shows Hurricane Irene over the Bahamas and south-east of Florida

Picture: EPA / NOAA

Rocket-triggered lightning in Florida

This University of Florida image shows rocket-triggered lightning at the UF/FIT International Centre for Lightning research and Testing near Gainsville, Florida.

Researchers for the first time have captured X-ray images of lightning, a feat that they hope will help them better predict how lightning moves.

A team from the Florida Institute of Technology and University of Florida launched small rockets into thunderclouds.

Using a special camera, the researchers recorded X-rays coming from the resulting light flashes before they hit the ground. Scientists have known that lightning emits X-rays, but they don't fully understand it.

Picture: AP / UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

NASA ISS Image: Key West Florida, from space

Video of Tourists Bathing in Florida's Oil Contaminated water

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: Loop Current and the Gulf Stream

This Envisat image shows the Straits of Florida, the area where the Loop Current flows eastward out of the Gulf of Mexico (visible west of Florida) before joining the Gulf Stream and flowing along the eastern coastlines of the US and Newfoundland.

This image was acquired by Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) on 1 April 2010 at a resolution of 300 m.

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Credits: ESA

GOES-14 (O) Moving Into On-Orbit Storage Around Earth

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite named GOES-14, is being placed in on-orbit storage this month to await its call to duty. Since it was launched, scientists and engineers on the ground have been monitoring the instruments on GOES-14, formerly known as GOES-O, and it is operating well.

"The GOES-14 Post Launch Test phase continues with the specification testing of the Image Navigation and Registration (INR) System and performance is excellent," said Andre' Dress, GOES N-P Deputy Project Manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"The fall eclipse season has come to an end and the power and thermal performance was exactly what we expected."

Twice a year, around the spring and fall equinoxes the GOES spacecraft experience a period by which the sunlight is blocked by the Earth's shadow (eclipse). The maximum shadow duration is approximately 72 min out of the spacecraft's 24 hour orbit period. The shadow (or eclipse season) lasts for approximately 45 days, twice a year.

The GOES-14 team worked the satellite through a successful North/South station keeping maneuver at the end of October. Maneuvers are necessary to maintain the spacecraft's orbit.

GOES-14 is currently being moved at the rate of 1 degree per day from 90 West longitude to its storage location at 105 West longitude over the central United States and is expected to be there on November 20, 2009.

Once in the storage mode the spacecraft will be turned over to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) around December 14, 2009, where they will continue to operate the spacecraft for the remainder of its mission.

GOES-14 will remain in on-orbit storage until it is needed to replace GOES-EAST or GOES-WEST.

If GOES-14 were stored on the Earth, it would have to be to be called out of deep storage to replace an on-orbit failure. There would be 9 to 12 months of preparation between call-up and launch, followed by 3 months of post-launch deployment and testing before it could become operational.

On-orbit storage reduces this delay from one year to less than one week, and avoids the chance of a launch failure when you can least afford it.

NOAA's GOES-O satellite is the second in the GOES-N Series that will improve weather forecasting and monitor environmental events around the world. On June 27, 2009, GOES-O, soared into space during a spectacular launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. GOES-O was renamed GOES-14 when it reached orbit.

NASA contracted with Boeing to build and launch the GOES-14 spacecraft. NASA's Launch Services Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida supported the launch in an advisory role.

NOAA manages the GOES program, establishes requirements, provides all funding and distributes environmental satellite data for the United States. Goddard procures and manages the design, development and launch of the satellites for NOAA.

Shuttle Atlantis lands safely at Florida runway 33