A swing test of the Orion crew access arm, top right, is in progress on the mobile launcher at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Aug. 21, 2018. The crew access arm is located at about the 274-foot level on the mobile launcher tower. It will rotate from its retracted position and interface with the Orion crew hatch location to provide entry to the Orion crew module. Exploration Ground Systems extended all of the launch umbilicals on the ML tower to test their functionality before the mobile launcher, atop crawler-transporter 2, is moved to Launch Pad 39B and the Vehicle Assembly Building.
Technicians with Exploration Ground Systems prepare to transfer and lift the right forward segment for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket boosters into High Bay 3 inside NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. The right forward segment will be attached to the center forward segment on mobile launcher 1. The twin solid boosters, five segments on each side, will help support the remaining rocket components and the Orion spacecraft during final assembly of the Artemis II Moon rocket and provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust during liftoff from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B.
SpaceX’s recovery ship, Go Searcher, sails in the Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of Florida March 8, 2019, in preparation to retrieve the company’s Crew Dragon upon its return to Earth on the Demo-1 mission. The uncrewed spacecraft docked to the orbiting laboratory on March 3, following a 2:49 a.m. EST liftoff aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 2. The spacecraft undocked at 2:32 a.m., March 8, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean at 8:45 a.m. SpaceX’s inaugural flight with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is the first flight test of a space system designed for humans built and operated by a commercial company through a public-private partnership. NASA and SpaceX will use data from Demo-1 to further prepare for Demo-2, the crewed flight test that will carry NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station later this year.
Functional testing of NASA’s Mars Helicopter and its cruise stage occurred in the airlock inside Kennedy Space Center’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility on March 10, 2020. The helicopter was tested on a stand while the cruise stage was tested on the rotation fixture. The helicopter will be attached to the Mars Perseverance rover during its mission, which is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. Perseverance will land on the Red Planet on Feb. 18, 2021. Liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket is targeted for mid-July from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy is managing the launch.
The second of two Tail Service Mast Umbilicals is lifted by crane for installation on the 0-level deck of the mobile launcher on July 27, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 35-foot-tall umbilical will connect to NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage aft section and provide liquid hydrogen and electrical cable connections to the core stage engine section to support propellant handling during prelaunch operations. The installation brings Exploration Ground Systems one step closer to supporting prelaunch operations for the agency's SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft on Exploration Mission-1 and deep space destinations.
Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs lift the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage – the largest part of the rocket – and prepare to move it over to High Bay 3 in the Vehicle Assembly Building, where it will be placed atop the mobile launcher in between the twin solid rocket boosters, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 11, 2021. The 188,000-pound core stage, with its four RS-25 engines, will provide more than 2 million pounds of thrust during launch and ascent, and coupled with the boosters, will provide more than 8.8 million pounds of thrust to send the Artemis I mission to space. Under the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, as well as establish a sustainable presence on the lunar surface in preparation for human missions to Mars.
Launch Complex 39B is seen during an aerial survey of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday. The survey was performed to identify structures and facilities that may have sustained damage from Hurricane Matthew as the storm passed to the east of Kennedy on Oct. 6 and 7, 2016. Officials determined that the center received some isolated roof damage, damaged support buildings, a few downed power lines, and limited water intrusion. Beach erosion also occurred, although the storm surge was less than expected. NASA closed the center ahead of the storm’s onset and only a small team of specialists known as the Rideout Team was on the center as the storm approached and passed
A Mars Science Laboratory cap is displayed in the Randall E. Scott Radiological Control Center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The facility was recently named in honor of Randy Scott, a professional health physicist of more than 40 years. He served as the Florida spaceport's Radiation Protection Officer for 14 years until his death June 17, 2016. Launched Nov. 26, 2011, the Mars Science Laboratory with the Curiosity lander was powered by a radioisotope thermalelectric generator. Located in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout building, the Randall E. Scott Radiological Control Center is staffed by technical and radiological experts from NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing and the state of Florida. The group performs data collection and assessment functions supporting launch site and field data collection activities during launces involving plutonium-powered spacecraft such as the Mars Science Laboratory.
The Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission arrives at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Abort System facility on July 10, 2021, after being transported from the Florida spaceport’s Multi-Payload Processing Facility earlier in the day. Teams with Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs will integrate components of the launch abort system onto the spacecraft. Launching later this year, Artemis I will be a test of the Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon.
A banner signing event was held April 22, 2019, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to mark the accomplishments of the Kennedy engineering team that supported the Ground Support Equipment (GSE) Subsystem Software development. This team includes the software leads, local developers, remote developers, modelers, project engineers, software quality assurance, build team members, integrators, system engineers, a chief engineer and some software managers. There are 60 unique instances of GSE Subsystem Software code. As of today, 58 of those 60 instances have completed software Level 5 Verification (L5V) and are in the process of completing Subsystem Verification & Validation.
Teams from NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems transport the engine section of the agency’s Artemis IV SLS (Space Launch System) core stage from the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the spaceport’s Space Systems Processing Facility (SSPF) on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. NASA’s Pegasus barge delivered the core stage engine section housing the four RS-25 engines from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana to NASA Kennedy on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. The engine section is one the most complex and intricate parts of the rocket stage that will help power the Artemis missions to the Moon.
Guest speaker Sinead Burke, from Ireland, gave a presentation on “Breaking the Mould – A Lesson in Equity,” to Kennedy Space Center employees on Nov. 30, 2022, and to employees at other NASA centers via live stream on YouTube. The event was sponsored by the center’s Disability Awareness and Action Working Group (DAAWG) and the Spaceport Integration Directorate. Burke, who is an advocate for the inclusion of all, amplifies the voices who are often not considered.
