NASA's New Mars-Landing Tech Gets check

NASA can attempt once more this weekend to launch the first check flight of new technology designed to assist land significant payloads on Mars.

The space agency aims to loft its Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) check vehicle Saturday (June 28) from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile range Facility on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The launch window opens at 2:15 p.m. EDT (1815 GMT; 8:15 a.m. native Hawaiian time); you'll be able to watch all the action here on space.com, courtesy of Nasa TV.

Backup launch opportunities are out there on June 29, June 30, July 1 and July three, Nasa officials said. And also the mission can would like one in every of those alternate dates; the agency had originally planned to launch the LDSD test flight in early June, however strong winds repeatedly defeated the try. 

  

In the Missile Assembly Building at the U.S Navy's Pacific Missile range Facility, a saucer-shaped check vehicle hangs throughout a measurement. The vehicle is a component of the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator project, is meant to land large payloads on Mars. The power is found in Kauai, Hawaii.

 

Supersonic Research Fleet Grows at Kennedy

The final pieces of a unique squadron of supersonic fighters arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, Jan. 19, where they will be reassembled and put to work with a private company aiming to use them for research and microgravity training.

The new planes were part of a group of five F-104 fighters bought by Starfighters Inc. from the Italian Air Force. The company already had four of the aircraft, but that wasn't enough for the company to pursue a number of different opportunities. With nine aircraft at his disposal, Starfighters owner Rick Svetkoff said there will always be aircraft available to fly missions for a variety of customers. As importantly, the company will have what it needs to fly two aircraft on a single mission, with one serving as a chase plane to photograph experiments.

"Now we're in a position where we can really start operations," Svetkoff said. "Before, we couldn't do a lot of things we wanted to do." Starfighters operates out of a hangar at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy under an agreement with Kennedy. Svetkoff's main goal is to fly research and development missions, ranging from experiments flown for universities to evaluating rocket and spacecraft components in high-stress environments including high-acceleration and microgravity.

MSL "Go" for Nov. 25 Launch

NASA and contractor managers for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) launch held their Flight Readiness Review meeting at NASA's Kennedy Space Center this morning. After an evaluation of the MSL spacecraft and United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, managers gave a "go" to continue proceeding toward a liftoff at 10:25 a.m. EST next Friday, Nov. 25. Managers will meet again Nov. 22 for the Launch Readiness Review.

The spacecraft -- with its rover, Curiosity -- is sealed inside the protective payload fairing atop the Atlas V rocket, which stands inside the Vertical Integration Facility at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 41. Closeouts of the spacecraft and the Atlas V fairing are planned for Saturday, with a countdown dress rehearsal on Sunday's schedule.

Curiosity has 10 science instruments to search for evidence about whether Mars has had environments favorable for microbial life, including the chemical ingredients for life. The unique rover will use a laser to look inside rocks and release the gasses so that its spectrometer can analyze and send the data back to Earth.

Mobile Launcher Moves to Launch Pad

The mobile launcher is making the longest trip of its young life today to begin a two-week series of structural tests at Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In anticipation of launching the Space Launch System later this decade, engineers wanted to check the mobile launcher, or ML, in a number of categories ranging from how it would behave moving atop a crawler-transporter to how well its systems mesh with the infrastructure at Pad B, which has undergone extensive renovations during the past year.

"We have the time and will be able to gain significant knowledge that will assist in the development of the ML," said Larry Schultz, ML project manager. The ML began its 14-hour move at 9:15 a.m. on Nov. 16. The trip will cover about 4.2 miles from a work site beside the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad. Schultz said the team will get its first look at the information after the move is complete.

Rising 400 feet above the rocky crawlerway, the mobile launcher is substantially different than the mobile launcher platforms that carried space shuttles to the launch pads for 30 years. The dominant feature is the ML's tower, a 355-foot-high gray, steel tower reminiscent of the ones that serviced the Saturn V rockets headed to the moon in the 1960s and 70s. In fact, not since 1975 has a launch structure as tall as the ML stood at either of Kennedy's launch pads.

Flood At NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida: Endeavour Launch Unaffected

NASA has been in the news lots lately with some very bizarre headlines in 2010. First, trace amounts of cocaine were found in a restricted area of Kennedy Space Center in Florida and than the shuttle Discovery was put up for sale for $28 million and now, a flooding at the Kennedy Space Center is bringing the focus on NASA again.

It was reported earlier today that a busted fire suppression system pipe has snowed under the firing rooms and a stairwell close to the launch control center in a routine test on Thursday night. NASA is saying the flooding will not affect the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour, which is set for Feb. 7, 2010.