Carrying NASA science planned for the Moon, United Launch Alliance successfully launched its Vulcan rocket and Astrobotic’s lunar lander early this morning. Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander experienced a propulsion issue after the spacecraft entered its operational state. This prevented Astrobotic from achieving sun-pointing orientation. The company is assessing and will provide more information as soon [...]
Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander successfully powered on and is now on its way to the Moon, carrying NASA science as part of the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis program. Peregrine is expected to land on the lunar surface on Feb. 23 and, throughout the approximate 10-day mission, the agency’s scientific instruments [...]
At approximately 3:09 a.m. EST, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander separated from United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket. Onboard Peregrine are NASA scientific instruments and other commercial payloads to the Moon as part of the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis program. Coming up, Peregrine will power up and begin its journey to the Moon. [...]
At 2:18 a.m. EST, United Launch Alliance launched its Vulcan rocket and Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Onboard Peregrine are a suite of NASA scientific instruments and commercial payloads to the Moon as part of the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and [...]
On Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in advance of a planned lift off at 2:18 a.m. EST Monday, Jan. 8, [...]
Ahead of launch as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is preparing to be encapsulated in the payload fairing, or nose cone, of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket on Nov. 21, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Launch of [...]
NASA received more than 3,000 entries from around the world for this year’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) Children’s Artwork Calendar contest. Of those, the agency has selected 36 first-, second-, and third-place winners to display in the calendar for 2024. The contest invited children to submit original artwork related to four overarching themes: rockets [...]
In our last post, we described how VIPER, NASA’s first robotic Moon rover, is using artificial intelligence to create several options for the VIPER team to plan the rover’s path during its mission to the lunar South Pole. Today, we’ll share more about how AI also is used to help human operators drive VIPER [...]
When NASA’s VIPER (short for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) lands on the surface of the Moon on a mission to better understand the environment where NASA plans to send astronauts as part of the increasingly complex Artemis missions, its journey will be guided by the human ingenuity of its human team – and [...]
Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk joins NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Scott Tingle as part of NASA’s Boeing Starlier-1 mission crew. Photo credit: NASACSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk has been selected as a mission specialist for NASA’s Boeing Starliner-1 mission – the first crew rotation flight for the spacecraft to the [...]