A heavy load transport truck from Tillett Heavy Hauling in Titusville, Florida, arrives at the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying the second half of the A-level work platforms, A north, for the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. This is the final platform delivered to Kennedy. The A-level platforms are the topmost platforms for High Bay 3 in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The platform will be delivered to the VAB staging area in the west parking lot. The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program is overseeing upgrades and modifications to High Bay 3 to support processing of the SLS and Orion spacecraft. A total of 10 levels of new platforms, 20 platform halves altogether, will surround the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft and provide access for testing and processing.
NASA acting administrator Steve Jurczyk raises the Crew-2 flag near the countdown clock at Kennedy Space Center’s Press Site on April 24, 2021. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission launched NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, spacecraft commander; NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, pilot; ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, mission specialist; and JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, mission specialist, to the International Space Station on April 23. Liftoff, from the Florida spaceport’s Launch Complex 39A, was at 5:49 a.m. EDT. The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour docked to the space station on April 24, at 5:08 a.m. EDT.
A close-up view of NASA's crawler-transporter 2 (CT-2) with the mobile launcher (ML) atop as it slowly moves along the crawlerway on its trek to Launch Pad 39B on Aug. 31, 2018, at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. CT-2 will move the ML up to the surface of the pad where it will undergo a fit check, followed by several days of systems testing. The 380-foot-tall mobile launcher is equipped with the crew access arm and several umbilicals that will provide power, environmental control, pneumatics, communication and electrical connections to NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft. Exploration Ground Systems is preparing the ground systems necessary to launch SLS and Orion on Exploration Mission-1, missions to the Moon and on to Mars.
Artemis launch director, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson and associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, Kathryn Lueders finish coloring in the other eye of the Japanese Daruma doll to highlight the successful Artemis I mission on Dec. 20, 2022 in Firing Room 1 of the Rocco A. Petrone Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency gave a Daruma doll to both Lueders and associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, Jim Free as a token of good luck prior to the Artemis I launch. Free filled in his eye on Dec. 11, 2022, with Artemis I Ascent and Entry Flight Director Judd Frieling in Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Robert Cook, a launch vehicle engineer with Millennium Engineering and Integration, talks during the Space Launch System (SLS) avionics handling tool demonstration inside Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building on April 4, 2019. The demonstration showed that avionics boxes could be successfully and safely mounted into the SLS rocket’s upper stage — called the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, or ICPS — with low risk of damaging a closely located hydrazine tank. Avionics boxes include the Inertial Navigation and Control Assembly and flight batteries. Cook designed the ICPS section mockup used in the exercise.
A prototype of Organic Processor Assembly (OPA) – technology capable of treating mixed organic wastes – arrives at the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 19, 2020. At the heart of the OPA is an anaerobic membrane bioreactor – a hybrid technology that couples anaerobic digestion with membrane filtration. Developed through a collaboration between Kennedy’s Dr. Luke Roberson and the University of South Florida’s Dr. Daniel Yeh, the OPA was designed for an early planetary base scenario to help close the resource recovery loop, decreasing the agency’s dependence on resupply missions.
Teams from NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems transport the engine section of the agency’s Artemis IV SLS (Space Launch System) core stage from the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the spaceport’s Space Systems Processing Facility (SSPF) on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. NASA’s Pegasus barge delivered the core stage engine section housing the four RS-25 engines from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana to NASA Kennedy on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. The engine section is one the most complex and intricate parts of the rocket stage that will help power the Artemis missions to the Moon.
A long-exposure view of the mobile launcher at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Cranes and rigging are being used to lift the bracket for the Orion Service Module Umbilical (OSMU) up for installation on the mobile launcher tower. The tower will be equipped with a number of lines, called umbilicals, that will connect to the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft for Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1). The OSMU will be located high on the mobile launcher tower and, prior to launch, will transfer liquid coolant for the electronics and air for the Environmental Control System to the Orion service module that houses these critical systems to support the spacecraft. EM-1 is scheduled to launch in 2018. The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program is overseeing installation of the umbilicals.
Lisa Schott, vice chairman of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, speaks during a memorial ceremony honoring former Apollo astronaut Walter Cunningham at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The ceremony was held Jan. 9, 2023, at the Heroes and Legends exhibit within the Astronaut Hall of Fame at the spaceport’s visitor complex. Cunningham was the lunar module pilot for Apollo 7 – the first crewed flight test of the Apollo spacecraft – where he tested maneuvers necessary for docking and lunar orbit rendezvous. He passed away Jan. 3 at the age of 90.
Jenn Gustetic, NASA's Small Business Innovation Research Program executive, talks with Rob Mueller, senior technologist and co-founder of Kennedy Space Center's Swamp Works. Gustetic met team members and viewed many of the pioneering technologies and innovations in development at Kennedy. Swamp Works is a hands-on, lean development environment for innovation following the philosophies pioneered in Kelly Johnson's Skunk Works and Werner von Braun's development shops. The Swamp Works establishes rapid, innovative and cost-effective exploration mission solutions through a highly collaborative, "no walls" approach, leveraging partnerships across NASA, industry and academia.
