Latest NASA's Kennedy Space Center Stories

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Sept. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The first SpaceX launch for NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 7, from Space Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. There is a single instantaneous launch opportunity for the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule at 8:35 p.m. EDT. Backup launch opportunities are available on Oct. 8 and Oct. 9, if needed. (Logo:...

DENVER, July 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) has delivered the first space-bound Orion spacecraft crew module structure to the Operations and Checkout Building on NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The crew module structure recently underwent its final friction stir weld at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La. and was transported to KSC last week to be readied for its Exploration Flight Test (EFT-1) in 2014. "Completing the Orion EFT-1...

The program tasked with setting up NASA's Kennedy Space Center to host an array of launchers and spacecraft passed a milestone last week when the 21st Century Ground Systems Program's Mission Concept Review was completed. "It gets all of our stakeholders on board," said Scott Colloredo, the project manager for the 21st Century Ground Systems Program. "We feel good about it." The program is one of two new programs for Kennedy that basically opened their doors in the past year or so. The...

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Nov. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A San Diego-based Wyle employee has been selected by NASA to be one of 150 Twitter followers to NASA's Kennedy Space Center for a two-day Tweetup, Nov. 23 and 25 that will culminate in the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Cara Thiem, a Tierrasanta resident, has been selected as one of 150 @NASA Twitter followers to...

In preparation for launch later this year, the "back shell powered descent vehicle" configuration containing NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, has been placed on the spacecraft's heat shield. The matchup was performed by technicians at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The heat shield and the spacecraft's back shell form an aeroshell that encapsulates and protects the rover from the intense heat it will experience during the final leg of the trip to Mars-the...

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-135) made its final landing back on Earth at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 5:57 a.m. EDT, ending an era that saw the launches of 135 space shuttles in the past 30 years. "After serving the world for 30 years, the space shuttle has found its place in history," said Christopher Ferguson, the astronaut who commanded Atlantis' final mission, by radio to mission control. The shuttle came to rest at 5:58 a.m. EDT. At wheels stop, the mission's elapsed time was 12 days,...

NASA's Ames Research Center will send a variety of life science experiments and technology demonstrations aboard the final space shuttle to better our understanding of how robots can help humans live and work in space and how spaceflight affects the human body, the growth of cells, yeast and plants. Future astronauts on long-term space missions in low-Earth orbit, to asteroids, other planets and beyond will rely on robots and need to understand how to prevent illnesses during space travel.On...

NASA's historic adventures and cutting-edge technology provide some of the underpinnings for "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," and there are also some star turns of a different sort for some of the workers who appeared as extras in the film.Director Michael Bay and his production team all but moved in to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a week in October 2010. There were casting calls, costuming and catering tents, and of course a flotilla of high-performance cars and...

F-104 jet fighters just like the ones astronauts trained in for decades will become a more regular part of the skyscape above NASA's Kennedy Space Center as a private company expands its fleet of jets with plans to conduct more research flights, launch very small satellites into space and even take paying passengers into the stratosphere.The developments come four years after the company made its first flight from the Shuttle Landing Facility, or SLF, at Kennedy in April 2007.Starfighters...

Steven Siceloff, NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center The crew of STS-133 closed out space shuttle Discovery's roster of accomplishments with a virtually flawless 13-day flight to attach a new module to the International Space Station and help the residents there outfit the orbiting laboratory for continued research.Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe and Mission Specialists Alvin Drew, Michael Barratt, Nicole Stott and Steve Bowen lifted off aboard Discovery on Feb. 24, 2011, from NASA's...