Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site
Proba-3 complete: Formation-flying satellites fully integrated
-
Similar Topics
-
By NASA
NASA Teams responsible for preparing and launching Artemis II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida are set to begin a series of integrated tests to get ready for the mission. With the upper stage of the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) integrated with other elements of the rocket, engineers are set to start the tests to confirm rocket and ground systems are working and communicating as planned.
While similar to the integrated testing campaign conducted for NASA’s uncrewed Artemis I test flight, engineers have added tests ahead of Artemis II to prepare for NASA’s first crewed flight under the Artemis campaign – an approximately 10-day journey by four astronauts around the Moon and back. The mission is another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for future astronaut missions to Mars.
Interface Verification Testing
Verifies the functionality and interoperability of interfaces across elements and systems. Teams will conduct this test from the firing room in the Launch Control Center and perform health and status checks of various systems and interfaces between the SLS core stage, the solid rocket boosters, and the ground systems. It will ensure different systems, including core stage engines and booster thrust control, work as planned. Teams also will perform the same series of tests with the interim cryogenic propulsion stage and Orion before conducting a final interface test with all segments.
Program Specific Engineering Test
Teams will conduct separate engineering tests for the core stage, rocket boosters, and upper stage following the interface verification tests for each part of the rocket.
End-to-End Communications Testing
Integrated test of SLS core and upper stages, and Orion command and telemetry radio frequencies with mission control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to demonstrate flight controllers’ ability to communicate with the ground systems and infrastructure. This test uses a radio frequency antenna in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), another near the launch pad that will cover the first few minutes of launch, as well as a radio frequency that use the Tracking Data Relay Satellite and the Deep Space Network. Teams will do two versions of this test – one with the ground equipment communicating with a radio and telemetry station for checkouts, and one with all the hardware and equipment communicating with communications infrastructure like it will on launch day.
Countdown Demonstration Test
Teams will conduct a launch day demonstration with the Artemis II astronauts to test launch countdown procedures and make any final necessary adjustments ahead of launch. This test will be divided into two parts. The first will be conducted while SLS and Orion are in the VAB and include the Artemis II crew departing their crew quarters after suiting up at the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building and driving to the VAB where they will enter Orion like they will on launch day and practice getting strapped in. Part two will be completed once the rocket is at the launch pad and will allow the astronauts and Artemis launch team to practice how to use the emergency egress system, which would be used in the event of an unlikely emergency at the launch pad during launch countdown.
Flight Termination System End-to-End Test
Test to ensure the rocket’s flight termination system can be activated in the event of an emergency. For public safety, all rockets are required to have a flight termination system. This test will be divided into two parts inside the VAB. The first will take place ahead of Orion getting stacked atop SLS and the second will occur before the rocket and spacecraft roll out to the launch pad.
Wet Dress Rehearsal
Teams will practice loading cryogenic liquid propellant inside SLS once it’s at the launch pad and run through the launch countdown sequences just prior to engine ignition. The rehearsal will run the Artemis II launch team through operations to load liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the rocket’s tanks, conduct a full launch countdown, demonstrate the ability to recycle the countdown clock, and also drain the tanks to give them an opportunity to practice the timelines and procedures they will use for launch.
Teams will load more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic, or super cold, propellants into the rocket at the launch pad on the mobile launcher according to the detailed timeline they will use on the actual launch day. They will practice every phase of the countdown, including weather briefings, pre-planned holds in the countdown, conditioning and replenishing the propellants as needed, and validation checks. The Artemis II crew will not participate in the rehearsal.