Engineers conduct a mass properties test on the Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSolo) instrument inside Kennedy Space Center’s Space Station Processing Facility in Florida on Nov. 22, 2022. Mass properties determines the mass and center of gravity of the flight unit. The lander uses this information, from all payloads, to improve stability and performance of the lander – and to a lesser degree, the stability and performance of the rocket. This marks the end of testing at Kennedy for the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) MSolo instrument. It will soon be shipped to Intuitive Machines in Houston for integration on the NOVA-C landing platform. Launching in 2023, the PRIME-1 mission will be the first in-situ resource utilization demonstration on the Moon.
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, 2024. Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One will carry NASA and commercial payloads to the Moon to study the lunar exosphere, thermal properties, and hydrogen abundance of the lunar regolith, magnetic fields, and the radiation environment of the lunar surface.(Multiple values)
NASA Operation Project Engineer Rommel Rubio monitors operations from his position in Firing Room 1 at the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Control Center during a countdown simulation for Exploration Mission 1. It was the agency's first simulation of a portion of the countdown for the first launch of a Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft that will eventually take astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit to destinations such as the Moon and Mars.
The rock band X Ambassadors is photographed in front of NASA’s Artemis II Orion crew module inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building high bay at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. X Ambassadors visited Kennedy on Oct. 21, 2019, and had the opportunity to tour areas around the multi-user spaceport such as the O&C, Launch Complex 39B and Swamp Works. The title of the band’s latest album, Orion, led them to an up-close look at the spacecraft that will take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before.
Project DaVinci is a student-led team at North Idaho STEM Charter Academy. Their spacecraft, the DaVinci satellite, has been constructed with the intent to connect with students worldwide to help reignite a passion for space. When launched, the DaVinci satellite will begin broadcasting messages across the globe using amateur radio uplink and downlink frequencies. Students in nearly every country will be able to receive these messages using a USB receiver dongle, open source software, and a yagi antenna in locations where the signal may be weaker. All messages will be education-related, and messages received will be in Morse Code requiring students to download a translating app or to translate it themselves. The DaVinci satellite will use the internet as a redundancy communication channel while in orbit. It is one of the few CubeSat to have a GlobalStar modem onboard, and will allow team members to upload digital messages to internet through the satellite. DaVinci satellite has an onboard Arducam as well, and will provide photos of Earth from its position in orbit. These pictures can be retrieved by the team using the GlobalStar modem and its corresponding server. To Learn more about the DaVinci satellite, visit www.projectdavincicubesat.org/
NASA's mobile launcher (ML) atop crawler-transporter 2 arrives at the top of Launch Pad 39B on Aug. 31, 2018, at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The ML will undergo a fit check, followed by several days of systems testing. The 380-foot-tall mobile launcher is equipped with the crew access arm and several umbilicals that will provide power, environmental control, pneumatics, communication and electrical connections to NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft. Exploration Ground Systems is preparing the ground systems necessary to launch SLS and Orion on Exploration Mission-1, missions to the Moon and on to Mars.
Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians prepare several Nanoracks for installation on the exterior of the Orbital ATK Cygnus pressurized cargo module. The Orbital ATK CRS-7 commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station no earlier than March 21, 2017. Cygnus will deliver 7,600 pounds of supplies, equipment and scientific research materials to the space station.
Joe Leblanc, Orion payload and cargo manager with Lockheed Martin, secures Commander Moonikin Campos, a sensored stand-in for humans from NASA’s Artemis I mission, inside its transport crate in the Space Station Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 10, 2023, for its trip back to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Moonikin Campos was secured inside the Orion spacecraft for the mission beyond the Moon and back to Earth. Artemis I Orion launched atop the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39B on Nov. 16, 2022, at 1:47 a.m. EST for a 25-day trip beyond the Moon and back. During the flight, Orion flew farther than any human-rated spacecraft has ever flown, paving the way for human deep space exploration and demonstrating NASA’s commitment and capability to extend human presence to the Moon and beyond. The primary goal of Artemis I was to thoroughly test the SLS and Orion spacecraft’s integrated systems before crewed missions. Under Artemis, NASA aims to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon and establish sustainable lunar exploration.
A full Moon is in view from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 14, 2022. The Artemis I Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft, atop the mobile launcher, are being prepared for a wet dress rehearsal to practice timelines and procedures for launch. The first in an increasingly complex series of missions, Artemis I will test SLS and Orion as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon. Through Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and using the Moon as a steppingstone on the way to Mars.
A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy common booster core arrives at the Horizontal Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for preflight processing. The Delta IV Heavy will launch NASA's upcoming Parker Solar Probe mission. The mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun's atmosphere, called the corona. The probe will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and the Sun-Earth connection. Liftoff atop the Delta IV Heavy rocket is scheduled to take place from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 37 in summer 2018.
Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs lift the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage – the largest part of the rocket – and prepare to move it over to High Bay 3 in the Vehicle Assembly Building, where it will be placed atop the mobile launcher in between the twin solid rocket boosters, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 11, 2021. The 188,000-pound core stage, with its four RS-25 engines, will provide more than 2 million pounds of thrust during launch and ascent, and coupled with the boosters, will provide more than 8.8 million pounds of thrust to send the Artemis I mission to space. Under the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, as well as establish a sustainable presence on the lunar surface in preparation for human missions to Mars.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Dragon spacecraft launches NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin aboard at 10:53 p.m. EST on Sunday, March 3, 2024, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission is the eighth crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the station, and the ninth flight of Dragon with people as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
The first stage of the rocket that will launch Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station on the company's uncrewed Orbital Flight Test arrives at the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center (ASOC) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Dec. 7, 2018. The ULA Atlas V first stage booster was shipped aboard the company's Mariner cargo vessel from the company's manufacturing plant in Decatur, Alabama. It is the final piece of hardware that ULA needs to launch the first Boeing Starliner. Inside the ASOC, the booster will be inspected and checked out.
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Officer Jeff Sidor presents information on FWC’s Port K9 Program to Kennedy Space Center employees in the Space Station Processing Facility Conference Center on April 23, 2019. Officer Sidor brought a special K9, Harry, to demonstrate how FWC is using specially trained dogs in airports, seaports and mail facilities to detect illegal and invasive fish and wildlife species shipping into Florida. The demonstration involved Harry distinguishing which box, among many, contained a turtle shell. This lunch and learn was available for employees to attend as part of Kennedy’s Earth Day events.
The second of two Tail Service Mast Umbilicals (TSMU), at left, is lowered for installation on the 0-level deck of the mobile launcher on July 27, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 35-foot-tall umbilical will connect to NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage aft section and provide liquid hydrogen and electrical cable connections to the core stage engine section to support propellant handling during prelaunch operations. In view at right is the TSMU that will provide liquid oxygen and electrical cable connections to the core stage engine section. The installation brings Exploration Ground Systems one step closer to supporting prelaunch operations for the agency's SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft on Exploration Mission-1 and deep space destinations.
Christopher Di Taranto, a member of the mechanical structures engineering team on the Jacobs Test and Operations Contract, stands in front of an Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) mockup during the Space Launch System avionics handling tool demonstration inside Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building on April 4, 2019. The demonstration showed that avionics boxes could be successfully mounted into the SLS rocket’s upper stage safely, and with low risk of damaging a closely located hydrazine tank. Avionics boxes include the Inertial Navigation and Control Assembly and flight batteries. Di Taranto led a team to quickly resolve a non-conformance issue with the tool.
Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians have installed several Nanoracks on the exterior of the Orbital ATK Cygnus pressurized cargo module. The Orbital ATK CRS-7 commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station no earlier than March 21, 2017. Cygnus will deliver 7,600 pounds of supplies, equipment and scientific research materials to the space station.
Inside Kennedy Space Center’s Space Station Processing Facility Conference Center, Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC) Officer Jeff Sidor and K9 Harry demonstrate how specially trained dogs are used to detect illegal and invasive fish and wildlife species shipping into Florida. The demonstration, held April 23, 2019, involved Harry distinguishing which box, among many, contained a turtle shell. Prior to the demonstration, Officer Sidor presented information on FWC’s Port K9 Program to Kennedy employees. This lunch and learn was available for employees to attend as part of Kennedy’s Earth Day events.
A close-up view of NASA's crawler-transporter 2 (CT-2) with the mobile launcher (ML) atop as it slowly moves along the crawlerway on its trek to Launch Pad 39B on Aug. 30, 2018, at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. CT-2 will move the ML up to the surface of the pad where it will undergo a fit check, followed by several days of systems testing. The 380-foot-tall mobile launcher is equipped with the crew access arm and several umbilicals that will provide power, environmental control, pneumatics, communication and electrical connections to NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft. Exploration Ground Systems is preparing the ground systems necessary to launch SLS and Orion on Exploration Mission-1, missions to the Moon and on to Mars.
Technicians with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems use a crane in the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to prepare to lift the left forward segment for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket boosters on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. The left forward segment will be transferred into High Bay 3 where it will be attached to the center forward segment on mobile launcher 1. The twin solid boosters, five segments on each side, will help support the remaining rocket components and the Orion spacecraft during final assembly of the Artemis II Moon rocket and provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust during liftoff from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B.
Functional testing of NASA’s Mars Helicopter and its cruise stage occurred in the airlock inside Kennedy Space Center’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility on March 10, 2020. The helicopter was tested on a stand while the cruise stage was tested on the rotation fixture. The helicopter will be attached to the Mars Perseverance rover during its mission, which is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. Perseverance will land on the Red Planet on Feb. 18, 2021. Liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket is targeted for mid-July from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy is managing the launch.
Mercury astronaut John Glenn speaks during the "On Shoulders of Giants" program celebrating 50 years of Americans in orbit, an era which began with Glenn's MA-6 mission on Feb. 20, 1962. The event was conducted in the Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida a few miles from the launch pad where Glenn and Scott Carpenter took flight in Mercury spacecraft. Glenn's launch aboard an Atlas rocket took with it the hopes of an entire nation and ushered in a new era of space travel that eventually led to Americans walking on the moon by the end of the 1960s. Glenn soon was followed into orbit by Scott Carpenter, Walter Schirra and Gordon Cooper. Their fellow Mercury astronauts Alan Shepard and Virgil "Gus" Grissom flew earlier suborbital flights. Deke Slayton, a member of NASA's original Mercury 7 astronauts, was grounded by a medical condition until the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975.
Nancy Bray, director of Spaceport Integration and Services at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, speaks during ceremonies to name the Radiological Control Center in honor for Randy Scott. A professional health physicist of more than 40 years, Scott served as the Florida spaceport's Radiation Protection Officer for 14 years until his death June 17, 2016.
A graphic for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission is displayed on the historic countdown clock at the NASA News Center at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. The Crew-9 mission will send NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket. Launch is targeted for 1:17 p.m. EDT Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
In view high up in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is the Artemis I Orion spacecraft enclosed in its launch abort system atop the Space Launch System on Jan 10, 2022. A work platform has been extended around Orion. Artemis I will be the first integrated test of NASA’s deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the ground systems at Kennedy. In later missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone on the way to Mars.
