A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off on March 3, 2024, with three Americans and one Russian for a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station. Ongoing research aboard the orbital laboratory is designed to benefit humans living on and off the Earth. What is learned in orbit also will help NASA prepare for long-term operations on and around the Moon and eventual exploration of Mars.
The familiar count backwards to zero leading to the launch of a rocket did not originate with missiles fired from Cape Canaveral. It began with an Austrian filmmaker recruiting a spaceflight pioneer to recommend ways to add drama and realism to a 1929 science-fiction movie about a fictitious trip to the Moon. German rocket enthusiasts soon began including countdowns to their rocket tests. It later continued in their work in the U.S. leading to the historic first actual lunar flight by humans.
During 2023, 72 rockets launched into the skies regularly rumbling windows along Florida’s Space Coast proving, again, that NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with Cape Canaveral Space Force Station have been established as America’s premier multi-user spaceport. The new record shattered the previous number set only last year during which 57 rockets lifted off.
Four astronaut specialists, four space agencies, four nations launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for a long-term mission aboard the International Space Station. It’s an effort emblematic of America’s growing effort to involve global participation in space exploration. The Crew-7 commander is NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli. Joining her are European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen of Denmark, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov of Russia.
When retired Kennedy Space Center engineer and NASA astronaut Nicole Stott spoke to spaceport employees in 2015, she encouraged women at the center to take full advantage of expanding opportunities for people of diverse backgrounds. Women now are filling some of the most crucial roles in the agency’s Artemis Program. That effort is designed to establish long-term lunar science and exploration capabilities on the Moon and inspire the next generation of explorers.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has launched another diverse crew of astronauts for a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station. The company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off into the pre-dawn sky from Launch Complex 39A at NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center on March 2, 2023. The Crew-6 mission includes two NASA astronauts: mission commander Stephen Bowen and pilot Woody Hoburg. They were joined by mission specialists Sultan Alneyadi of the United Arab Emirates and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev of Russia.
Capped by the highly successful Artemis I mission, 2022 was a landmark year for NASA. Groundbreaking research continued in Earth orbit, a new human-rated spacecraft circled the Moon, robotic exploration of Mars reached important milestones and the agency’s newest telescope revealed never-before seen images of the universe.
n the summer of 1966, America’s space program raced forward with Gemini flights in Earth orbit while new facilities were built to meet President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon. During that time, NASA provided an opportunity to view work going on inside the gates of the agency’s Kennedy Space Center. In years to come, the visitor complex became one of the premier attractions in Florida.
The second uncrewed flight test of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft lifted off to prove the system could safely carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. It is another step toward NASA having two different spacecraft to send astronauts from American soil to the orbiting laboratory.
On Aug. 14, 2017, a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft was launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. It was a commercial resupply mission delivering supplies to the International Space Station. Four days later, the agency’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M lifted off on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.