Kennedy's Launch Pad 39A, which NASA leased to SpaceX for commercial use

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, and Kennedy Space Center director Robert Cabana are seen together at Kennedy's Launch Pad 39A, which NASA leased to SpaceX for commercial use on April 14, 2014.

Credit: Robert Z. Pearlman

One of NASA's most historic launch pads is now under new management.

Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida is now under the direction of SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies), the private spaceflight company headed by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

The launch pad, which was the site where Apollo 11 lifted off on the first manned moon landing in July 1969, will now support the company's rockets and spacecraft as they depart for Earth orbit, and possibly destinations beyond.

"Today, this historic site, from which numerous Apollo and space shuttle missions began, and from which I first flew and left the planet on STS-61C on Columbia, is beginning a new mission as a commercial launch site," said Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator and former astronaut, during a press conference held at the pad.

NASA Orion EFT-1: Final Reaction Control System Pod Arrives

Image above: Astronaut Don Pettit watches as a technician works on the Orion crew module inside the Operations and Checkout Building high bay at Kennedy Space Center on March 21. 

Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis

The last of eight reaction control system (RCS) pods for NASA’s Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) arrived this week at Kennedy Space Center’s Operations and Checkout Building (O&C) from the manufacturer, Aerojet, in Redmond, Wash.

“Arrival of the final reaction control system pod marks a significant milestone as we prepare NASA’s Orion crew module for its first flight test,” said Glenn Chinn, the deputy manager of the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Program in Kennedy’s Orion Production Operations Office.

“The pods will provide the critical maneuvers necessary for Orion’s re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.”

The first set of pods arrived at Kennedy on Feb. 18, with subsequent pods arriving March 11, and April 5 and 19.

Image above: A technician works on a reaction control system pod at the Aerojet facility in Redmond, Wash. 

The pod is one of eight that will be installed on the Orion crew module for Exploration Flight Test-1 and provide the critical maneuvers necessary for re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.” 

Photo courtesy of Aerojet

The right-roll thruster pod with two rocket engines was the last to arrive, and joined the other seven pods already in the facility.

Included in the group are two pitch-up thruster pods with a single rocket engine; two pitch-down thruster pods, each with a single rocket engine; two right- and left-yaw pods, each with a single rocket engine, and a left roll thruster pod with two rocket engines.

Before the pods were delivered to Kennedy, Aerojet put each of them through a series of tests, including proof pressure and leak, engine vibration, rocket engine hot fire acceptance and electrical functional testing.

Lockheed Martin will unpack and visually inspect all of the pods. Then technicians will add short propellant line segments and line brackets to each.

Beginning in June, the pods will undergo additional proof pressure and leak testing, valve leak testing and rocket engine functional testing.

Aerojet will support processing activities that involve the rocket engine pods with procedure reviews, and on-site engineering and assembly support during installation and testing on the crew module.

Aerojet Program Director for Human Space, Sam Wiley, said he can’t wait for the RCS pods to be installed onto the crew module.

“We put our heart into our products and the installation work will wrap up more than three years of design and development activities,” Wiley said. “We’re ready to support EFT-1 for flight.”

The pods and their engines will be installed in various locations on the Orion crew module.

For more information, and to follow the progress of the NASA Orion spacecraft team check out their monthly newsheet.

NASA Shuttle Endeavour's OMS Pod

In Orbiter Processing Facility-2 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Endeavour’s left orbital maneuvering system OMS pod is in position on the aft of the shuttle and ready for installation. 

The OMS pod underwent complete de-servicing and cleaning at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, part of the transition and retirement processing of each shuttle. 

Endeavour is being prepared for public display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. 

Over the course of its 19-year career, Endeavour spent 299 days in space during 25 missions.

Image credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis

Time lapse movie: Mobile Launcher Moves

The mobile launcher returned from Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida following two weeks of structural and other testing. The 355-foot-tall structure is to be used by the Space Launch System.

NASA GRAIL Mission: Final Preparations for September Launch

NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission to study the moon is in final launch preparations for a scheduled Sept. 8 launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

GRAIL's twin spacecraft are tasked for a nine-month mission to explore Earth's nearest neighbor in unprecedented detail.

They will determine the structure of the lunar interior from crust to core and advance our understanding of the thermal evolution of the moon.

"Yesterday's final encapsulation of the spacecraft is an important mission milestone," said David Lehman, GRAIL project manager for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

"Our two spacecraft are now sitting comfortably inside the payload fairing which will protect them during ascent. Next time the GRAIL twins will see the light of day, they will be about 95 miles up and accelerating."

The spacecraft twins, GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B, will fly aboard a Delta II rocket launched from Florida. The twins' circuitous route to lunar orbit will take 3.5 months and cover approximately 2.6 million miles (4.2 million kilometers) for GRAIL-A, and 2.7 million miles (4.3 million kilometers) for GRAIL-B.

In lunar orbit, the spacecraft will transmit radio signals precisely defining the distance between them. Regional gravitational differences on the moon are expected to expand and contract that distance.

GRAIL scientists will use these accurate measurements to define the moon's gravity field. The data will allow mission scientists to understand what goes on below the surface of our natural satellite.

