Fifty years ago, this month, after detailed simulations and planning, NASA made a decision that Neil Armstrong (left) would become the first human to set foot on the Moon. His Apollo 11 crewmate Buzz Aldrin (right) would follow shortly afterwards. Photo Credit: NASA
Six years to the week since its inaugural launch, the liquid-fueled Antares rocket roared aloft from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Va., on Wednesday, 17 April to deliver the next Cygnus cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS). Photo: Cole Ippoliti / AmericaSpace.com
Six years to the week since its inaugural launch, the liquid-fueled Antares rocket roared aloft from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Va., earlier today (Wednesday, 17 April), to deliver the next Cygnus cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS). Flying for the tenth time (though only its ninth fully successful launch), Antares rose from the pad on time at 4:46 p.m. EDT, right at the start of a five-minute “window”, and current expectations are that Northrop Grumman’s NG-11 Cygnus spacecraft—named in honor of Apollo 1 hero Roger Chaffee—and its load of 7,600 pounds (3,450 kg) of equipment, experiments and supplies for the Expedition 59 crew will reach and berth at the space station early Friday morning.
Antares raising vertical for launch. Photo: NASA / Bill Ingalls
Roger Chaffee never got to fly in space. Selected by NASA as a member of the space agency’s third group of astronauts—alongside future Moonwalkers Al Bean, Buzz Aldrin, Dave Scott and Gene Cernan—he was the youngest of his class and in March 1966 drew his first plum flight assignment as pilot of the first manned Apollo mission. Sadly, ten months later, on the evening of 27 January 1967, he and crewmates Virgil “Gus” Grissom and America’s first spacewalker, Ed White, were killed in a flash fire aboard their Apollo 1 command module. Chaffee was three weeks shy of his 32nd birthday.
More than a half-century later, on Wednesday, 17 April, the Navy lieutenant-commander will fly in name at least to the International Space Station (ISS), when Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems—formerly Orbital ATK and, before that, Orbital Sciences Corp.—launches the NG-11 Cygnus cargo ship atop an Antares 230 booster from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Va. Laden with 7,500 pounds (3,400 kg) of experiments, equipment and supplies for the incumbent Expedition 59 crew, the “Spaceship (SS) Roger Chaffee” will approach and berth at the space station early Friday, 19 April, with astronauts Anne McClain of NASA and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) at the controls of the 57.7-foot-long (17.6-meter) Canadarm2. Monitoring Cygnus’ systems during the approach will be fellow Expedition 59 crewman Nick Hague. According to the schedule, McClain will grapple the cargo ship at 5:30 a.m. EDT, whereupon ground controllers will command Canadarm2 to rotate and install Cygnus onto the Earth-facing (or “nadir”) port of the station’s Unity node.
Falcon Heavy lifting off pad 39A with Arabsat 6A, as seen from the crawlerway formerly used by the Saturn V and space shuttles, just outside the launch pad’s south perimeter. Photo Credit: Mike Killian / AmericaSpace.com
SpaceX put on another spectacular show April 11 with the second launch of their triple-barreled Falcon Heavy rocket, delivering the heavy-lift vehicle’s first paying customer to space with the Arabsat-6A satellite.
As always, our imagery team set out with a fleet of cameras to capture as many angles as we could. Featured here is some of our photo & video coverage.
Orbital sunrises and sunsets were among the most spectacular vistas on STS-59. Photo Credit: NASA
Twenty-five years ago this week, the crew of Endeavour on STS-59 demonstrated that the shuttle program was imbued with “Radar Love”, as they operated the first Space Radar Laboratory (SRL-1) to acquire unprecedented views of the Home Planet from orbit. For 11 days, astronauts Sid Gutierrez, Kevin Chilton, Jay Apt, Rich Clifford, Linda Godwin and Tom Jones worked around the clock to ensure that the radar instruments of the SRL-1 payload gathered an enormous quantity of scientific data. Much of that data is still being analyzed to this day and has helped to shape our understanding of Earth’s past, present, and, potentially, its future.
Liftoff of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy on its first commercial mission to deliver Arabsat-6A to orbit on April 11, 2019. Photo: Mike Killian /AmericaSpace.com
Just an hour before Florida sunset, SpaceX’s gigantic Falcon Heavy—lauded by the Hawthorne, Calif.-headquartered launch services provider as the world’s most powerful active rocket, by a factor of two—successfully roared aloft tonight (Thursday, 11 April) from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for its long-awaited first commercial mission. Fourteen months after a triumphant test flight, which boosted SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s cherry-red Tesla Roadster onto a Mars-crossing heliocentric trajectory, the triple-cored booster got down to business by delivering the 14,320-pound (6,495 kg) Arabsat 6A communications satellite to orbit on behalf of Riyadh-headquartered Arabsat and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST).
Under the combined thrust of 5.1 million pounds (2.3 million kg), the Falcon Heavy performed with perfection during first-stage flight, before the side boosters plunged back to Earth and alighted smoothly like a pair of synchronized ballet dancers at Landing Zones (LZ)-1 and 2 at the Cape. Meanwhile, despite “challenging” conditions at sea, the core booster successfully touched down on the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS) in the Atlantic Ocean, completing an objective left unfulfilled during last year’s Falcon Heavy test flight. All three boosters were previously unflown, although the side rockets are expected to be reused on the Falcon Heavy’s next mission in the summer.
This is it! The first-ever image taken of a black hole shows light being around the black hole itself by its intense gravity. Photo Credit: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration
Today was a historic day in astronomy, as scientists unveiled the first-ever images of a black hole. Such an achievement has been dreamt of for a long time, and now today it is finally reality. The breakthrough was announced this morning by researchers in six different press conferences around the world.
A year since its spectacular maiden voyage, SpaceX plans as many as two Falcon Heavy launches in 2019. Photo Credit: Mike Killian / AmericaSpace
Upwards of 100,000+ people are expected to descend upon Florida’s Space Coast on Wednesday, all in anticipation of witnessing the second launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy, which will fly its first commercial mission for a paying customer from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center.
Liftoff with the Saudi Arabsat-6A satellite is currently scheduled for 6:35pm Eastern U.S. time, but on-site access is extremely restrictive, so where can the public go for good views?
The “Mercury Seven”, pictured in an early training photograph. From left to right are Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Wally Schirra, Al Shepard and Deke Slayton. Photo Credit: NASA
Best known as the residence of the fourth First Lady of the United States, on this day in 1959 the Dolley Madison House, opposite Lafayette Park in downtown Washington, D.C., provided the setting for the introduction of the United States’ first group of astronauts: the long-awaited “Mercury Seven”. Sixty years later, the names of Scott Carpenter, Gordo Cooper, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Wally Schirra, Al Shepard, Deke Slayton and John Glenn have carved their own niche into America’s national psyche. From their ranks came the first U.S. spacefarer, the first American to orbit the Earth, the first human to make two (and three) orbital missions and one of their number even trod the dusty surface of the Moon. But at 2 p.m. EDT on 9 April 1959, the seven men—all clad in civilian suits, and with Glenn and Slayton wearing bow ties—were still virtual unknowns, about to be thrust into a spotlight of international fame.
The first Space Radar Laboratory (SRL-1) in Endeavour’s payload bay. Tom Jones flew both the first and second missions of the radar lab. Photo Credit: NASA
Twenty-five years ago this week, the crew of Endeavour on STS-59 demonstrated that the shuttle program was imbued with “Radar Love”, as they operated the first Space Radar Laboratory (SRL-1) to acquire unprecedented views of the Home Planet from orbit. For 11 days, astronauts Sid Gutierrez, Kevin Chilton, Jay Apt, Rich Clifford, Linda Godwin and Tom Jones worked around the clock to ensure that the radar instruments of the SRL-1 payload gathered an enormous quantity of scientific data. Much of that data is still being analyzed to this day and has helped to shape our understanding of Earth’s past, present and, potentially, its future.