View the full article
-
By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Artist concept highlighting the novel approach proposed by the 2025 NIAC awarded selection of MaRS ICICLE concept.NASA/Aaswath Pattabhi Raman Aaswath Pattabhi Raman
University of California, Los Angeles
Exploration of Mars has captivated the public in recent decades with high-profile robotic missions and the images they have acquired seeding our collective imagination. NASA is actively planning for human exploration of Mars and laid out some of the key capabilities that must be developed to execute successful, cost-effective programs that would put human beings on the surface of another planet and bring them home safely. Efficient, flexible and productive round-trip missions will be key to further human exploration of Mars. New round-trip mission concepts however need substantially improved long-duration storage of cryogenic propellants in various space environments; relevant propellants include liquid Hydrogen (LH2) for high specific impulse Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) which can be deployed in strategic locations in advance of a mission. If enabled, such LH2 storage tanks could be used to refill a crewed Mars Transfer Vehicle (MTV) to send and bring astronauts home quickly, safely, and cost-effectively. A well-designed cryogenic propellant storage tank can reflect the vast majority of photons incident on the spacecraft, but not all. In thermal environments like Low Earth Orbit (LEO), there is residual heating due to light directly from the Sun, sunlight reflected off Earth, and blackbody thermal radiation from Earth. Over time, this leads to some of the propellant molecules absorbing the requisite latent heat of vaporization, entering the gas phase, and ultimately being released into space to prevent an unsustainable build-up of pressure in the tank. This slow “boil-off” process leads to significant losses of the cryogenic liquid into space, potentially leaving it with insufficient mass and greatly limiting Mars missions. We propose a breakthrough mission concept: an ultra-efficient round-trip Mars mission with zero boil off of propellants. This will be enabled by low-cost, efficient cryogenic liquid storage capable of storing LH2 and LOx with ZBO even in the severe and fluctuating thermal environment of LEO. To enable this capability, the propellant tanks in our mission will employs thin, lightweight, all-solid-state panels attached to the tank’s deep-space-facing surfaces that utilize a long-understood but as-yet-unrealized cooling technology known as Electro-Luminescent Cooling (ELC) to reject heat from cold solid surfaces as non-equilibrium thermal radiation with significantly more power density than Planck’s Law permits for equilibrium thermal radiation. Such a propellant tank would drastically lower the cost and complexity of propulsion systems for crewed Mars missions and other deep space exploration by allowing spacecraft to refill propellant tanks after reaching orbit rather than launching on the much larger rocket required to lift the spacecraft in a single-use stage. To achieve ZBO, a storage spacecraft must keep the storage tank’s temperature below the boiling point of the cryogen (e.g., < 90 K for LOx and < 20 K for liquid H2). Achieving this in LEO-like thermal environments requires both excellent reflectivity toward sunlight and thermal radiation from the Earth, Mars and other nearby bodies as well as a power-efficient cooling mechanism to remove what little heat inevitably does leak in, a pair of conditions ideally suited to the ELC cooling systems that will makes our full return-trip mission to Mars a success.
2025 Selections
Facebook logo @NASATechnology @NASA_Technology
Share
Details
Last Updated May 27, 2025 EditorLoura Hall Related Terms
NIAC Studies NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program Keep Exploring Discover More NIAC Topics
Space Technology Mission Directorate
NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts
NIAC Funded Studies
About NIAC
View the full article
-
By NASA
The Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 72 NASA astronaut Don Pettit, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner aboard, April 19, 2025 (April 20, 2025, Kazakhstan time). The trio are returning to Earth after logging 220 days in space as members of Expeditions 71 and 72 aboard the International Space Station.NASA/Bill Ingalls NASA astronaut Don Pettit returned to Earth Saturday, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, concluding a seven-month science mission aboard the International Space Station.
The trio departed the space station at 5:57 p.m. EDT aboard the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft before making a safe, parachute-assisted landing at 9:20 p.m. (6:20 a.m. on Sunday, April 20, Kazakhstan time), southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. Pettit also celebrates his 70th birthday on Sunday, April 20.
Spanning 220 days in space, Pettit and his crewmates orbited the Earth 3,520 times, completing a journey of 93.3 million miles. Pettit, Ovchinin, and Vagner launched and docked to the orbiting laboratory on Sept. 11, 2024.
During his time aboard the space station, Pettit conducted research to enhance in-orbit metal 3D printing capabilities, advance water sanitization technologies, explore plant growth under varying water conditions, and investigate fire behavior in microgravity, all contributing to future space missions. He also used his surroundings aboard station to conduct unique experiments in his spare time and captivate the public with his photography.
This was Pettit’s fourth spaceflight, where he served as a flight engineer for Expeditions 71 and 72. He has logged 590 days in orbit throughout his career. Ovchinin completed his fourth flight, totaling 595 days, and Vagner has earned an overall total of 416 days in space during two spaceflights.
NASA is following its routine postlanding medical checks, the crew will return to the recovery staging area in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Pettit will then board a NASA plane bound for the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. According to NASA officials at the landing site, Pettit is doing well and in the range of what is expected for him following return to Earth.
For more than two decades, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and making research breakthroughs that are not possible on Earth. The station is a critical testbed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and to expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit. As commercial companies focus on providing human space transportation services and destinations as part of a strong low Earth orbit economy, NASA is focusing more resources on deep space missions to the Moon as part of Artemis in preparation for future astronaut missions to Mars.
Learn more about International Space Station research and operations at:
https://www.nasa.gov/station
-end-
Joshua Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
Share
Details
Last Updated Apr 19, 2025 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 72 Humans in Space ISS Research View the full article
-
By European Space Agency
Marking a major milestone in the preparation of ESA’s Biomass satellite for its scheduled 29 April liftoff, experts have completed the critical and hazardous process of fuelling the satellite.
View the full article
-
By NASA
NASA/Frank Michaux Technicians from NASA and primary contractor Amentum join the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the stacked solid rocket boosters for the Artemis II mission at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 23, 2025. The core stage is the largest component of the rocket, standing 212 feet tall and weighing about 219,000 pounds with its engines. The stage is the backbone of the rocket, supporting the launch vehicle stage adapter, interim cryogenic propulsion stage, Orion stage adapter, and the Orion spacecraft.
Artemis II is the first crewed test flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign and is another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for future human missions to Mars.
Image credit: NASA/Frank Michaux
View the full article
-
-
Check out these Videos
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.