#Space_Launch_System

[phonemantra-blog]

The next launch could take place in December Visitors to the SpaceX Starbase spaceport in Boca Chica now have another place against which they can take beautiful pictures. A photograph of a giant neon sign with the inscription “Gateway to Mars” was published a couple of hours ago by the head of the company, Elon Musk. [caption id="attachment_85542" align="aligncenter" width="780"] Starship launch pad[/caption] Last week, workers began installing massive white letters on a newly built wall near the Starship launch pad. Some SpaceX fans have expressed regret over the recent construction of a large wall around parts of the launch complex. They see this as another step towards gradually closing SpaceX Starbase to the public. “Gateway to Mars,” a huge neon sign appeared on the Starship launch pad The new sign appeared a couple of weeks after Starship's second launch. This time we managed to reach the stage of stage separation, but a few moments later the launch vehicle exploded. The Starship spacecraft continued its flight , but also exploded approximately 8 minutes after it began. [caption id="attachment_85543" align="aligncenter" width="780"] Starship launch pad[/caption] Musk said the next Starship could be ready to fly in December, but SpaceX needs to get approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.

[wigmund]

From NASA Image of the Day; September 5, 2018:

Along the Way to Launch Pad 39B

A truck sprays water to reduce the dust as NASA's crawler-transporter 2 (CT-2) with the mobile launcher (ML) atop moves slowly along, on its trek to Launch Pad 39B on August 31, 2018, at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. CT-2 will move the mobile launcher up to the surface of the pad where it will undergo a fit check, followed by several days of systems testing.

The 380-foot-tall mobile launcher is equipped with the crew access arm and several umbilicals that will provide power, environmental control, pneumatics, communication and electrical connections to NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft. Exploration Ground Systems is preparing the ground systems necessary to launch SLS and Orion on Exploration Mission-1, missions to the Moon and on to Mars.

Image Credit: NASA/Cory Huston

[eiway2003]

NASA celebrates 45 years of its landing in moon ...

NASA celebrates 45 years of its landing in moon …

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the moon.

Forty-five years later, NASA will celebrate on Monday the giant leap by honouring Armstrong, who died in 2012, with a renaming ceremony of the historic “operations and checkout building” at Cape Canaveral in Florida, the launch site.

Both Aldrin and Michael Collins, the Apollo…

[phonemantra-blog]

The family includes the light Angara-1.2 missile and the heavy Angara-A5 missile It has become known when flight tests of Russian launch vehicles of the Angara family should be completed. As reported in the presentation of Roscosmos General Director Yuri Borisov, presented during an open lesson at the educational marathon of the Russian Society "Knowledge", flight tests of the Angara-1.2 and Angara-A5 rockets should be completed in 2024. Previously, it was said that full-fledged serial production of these missiles would also start next year. [caption id="attachment_50788" align="aligncenter" width="780"] Angara launch vehicles[/caption] Flight tests of Angara launch vehicles will be completed in 2024 Recall that Angara-1.2 is a Russian two-stage light-class launch vehicle designed to launch a payload of up to 3.5 tons into low Earth orbit. Angara-A5 is a heavy launch vehicle capable of delivering 24 tons of payload into low Earth orbit. “Angara-A5” went on its first test flight from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on December 23, 2014, the flight test program involves six launches, now three more remain to complete the tests.

[wigmund]

From NASA Image of the Day; March 7, 2018:

Structural Test Version of the Intertank for NASA's New Deep Space Rocket

A structural test version of the intertank for NASA's new deep-space rocket, the Space Launch System, arrives at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center March 4, aboard the barge Pegasus. The intertank is the second piece of structural hardware for the massive SLS core stage built at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans delivered to Marshall for testing. The structural test article will undergo critical testing as engineers push, pull and bend the hardware with millions of pounds of force to ensure it can withstand the forces of launch and ascent.

The test hardware is structurally identical to the flight version of the intertank that will connect the core stage's two colossal fuel tanks, serve as the upper-connection point for the two solid rocket boosters and house critical avionics and electronics. Pegasus, originally used during the Space Shuttle Program, has been redesigned and extended to accommodate the SLS rocket's massive, 212-foot-long core stage -- the backbone of the rocket. The 310-foot-long barge will ferry the flight core stage from Michoud to other NASA centers for tests and launch.

Image Credit: NASA/MSFC/Tyler Martin