"GRAIL will unlock lunar mysteries and help us understand how the moon, Earth and other rocky planets evolved as well," said Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

GRAIL's launch period opens Sept. 8 and extends through Oct. 19. On each day, there are two separate launch opportunities separated by approximately 39 minutes. On Sept. 8, the first launch opportunity is 8:37 a.m. EDT (5:37 a.m. PDT); the second is 9:16 a.m. EDT (6:16 a.m. PDT).

Launch: Atlas V Rocket with Juno Mission

An Atlas V rocket with NASA's Juno spacecraft payload is seen the evening before it's planned launch at Space Launch Complex 41 of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Thursday, August 4, 2011.

The Juno spacecraft will make a five-year, 400-million-mile voyage to Jupiter, orbit the planet, investigate its origin and evolution with eight instruments to probe its internal structure and gravity field, measure water and ammonia in its atmosphere, map its powerful magnetic field and observe its intense auroras.

Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

A view of the Atlas /Juno launch from Cocoa Beach. Next stop Jupiter! Beautiful location!

NASA Shuttle Atlantis: final landing marks end of an era

Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the last time and ended the 30-year-long Space Shuttle era on 21 July 2011.

This was 135th flight and the 25th night landing of NASA's Space Shuttle Program. Main gear touchdown was at 11:56:58 CEST.

Credits: NASA TV

NASA Shuttle Atlantis Commander Chris Ferguson

A T-38 jet containing US space shuttle Atlantis' Commander Chris Ferguson and Sandy Magnus is guided to a park site at Kennedy Space Centre, Florida's Suttle Landing Facility, ahead of the final launch of NASA's most successful and longest running space programme

Picture: AFP/GETTY

NASA - The Osprey Has Landed

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, an adult osprey guards its young in a nest built on a platform in the Press Site parking lot.

In the background is the 12,300-square-foot NASA logo painted on the side of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).

 The VAB and Press Site are located at the Turn Basin in Launch Complex 39, making it an ideal osprey nesting place.

The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge overlaps with Kennedy Space Center property and provides a habitat for many types of wildlife, including the osprey, and 330 species of birds. For information on the refuge, visit http://www.fws.gov/merrittisland/Index.

Image Credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

NASA Space Shuttle Endeavour: Forensic Testing on Faulty LCA-2

Technicians at the NASA Shuttle Logistic Depot in Cape Canaveral, Fla., are doing additional forensic engineering testing today on a faulty power distribution box, called a Load Control Assembly 2 (LCA-2).

It was removed yesterday morning from the aft compartment of space shuttle Endeavour on Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Technicians are trying to determine what caused the power box to fail. Initial testing from yesterday shows a driver (circuit) inside the LCA-2 shorted out.

The LCA-2 feeds power to heaters on the fuel line for Endeavour’s auxiliary power unit-1 (APU-1). Initially, when the shorted out driver was replaced, the LCA-2 appeared to worked as designed. Technicians are performing additional failure analysis on the driver today to confirm whether the short experienced by the system came from inside or outside the LCA-2.

Depending on the results, additional testing of the box may be required. On Launch Pad 39A, a new LCA-2 box was installed into Endeavour this morning, and technicians are preparing to retest the system before Endeavour’s next launch attempt is scheduled.

Currently, Endeavour’s no earlier than launch date remains May 10. The APU-1 fuel line heaters did not work on April 29, prompting the launch team to scrub the Endeavour’s first launch attempt for the STS-134 mission to the International Space Station.

NASA Shutle Endeavour readiness

Space shuttle Endeavour is lowered into place and attached to its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters, already positioned on the mobile launcher platform in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

For the planned April 19th launch Space shuttle Endeavour will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and spare parts to the International Space Station on its 36th and final scheduled flight before being retired.

Picture: NASA / GETTY

NASA, Kennedy Space Centre Picture taken from ISS

NASA: Vehicle Assembly Building Kennedy Space Centre

Architects Remember the Building that Helped Put a Man on the Moon
Forty years later, Max Urbahn’s contribution to the space race stands tall

Summary: As tall as a 52-story building and as wide as a city block, the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida cuts a stark and lonely profile along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. A brick-like rectilinear mass that’s almost totally devoid of human-scaled features, it’s a hyperbole--a simple, exaggerated sketch of a building.

NASA: Ares-1 Succesful Launch!

NASA Ares I-X mission managers watch as NASA's Ares I-X rocket launches from pad 39b at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009. The flight test will provide NASA with an early opportunity to test and prove flight characteristics, hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA's first flight test for the agency's next-generation spacecraft and launch vehicle system, called Ares I-X, will bring NASA one step closer to its exploration goals. The flight test will provide NASA with an early opportunity to test and prove flight characteristics, hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I.

Mariner 10

Mariner 10

On Nov. 3, 1973, the Mariner Venus/Mercury 1973 spacecraft, also known as Mariner 10, was launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, becoming the first spacecraft designed to use gravity assist. Three months after launch it flew by Venus, changed speed and trajectory, then crossed Mercury's orbit in March 1974.

This photo identifies the spacecraft's science instruments, which were used to study the atmospheric, surface and physical characteristics of Venus and Mercury. This was the sixth in the series of Mariner spacecraft that explored the inner planets beginning in 1962.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL