NASA KEPLER Spacecraft Prepares to move to the Launch Pad (2011-06-22)

NASA KEPLER Spacecraft Prepares to move to the Launch Pad NASA's Kepler spacecraft was lifted and attached to an upper stage booster on Feb. 16 at the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, Fla., to begin preparations for its move to Launch Complex 17 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Kepler is designed to survey more than 100000 stars in our galaxy to determine the number of sun-like stars that have Earth-size and larger planets. The spacecraft was built for NASA by Ball Aerospace, Boulder, Colo., and is scheduled to launch on March 5 at 10:48 pm EST. Credit:NASA Digital TV

NASA MLAS Launch | Tests Alternate Launch Abort System For Astronaut Escape - 08 July 2009 (2011-12-29)

Max Launch Abort System - NASA Engineering & Safety Center NASA has successfully demonstrated an alternate system for future astronauts to escape their launch vehicle. A simulated launch of the Max Launch Abort System, or MLAS, took place Wednesday morning at 6:26 a.m. at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va. The unpiloted launch tested an alternate concept for safely propelling a future spacecraft and its crew away from a problem on the launch pad or during ascent. The MLAS consists of four solid rocket abort motors inside a bullet-shaped composite fairing attached to a full-scale mockup of the crew module.

Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO)Taurus Launch 02/24/2009 (2011-05-29)

Spacecraft: Orbiting Carbon Observatory Launch Vehicle: Orbital Sciences Taurus Rocket Launch Location: Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Launch Pad: Space Launch Complex 576-E Launch Date: Feb. 24, 2009 Launch Time: 1:55:30 am PST (4:55:30 am EST) Cost : $ 400 million Ignition and liftoff of the Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), beginning a two-year mission to study what no spacecraft ever has: the sources and hiding places of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The rocket's Stage 0 is burning as it propels the vehicle away from Vandenberg Air Force Base and toward a near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit where it will orbit Earth once every 99 minutes. A Taurus XL rocket is speeding roughly southward near the California coast to begin the Orbiting Carbon Observatorys mission. The solid-fueled rocket is leaving a brilliant trail of flames and smoke on its way into the sky. It will take 13 minutes for the four-stage booster to settle the satellite into its precise orbit. Then the OCO spacecraft will unfurl its twin solar arrays to begin powering its onboard systems. Several minutes into the flight of the Taurus rocket carrying NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory spacecraft, launch managers declared a contingency after the payload fairing failed to separate.