Tag: NASA
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NASA taps Northrop Grumman in sole-source agreement to build Gateway habitat
Artist’s illustration of the Gateway in orbit around the moon, with the Power and Propulsion Element, a habitation module, and a visiting cargo resupply craft and Orion crew capsule. Credit: NASA Racing against the clock to meet the Trump administration’s 2024 deadline to land astronauts on the moon, NASA plans to select Northrop Grumman to…
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Pence delivers a promise, and a warning, to NASA and its contractors
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Vice President Mike Pence speaks Saturday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Office of the Vice President Despite appearances and a presidential tweet suggesting otherwise, the United States is “100%” committed to sending astronauts back to the moon in 2024 and establishing a long-term, sustainable presence…
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Chris Kraft, legendary flight director, dies at 95
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Flight director Chris Kraft at his console inside Mercury Mission Control. Credit: NASA Former Johnson Space Center Director Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr., the man who created the iconic role of NASA flight director during the Mercury and Gemini programs and whose no-nonsense, uncompromising management style defined control room…
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Scientists reconstruct what Neil Armstrong saw as he landed on the moon
Using 21st century images taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists have reconstructed the view Neil Armstrong had outside the window of the Apollo 11 lunar module as he guided the spacecraft to a safe landing site on the moon 50 years ago. In orbit around the moon since 2009, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter…
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NASA’s target for the first launch of its SLS moon rocket shifts from 2020 to 2021
NASA engineers load a test article for the SLS liquid-oxygen tank into its test stand at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. (NASA Photo) NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told lawmakers today that the first launch of the heavy-lift Space Launch System was “definitely achievable by 2021,” seemingly signaling a shift in the plan for a…
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NASA boss pleads for funding to ensure 2024 moon landing
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine testifies to lawmakers Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told a Senate panel Wednesday that a budget impasse and subsequent spending freeze later this year would be “devastating” to the agency’s goal of sending the first woman and next…
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50 years after Apollo 11, unsung heroes of Mission Control ponder past and future of the final frontier
Flight directors are on duty at NASA’s Mission Control Center during the Apollo 10 mission in May 1969. Gerry Griffin is seated in the foreground, Glynn Lunney is seated to his right, and Milt Windler is standing behind them. Chris Kraft, director of flight operations, is standing in the background. (NASA Photo) [Editor’s Note: This…
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Government officials are reaching out to commercial ventures for space race revival
An artist’s conception shows a next-generation moon lander. (NASA Illustration) RENTON, Wash. — Fifty years after the landmark Apollo 11 mission blasted off for the climax of the U.S.-Soviet space race, officials from NASA and the Air Force highlighted the role of commercial space ventures in running a new race for American leadership on the…
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Made in Space wins NASA contract to 3D-print satellite structures in orbit
NASA awarded a $73.7 million contract Friday to the California-based startup Made in Space for a 3D-printing demonstration using a free-flying small satellite to additively manufacture solar array beams in space. Made in Space’s satellite mission, named Archinaut One, will have the ability to 3D-print its own structures in orbit. The small satellite is…
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Photos: NASA conducts key Orion abort test
The Orion test vehicle lifts off on a converted Peacekeeper booster at 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT) Tuesday from pad 46 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Credit: U.S. Air Force photo by James Rainier NASA simulated an in-flight launch abort of an Orion crew capsule high above Cape Canaveral on Tuesday, in a…