4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Starfish Space has been awarded SBIR Phase III funding for a mission to inspect defunct satellites to increase opportunities to mitigate space debris. An artist’s concept image shows the company’s Otter spacecraft, which is capable of inspecting and deorbiting defunct spacecraft, in orbit.Starfish Space [...]
29 Min Read The Marshall Star for September 25, 2024 Marshall Presents Small Business Awards for Fiscal Year 2024 By Wayne Smith NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center honored top contractors, subcontractors, teams, and individuals of fiscal year 2024 at the 38th meeting of Marshall’s Small Business Alliance. The awards honor aerospace companies and leaders [...]
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 crew members participate in a countdown dress rehearsal at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, to prepare for the upcoming Crew-9 launch. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett To prepare for NASA’s Crew-9 mission, SpaceX fired the nine Merlin first-stage engines of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket [...]
NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov walk across the crew access arm at Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.Credit: SpaceX NASA will provide coverage of the upcoming prelaunch and launch activities for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff is targeted for 1:17 [...]
NASA/Joel Kowsky NASA launched its reimagined art program by unveiling two murals on Sept. 23, 2024. The murals, titled “To the Moon, and Back,” were created by New York-based artist team Geraluz and WERC and use geometrical patterns to invite deeper reflection on the exploration, creativity, and connection with the cosmos. The vision of this [...]
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket performs a brief static fire test at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida before the launch of the Crew-9 mission. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber As one crew on Earth prepares to launch to the International Space Station another crew is getting ready to depart the orbital outpost. In the [...]
Manufacturing equipment that will be used to build components for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for future Artemis missions is being installed at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana. The tooling will be used to produce the SLS rocket’s advanced exploration upper stage, or EUS, in the factory’s new manufacturing [...]
3 Min Read NASA’s Record-Breaking Laser Demo Completes Mission An artist's concept animation of NASA's TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) payload sending data to Earth over laser communications links. Credits: NASA NASA’s TBIRD (TeraByte InfraRed Delivery) demonstration and its host spacecraft — the PTD-3 (Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator-3) — have completed their technology demonstration. The TBIRD [...]
NASA’s HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog) crew members enjoy their first glimpse of the outside after a 45-day stay inside the analog environment. From left to right: Sergii Iakymov, Sarah Elizabeth McCandless, Erin Anderson, and Brandon Kent.NASA/Bill Stafford An all-volunteer crew on a simulated trip to Mars “returned” to Earth on Sept. 23, 2024, after being [...]
Wildfires cast an orange haze over the Sierra Blanca mountain range in Ruidoso, New Mexico, on June 20, 2024. Image courtesy of James Herrera Ruidoso, New Mexico lay in an unusual hush on June 20, 2024. During any normal summer day, the village in the southern part of the state lives up to the Spanish [...]