Members of the Artemis I launch team participate in a wet dress rehearsal for the Artemis I mission on April 14, 2022, inside the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The wet dress rehearsal is the final major test before launch and allows the team to run through all countdown operations prior to liftoff. The first in an increasingly complex series of missions, Artemis I will test NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon.
Dr. Gioia Massa, NASA Veggie project lead, addresses Langston University students, from left, Sherman Cravens, Kashia Cha, Courtney Miller and Makyah Farris inside a Space Station Processing Facility lab at Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 18, 2019. The tour, which was organized by Langston University professor Byron Quinn, Ph.D., and NASA’s Office of Education, included stops at SwampWorks, the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, the Vehicle Assembly Building, the visitor complex and the Center for Space Education.
A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy common booster core is transported to the Horizontal Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for preflight processing. The Delta IV Heavy will launch NASA's upcoming Parker Solar Probe mission. The mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun's atmosphere, called the corona. The probe will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and the Sun-Earth connection. Liftoff atop the Delta IV Heavy rocket is scheduled to take place from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 37 in summer 2018.
Inside Kennedy Space Center’s Space Station Processing Facility Conference Center, Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC) Officer Jeff Sidor and K9 Harry demonstrate how specially trained dogs are used to detect illegal and invasive fish and wildlife species shipping into Florida. The demonstration, held April 23, 2019, involved Harry distinguishing which box, among many, contained a turtle shell. Prior to the demonstration, Officer Sidor presented information on FWC’s Port K9 Program to Kennedy employees. This lunch and learn was available for employees to attend as part of Kennedy’s Earth Day events.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 flag is raised near the News Center countdown clock at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 19, 2022. The SpaceX Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon, named Freedom by the Crew-4 crew, atop is scheduled to lift off Saturday, April 23, 2002, at 5:26 p.m. EDT, from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy. Dragon will carry NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
Engineers with NASA and contractor Jacobs monitor their consoles during a countdown demonstration event of cryogenic propellant loading April 12, 2019, inside Firing Room 2 in the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The practice simulation involved loading of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the Space Launch System rocket’s core and upper stages to prepare for Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1). During the tanking exercise, the team worked through surprise issues in real-time. The practice countdown events are training opportunities coordinated by EM-1 Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson with Exploration Ground Systems.
Build-up of a new liquid hydrogen (LH2) storage tank is in progress on Oct. 1, 2019, at Launch Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The new tank will hold 1.25 million gallons of usable LH2 to support future launches from the pad, including Artemis missions to the Moon and on to Mars.
A heavy load transport truck from Tillett Heavy Hauling in Titusville, Florida, arrives in a staging area near the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying the second half of the A-level work platforms, A north, for the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. This is the final platform delivered to Kennedy. The A-level platforms are the topmost platforms for High Bay 3 in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The platform will be delivered to the VAB staging area in the west parking lot. The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program is overseeing upgrades and modifications to High Bay 3 to support processing of the SLS and Orion spacecraft. A total of 10 levels of new platforms, 20 platform halves altogether, will surround the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft and provide access for testing and processing.
NASA acting administrator Steve Jurczyk raises the Crew-2 flag near the countdown clock at Kennedy Space Center’s Press Site on April 24, 2021. In the background is the Florida spaceport’s Vehicle Assembly Building. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission launched NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, spacecraft commander; NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, pilot; ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, mission specialist; and JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, mission specialist, to the International Space Station on April 23. Liftoff, from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A, was at 5:49 a.m. EDT. The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour docked to the space station on April 24, at 5:08 a.m. EDT.
Jeremy Parsons, deputy manager of NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, speaks at the fourth in a series of five TED Talk-style informational sessions on Oct. 31, 2019, in the Kennedy Learning Institute. Sponsored by Kennedy’s Launching Leaders and Leadership for the Future, NASAtalks focuses on the topic of intentional careers and aims to provide employees with tools and knowledge that can be utilized for career growth. The theme of this fourth session was employees, and additional speakers included Kennedy’s Johnny Nguyen and Tony Derbyshire, with a skill-building section on vulnerability, authentic self and diverse inclusion by Ronnie Rodriguez.
Functional testing of NASA’s Mars Helicopter and its cruise stage occurred in the airlock inside Kennedy Space Center’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility on March 10, 2020. The helicopter was tested on a stand while the cruise stage was tested on the rotation fixture. The helicopter will be attached to the Mars Perseverance rover during its mission, which is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. Perseverance will land on the Red Planet on Feb. 18, 2021. Liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket is targeted for mid-July from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy is managing the launch.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at 2:30 a.m. EDT on June 25, 2019, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Falcon Heavy rocket carries two dozen satellites to space for the U.S. Department of Defense, including four NASA payloads that are part of the Space Test Program (STP-2) mission, managed by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. The four NASA payloads include two technology demonstrations to improve how spacecraft propel and navigate, as well as two NASA science missions to help us better understand the nature of space and how it impacts technology on spacecraft and the ground.
Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program transport the upper stage for the agency’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket from the Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the spaceport’s Vehicle Assembly Building on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. Technicians fueled the SLS upper stage, known as the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, with hydrazine for its reaction control system at the MPPF and will now integrate the four-story propulsion system with SLS rocket elements atop mobile launcher 1.
The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is guided into position above a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Nov. 21, 2019. Starliner will be secured atop the rocket for Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test to the International Space Station for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The spacecraft rolled out from Boeing’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center earlier in the day.
Students in the My Brother’s Keeper program line the railings of an observation deck overlooking the Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations Lab at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spaceport is one of six NASA centers that participated in My Brother’s Keeper National Lab Week. The event is a nationwide effort to bring youth from underrepresented communities into federal labs and centers for hands-on activities, tours and inspirational speakers. Sixty students from the nearby cities of Orlando and Sanford visited Kennedy, where they toured the Vehicle Assembly Building, the Space Station Processing Facility and the center’s innovative Swamp Works Labs. The students also had a chance to meet and ask questions of a panel of subject matter experts from across Kennedy.
About 40 Brevard County high school seniors attended Brevard Top Scholars Day at Kennedy Space Center on May 5. Kennedy's Office of Education coordinated the event that featured a special behind-the-scenes tour of Kennedy, including prototype shops, cryogenic labs and facilities such as the Vehicle Assembly Building and the Launch Control Center firing rooms.
Construction workers with JP Donovan assist as a crane lifts the second of two Tail Service Mast Umbilicals up for installation on the 0-level deck of the mobile launcher on July 27, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 35-foot-tall umbilical will connect to NASA's Space Launch System rocket core stage aft section and provide liquid hydrogen and electrical cable connections to the core stage engine section to support propellant handling during prelaunch operations. The installation brings Exploration Ground Systems one step closer to supporting prelaunch operations for the agency's SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft on Exploration Mission-1 and deep space destinations.
Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs rotate the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage – the largest part of the rocket – into a vertical position in preparation for its move to High Bay 3 in the Vehicle Assembly Building, where it will be placed atop the mobile launcher in between the twin solid rocket boosters, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 11, 2021. The 188,000-pound core stage, with its four RS-25 engines, will provide more than 2 million pounds of thrust during launch and ascent, and coupled with the boosters, will provide more than 8.8 million pounds of thrust to send the Artemis I mission to space. Under the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, as well as establish a sustainable presence on the lunar surface in preparation for human missions to Mars.
Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program transport the upper stage for the agency’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket from the Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the spaceport’s Vehicle Assembly Building on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. Technicians fueled the SLS upper stage, known as the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, with hydrazine for its reaction control system at the MPPF and will now integrate the four-story propulsion system with SLS rocket elements atop mobile launcher 1.
Technicians with NASA and Lockheed Martin operate a 30-ton crane to move NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft out of the Final Assembly and System Testing cell inside the Neil A. Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. The move prepares for the upcoming installation of four solar array wings and spacecraft adapter jettison fairings for the agency’s first crewed flight test under the Artemis campaign.
Mary Lakaszcyck, a technician with ASRC Federal Data Solutions, wears a pair of augmented reality (AR) goggles inside the high bay of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 16, 2020. Orion manufacturer Lockheed Martin provided the goggles to technicians to help place tapes where components will be installed on the Orion crew module adapter for NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first crewed mission aboard the spacecraft. Using the AR goggles saves significant labor and time to complete tasks. Manufactured by Microsoft, the goggles, called HoloLens2, are the second version used by Lockheed.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 crew members wave to family and friends as they prepare to depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for nearby Launch Complex 39A for launch of Crew-10 on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. From left to right, Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain, along with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi are scheduled to lift off aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket at 7:48 p.m. EDT, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy. Crew-10 is the tenth crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the space station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, illumination testing is underway on the power-producing solar arrays for the agency’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Targeted for liftoff Sept. 8, 2016, OSIRIS-Rex will be the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid, retrieve at least two ounces of surface material and return it to Earth for study. The asteroid, Bennu, may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of water and organic molecules found on Earth.
The Artemis I Orion spacecraft, secured on the Space Launch System (SLS) and enclosed in its launch abort system, is in view high up in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 10, 2022. Work platforms are extended around Orion and scaffolding has been secured to allow access for inspection and processing work. Artemis I will be the first integrated test of NASA’s deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the ground systems at Kennedy. In later missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone on the way to Mars.
A group of 19 college students recently visited NASA's Kennedy Space Center as winners of the First Nations Launch competition in Wisconsin. They were part of teams that successfully flew high-powered rockets, earning them an opportunity to visit the Florida spaceport. During their visit, they toured the Vehicle Assembly Building, Launch Control Center and the Kennedy visitor complex. The competition is supported by NASA and the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium. It provides an opportunity for students attending tribal colleges or universities, or who are members of a campus American Indian Science and Engineering Society, or AISES, chapter to design, build and launch a rocket at a competition in Kansasville, Wisconsin.
Veteran NASA astronauts James Buchli and Janet Kavandi were inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in a public ceremony at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in the Space Shuttle Atlantis attraction on April 6, 2019.
Dr. Luz M. Calle, a principal investigator for corrosion research at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, shows a dish of crystals left over from an experiment to separate salt from water Dec. 12, 2018. Astronauts traveling on long-duration missions in space will need to recycle water, which means having to remove salt and other chemicals from wastewater to turn it back into drinking water.
During sunrise on Oct. 30, 2020, the mobile launcher for the Artemis I mission, atop crawler-transporter 2, departs Launch Pad 39B and moves slowly down the ramp on the crawlerway to return to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In view is the flame trench at the top of the pad. The nearly 400-foot-tall mobile launcher was at the pad for 10 days, while engineers with Exploration Ground Systems and Jacobs performed several tasks, including a timing test to validate the launch team’s countdown timeline, and a thorough, top-to-bottom wash down of the mobile launcher to remove any debris remaining from construction and installation of the umbilical arms. Artemis I will test the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon. Under the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024.
