NASA's Kennedy Space Center: Crawler-Transporter CT-2 Passes Milestone Test

The crawler-transporter that will carry NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft to Launch Pad 39B for launch on Exploration Mission-1 in 2017 recently passed the first phase of an important milestone test at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program completed testing of new traction roller bearings on crawler-transporter 2 (CT-2), on two of the massive vehicle’s truck sections, A and C, in late January.

The new roller bearing assemblies that were installed on one side of the crawler are visible in this Jan. 31, 2014 image. 


CT-2 returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center, where work continues to install new roller bearing assemblies on the B and D truck sections.

For more than 45 years the crawler-transporters were used to transport the mobile launcher platform and the Apollo-Saturn V rockets and, later, space shuttles to Launch Pads 39A and B.

Upgrades to CT-2 are necessary to increase the lifted-load capacity from 12 million to 18 million pounds to support the weight of the mobile launcher and future launch vehicles, including the SLS and Orion.

Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Kennedy Space Center: NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) arrives

A truck hauls NASA's TDRS-L satellite to the Astrotech facility in Titusville for launch processing. 

The TDRS is the latest spacecraft destined for the agency's constellation of communications satellites that allows nearly continuous contact with orbiting spacecraft ranging from the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope to the array of scientific observatories. 

Credit: NASA/Charisse Nahser

NASA's newest Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) is in a temporary home at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida waiting to be attached to a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket that will take it into Earth orbit Thursday, Jan. 23.

The TDRS-L spacecraft arrived at Kennedy Friday, Dec. 6.

After being unloaded from a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster aircraft, it was unpacked and inspected to ensure it sustained no damage on its flight from the Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems satellite factory in El Segundo, Calif.

As a vital information pipeline for space-based research and exploration, TDRS fulfills NASA's broadest communication demands.

For more than 30 years, the TDRS fleet has provided critical communication support to NASA's human spaceflight endeavors that began during the space shuttle era and continues with support of the International Space Station.

It also provides communications support to an array of science missions, as well as several launch vehicles.

"The launch of TDRS-L ensures continuity of services for the many missions that rely on the system every day," said Jeffrey Gramling, TDRS project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

TDRS-L is the second of three replenishment satellites for the TDRS constellation, which currently consists of eight spacecraft. TDRS-K was launched in January 2013. The last of the three, TDRS-M, is on track to be ready for launch as early as 2015.

Of the 11 TDRS satellites launched, eight still are operational. Four of those already are beyond their design life. Two have been retired. One was lost in a space shuttle accident.

Pathfinding Operations for Orion Spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center

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At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Orion ground test vehicle has been lifted high in the air by crane in the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building. 

The ground test vehicle is being used for pathfinding operations, including simulated manufacturing, assembly and stacking procedures.

Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to destinations not yet explored by humans, 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.

The first unpiloted test flight of Orion, Exploration Flight Test (EFT)-1 is scheduled to launch in 2014. EFT-1 will be Orion's first mission, which will send an uncrewed spacecraft 3,600 miles into Earth's orbit. 

As part of the test flight, Orion will return to Earth at a speed of approximately 20,000 mph for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

For more information, visit www.nasa.gov/orion.

Image Credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis

NASA MAVEN: Next Mars Mission Arrives at Kennedy Space Center

A crane lifts NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility on Aug. 3, 2013, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

The spacecraft was flown to Kennedy Space Center for launch processing from Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado near the Lockheed Martin facility in Littleton, Colo., where it was built. 

MAVEN is to lift off on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket in November, 2013 to begin a 10-month voyage to Mars. 

It is the first mission dedicated to studying Mars' upper atmosphere and scientists hope to find traces of the ancient environment thought to have existed there.

Image Credit: NASA/Tim Jacobs

NASA ORION Kennedy Space Center: Spacecraft Processing Procedures

Image Credit: NASA /Dan Casper

In the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crane operator lifts a full-size mock-up of the Orion spacecraft high in the air for transfer to High Bay 4. 

Crane operators and technicians practice stacking and destacking operations to keep processing procedures and skills current for the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program.

Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry crews to space beyond low Earth orbit. 

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

Orion’s first unpiloted test flight is scheduled to launch in 2014 atop a Delta IV rocket. 

A second uncrewed flight test is scheduled for 2017 on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket.

Read more about Orion

NASA - Space Shuttle Endeavour on the move

Space shuttle Endeavour is seen atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Monday, Sept. 17, 2012 in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

The SCA, a modified 747 jetliner, will fly Endeavour to Los Angeles where it will be placed on public display at the California Science Center. This is the final ferry flight scheduled in the Space Shuttle Program era.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

NASA RBSP Moves to Kennedy Space Centre

NASA RBSP took a 15-mile trip from Astrotech to Kennedy Space Centre.

It took 3.5 hrs at an average speed of 7mph. 

Credit: NASA

NASA - Shuttles Come Nose-to-Nose

NASA's space shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis switched locations today at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and in the process came "nose-to-nose" for the last time in front of Orbiter Processing Facility 3.

Endeavour was moved from Orbiter Processing Facility 2 to the Vehicle Assembly Building where it will be housed temporarily until its targeted departure from Kennedy atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft in mid-September. 

After a stop at the Los Angeles International Airport, Endeavour will move in mid-October to the California Science Center for permanent public display.

Now in the processing facility after leaving the Vehicle Assembly Building, shuttle Atlantis will undergo preparations for its move to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in November, with a grand opening planned for July 2013.

Image credit: NASA