A support building is seen during an aerial survey of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday. The survey was performed to identify structures and facilities that may have sustained damage from Hurricane Matthew as the storm passed to the east of Kennedy on Oct. 6 and 7, 2016. Officials determined that the center received some isolated roof damage, damaged support buildings, a few downed power lines, and limited water intrusion. Beach erosion also occurred, although the storm surge was less than expected. NASA closed the center ahead of the storm’s onset and only a small team of specialists known as the Rideout Team was on the center as the storm approached and passed.
Technicians with NASA and Lockheed Martin operate a 30-ton crane to move NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft out of the Final Assembly and System Testing cell inside the Neil A. Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. The move prepares for the upcoming installation of four solar array wings and spacecraft adapter jettison fairings for the agency’s first crewed flight test under the Artemis campaign.
The rock band X Ambassadors is photographed in front of NASA’s Artemis II Orion crew module inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building high bay at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. X Ambassadors visited Kennedy on Oct. 21, 2019, and had the opportunity to tour areas around the multi-user spaceport such as the O&C, Launch Complex 39B and Swamp Works. The title of the band’s latest album, Orion, led them to an up-close look at the spacecraft that will take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before.
NASA’s massive 212-foot long SLS (Space Launch System) core stage is offloaded from the agency’s Pegasus Barge on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, after arriving at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Teams with Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) will transfer the rocket stage to the spaceport’s Vehicle Assembly Building to prepare it for integration atop the mobile launcher ahead of the Artemis II launch.
Nancy Bray, director of Spaceport Integration and Services at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, left, is joined by Myrna Scott, center, and Dr. David Tipton, chief of Aerospace Medicine and Occupational Health, in cutting a ceremonial ribbon dedicating the Randal E. Scott Radiological Control Center at the Florida spaceport. Myrna Scott is the widow of Randy Scott, who was a professional health physicist of more than 40 years. He served as the Florida spaceport's Radiation Protection Officer for 14 years until his death June 17, 2016.
Space Launch System Test Conductors Roberta Wyrick, left, and Tracy Parks, both with Jacobs, NASA's Test and Operations Support Contractor, monitor operations from their consoles in Firing Room 1 at the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Control Center during a countdown simulation for Exploration Mission 1. It was the agency's first simulation of a portion of the countdown for the first launch of a Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft that will eventually take astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit to destinations such as the Moon and Mars.
NASA’s Artemis III core stage boat-tail and RS-25 engines are shown inside the Space Systems Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Used during the assembly of the SLS (Space Launch System) core stage for Artemis III, the boat tail is a fairing-like structure that protects the bottom end of the core stage. NASA’s Pegasus barge delivered the boat-tail, along with other hardware for future Artemis campaigns to NASA Kennedy on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024.
A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy common booster core arrives at the Horizontal Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for preflight processing. The Delta IV Heavy will launch NASA's upcoming Parker Solar Probe mission. The mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun's atmosphere, called the corona. The probe will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and the Sun-Earth connection. Liftoff atop the Delta IV Heavy rocket is scheduled to take place from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 37 in summer 2018.
Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro addresses friends, colleagues, and family following her acceptance of the Dr. Kurt H. Debus Award on June 24, 2022, during a ceremony held at the Florida spaceport’s visitor complex. The National Space Club Florida Committee presented Petro with the prestigious award for her contributions to America’s aerospace efforts within the state of Florida. The award – originating in 1990 – is named after Kennedy’s first director.
Bob Myers, a mechanical systems engineer with ERC on the Test and Operations Support Contract, is inside the operator cab of crawler-transporter 2 on the crawlerway at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Aug. 27, 2018. CT-2 will carry the mobile launcher for the first time to Launch Pad 39B for a fit check of key systems that will support the launch of the agency's Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft on Exploration Mission-1. The crawler also will carry the mobile launcher to the Vehicle Assembly Building for system checks and fit checks with the 10 levels of new work platforms in High Bay 3.
Rebecca Baturin, center, a project engineer in Exploration Ground Systems, speaks to students from Brevard County high schools during a panel discussion session at the NASA Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, on Nov. 7, 2018. The high school seniors were invited to Kennedy Space Center for a tour of facilities, lunch and a roundtable discussion with engineers, scientists and business experts at the center. The 2018 Brevard Top Scholars event was hosted by the center's Academic Engagement Office to honor the top three scholars of the 2018-2019 graduating student class from each of Brevard County’s public high schools. The students received a personalized certificate of recognition at the end of the day.
Darth Vader and other Star Wars characters from the 501st Legion address students and sponsors in the Center for Space Education at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Teams from across the state of Florida were gathered at Kennedy for the finals of the Zero Robotics Middle School Summer Program national championship. The five-week program allows rising sixth- through ninth-graders to write programs for small satellites called SPHERES (Synchronized, Position, Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites). Finalists saw their code tested aboard the International Space Station.
From left, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, Artemis II commander; CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, Artemis II mission specialist; Andre Douglas, NASA’s Artemis II backup crew member; NASA astronaut Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist; and NASA astronaut Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot, participate in emergency egress training with teams from the agency’s Exploration Ground Systems Program inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, May 5, 2025. Artemis II will take four astronauts around the Moon, the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establishing a long-term presence for science and exploration through Artemis.
Kennedy Space Center personnel and American Medical Response (AMR) contractor paramedics gather at the Florida spaceport’s Shuttle Landing Facility on May 17, 2019, for a medical support training course. The course was designed to familiarize the AMR paramedics with the center’s Triage Forces deployment, which included medical team members, fire/rescue personnel, environmental health specialists and flight operations crew members, as well as a helicopter, Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) tactical vehicle, fire pumper truck and triage vehicles. The AMR paramedics will assist the agency in contingency planning for the return of human spaceflight from Kennedy.
A Space Launch System (SLS) avionics handling tool demonstration takes place inside Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building on April 4, 2019. The demonstration showed that avionics boxes could be successfully and safely mounted into the SLS rocket’s upper stage — called the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, or ICPS — with low risk of damaging a closely located hydrazine tank. Avionics boxes include the Inertial Navigation and Control Assembly and flight batteries. The actual installation will take place just weeks before NASA’s SLS rocket and uncrewed Orion spacecraft lift off on Exploration Mission-1 from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy.
Workers prepare to unload the second half of the A-level work platforms, A north, for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, from a heavy load transport truck near the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is the final platform delivered to Kennedy. The platform will be offloaded in a staging area near the VAB. The A-level platforms are the topmost platforms for High Bay 3 in the VAB. The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program is overseeing upgrades and modifications to High Bay 3 to support processing of the SLS and Orion spacecraft. A total of 10 levels of new platforms, 20 platform halves altogether, will surround the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft and provide access for testing and processing.
A panel discussion, featuring women in leadership roles at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is held on Aug. 26, 2019, to celebrate Women’s Equality Day. The event, sponsored by the Kennedy Networking Opportunities for Women (KNOW) employee resource group, honored the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th amendment guaranteeing all American women the right to vote. Seated in front from left, are Digna Carballosa, director of the Human Resources Office; Nancy Bray, director of Spaceport Integration and Services; Jennifer Kunz, director of Safety and Mission Assurance; and Amanda Mitskevich, Launch Services Program manager. At far left, is Ashley Nelsen, Launch Service Program information manager and panel discussion moderator. The purpose of KNOW is to provide focus on issues such as employment, retention, promotion, training, career and personal development, education, and identify and eliminate barriers that hinder the advancement of women in the workforce.
Preparations are underway to move NASA's mobile launcher, atop crawler-transporter 2, into High Bay 3 at the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on Sept. 8, 2018, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mobile launcher departed Launch Pad 39B after several days of testing with the pad. This is the first time that the modified mobile launcher made the trip to the pad and the VAB. The mobile launcher will spend seven months in the VAB undergoing testing. The 380-foot-tall structure is equipped with the crew access arm and several umbilicals that will provide power, environmental control, pneumatics, communication and electrical connections to the agency's Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft. Exploration Ground Systems is preparing the ground systems necessary to launch SLS and Orion on Exploration Mission-1, missions to the Moon and on to Mars.
In the high bay of Kennedy Space Center's Space Station Processing Facility, Chris Hardcastle, left, of Stinger-Ghaffarian Technologies, and other payload team members performs spacewalk tool fit-checks of the integrated Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor-1 (TSIS-1) payload and the EXPRESS Pallet Adapter. TSIS-1 is designed to measure the Sun's energy input into Earth by seeing how it is distributed across different wavelengths of light. These measurements help scientists establish Earth's total energy and how our planet's atmosphere responds to changes in the Sun's energy output. TSIS-1 will launch on SpaceX's 13th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station.
Cory Taylor, an energy and water conservation specialist at Kennedy Space Center, absorbs information from Mark Gonzalez, a sales engineer with MC2 during Energy Awareness Day at the Multi-Function Facility on Oct. 20. Every third Thursday of October, civil servants, contractors and several energy utilities promote the awareness of our sustainability goals at Kennedy Space Center and at home. Photo credit: Cory Huston
Evan Bell, a mechanical engineer and member of the Gaseous Lunar Oxygen from Regolith Electrolysis (GaLORE) project team at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, checks the hardware that will be used to melt lunar regolith – dirt and dust on the Moon made from crushed rock – simulants during a test inside a laboratory at Kennedy’s Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on Oct. 29, 2020. GaLORE was selected as an Early Career Initiative project by the agency’s Space Technology Mission directorate, and the team was tasked with developing a device that could melt lunar regolith and turn it into oxygen. As NASA prepares to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024 as part of the Artemis program, technology such as this can assist with sustainable human lunar exploration and long-duration missions to Mars.
Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs lower the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage – the largest part of the rocket – onto the mobile launcher, in between the twin solid rocket boosters, inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 12, 2021. The 188,000-pound core stage, with its four RS-25 engines, will provide more than 2 million pounds of thrust during launch and ascent, and coupled with the boosters, will provide more than 8.8 million pounds of thrust to send the Artemis I mission to space. Under the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, as well as establish a sustainable presence on the lunar surface in preparation for human missions to Mars.
A long-exposure view of the mobile launcher at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Cranes and rigging are being used to lift the bracket for the Orion Service Module Umbilical (OSMU) up for installation on the mobile launcher tower. The tower will be equipped with a number of lines, called umbilicals, that will connect to the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft for Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1). The OSMU will be located high on the mobile launcher tower and, prior to launch, will transfer liquid coolant for the electronics and air for the Environmental Control System to the Orion service module that houses these critical systems to support the spacecraft. EM-1 is scheduled to launch in 2018. The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program is overseeing installation of the umbilicals.
Managers with NASA and SpaceX, along with international partners, participate in NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Flight Readiness Review at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. Launch is targeted for 2:05 p.m. EDT Sept. 26, 2024, from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will launch to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket on the company’s ninth crew rotation mission for NASA as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.