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Under the Saturn V at Kennedy Space Centre
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By NASA
Teams with NASA are gaining momentum as work progresses toward future lunar missions for the benefit of humanity as numerous flight hardware shipments from across the world arrived at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the first crewed Artemis flight test and follow-on lunar missions. The skyline at Kennedy will soon see added structures as teams build up the ground systems needed to support them.
Crews are well underway with parallel preparations for the Artemis II flight, as well as buildup of NASA’s mobile launcher 2 tower for use during the launch of the SLS (Space Launch System) Block 1B rocket, beginning with the Artemis IV mission. This version of NASA’s rocket will use a more powerful upper stage to launch with crew and more cargo on lunar missions. Technicians have begun upper stage umbilical connections testing that will help supply fuel and other commodities to the rocket while at the launch pad.
In summer 2024, technicians from NASA and contractor Bechtel National, Inc. completed a milestone called jack and set, where the center’s mega-mover, the crawler transporter, repositioned the initial steel base assembly for mobile launcher 2 from temporary construction shoring to its six permanent pedestals near the Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building.
Teams at Bechtel National, Inc. use a crane to lift Module 4 into place atop the mobile launcher 2 tower chair at its park site on Jan. 3, 2025, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Module 4 is the first of seven modules that will be stacked vertically to make up the almost 400-foot launch tower that will be used beginning with the Artemis IV mission.Betchel National Inc./Allison Sijgers “The NASA Bechtel mobile launcher 2 team is ahead of schedule and gaining momentum by the day,” stated Darrell Foster, ground systems integration manager, NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program at NASA Kennedy. “In parallel to all of the progress at our main build site, the remaining tower modules are assembled and outfitted at a second construction site on center.”
As construction of the mobile launcher 2’s base continues, the assembly operations shift into integration of the modules that will make up the tower. In mid-October 2024, crews completed installation of the chair, named for its resemblance to a giant seat. The chair serves as the interface between the base deck and the vertical modules which are the components that will make up the tower, and stands at 80-feet-tall.
In December 2024, teams completed the rig and set Module 4 operation where the first of a total of seven 40-foot-tall modules was stacked on top of the chair. Becthel crews rigged the module to a heavy lift crane, raised the module more than 150-feet, and secured the four corners to the tower chair. Once complete, the entire mobile launcher structure will reach a height of nearly 400 feet – approximately the length of four Olympic-sized swimming pools placed end-to-end.
On the opposite side of the center, test teams at the Launch Equipment Test Facility are testing the new umbilical interfaces, which will be located on mobile launcher 2, that will be needed to support the new SLS Block 1B Exploration Upper Stage. The umbilicals are connecting lines that provide fuel, oxidizer, pneumatic pressure, instrumentation, and electrical connections from the mobile launcher to the upper stage and other elements of SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
“All ambient temperature testing has been successfully completed and the team is now beginning cryogenic testing, where liquid nitrogen and liquid hydrogen will flow through the umbilicals to verify acceptable performance,” stated Kevin Jumper, lab manager, NASA Launch Equipment Test Facility at Kennedy. “The Exploration Upper Stage umbilical team has made significant progress on check-out and verification testing of the mobile launcher 2 umbilicals.”
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/eusu-test-3-5b-run-1.mp4 Exploration Upper Stage Umbilical retract testing is underway at the Launch Equipment Test Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 22, 2024. The new umbilical interface will be used beginning with the Artemis IV mission. Credit: LASSO Contract LETF Video Group The testing includes extension and retraction of the Exploration Upper Stage umbilical arms that will be installed on mobile launcher 2. The test team remotely triggers the umbilical arms to retract, ensuring the ground and flight umbilical plates separate as expected, simulating the operation that will be performed at lift off.
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By NASA
On Dec. 19, 2024, NASA released two amendments to the NASA Research Announcement Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) 2024 (NNH24ZDA001N) to announce the E.9 Space Biology: Research Studies and E.12 Physical Sciences Research Studies program elements.
Space Biology Proposals
The research emphases of E.9 Space Biology: Research Studies fall under two broad categories: Precision Health and Space Crops
For Precision Health-focused studies, investigators may propose to use any non-primate animal model system and any appropriate cell/tissue culture/microphysiological system/organoid or microbial models that are supported by the chosen platform. For Space Crop-focused studies, applicants may propose to use any plant, relevant microbe, and/or plant and microbe model system(s) that is (are) supported by the chosen platform. The E.9 Space Biology: Research Studies opportunity includes five different Project Types: Research Investigations, Early Career Research Investigations, New NASA Investigators, OSDR Analytical Investigations, and Tissue Sharing Investigations. Specific requirements for each of these Project Types are described in the program element text. Questions concerning E.9 Space Biology: Research Studies may be directed to Lynn Harrison (for Precision Health) and Elison Blancaflor (for Space Crops) at nasa-spacebiology@mail.nasa.gov.
Physical Sciences Proposals
E.12 Physical Sciences: Research Studies solicits proposals to investigate physical phenomena in the absence of gravity and fundamental laws that describe the universe, and applied research that contributes to the basic understanding of processes underlying space exploration technologies.
The Physical Sciences program is divided into two key goals: Foundations and Quantum Leaps. Foundations focuses on understanding the behavior of fluids, combustion, soft matter, and materials in the spaceflight environment. Quantum Leaps aims to probe the very nature of the universe using exquisitely precise space-based quantum sensors to test the Einstein equivalence principle, dark sector physics, and the nature of fundamental physical constants.
The E.12 Physical Sciences: Research Studies opportunity will include four different Project Types: Research Investigations, New NASA Investigators, Physical Sciences Informatics, and Fundamental Physics Investigations. Specific requirements for each of these Project Types are described in detail in the program element text. Questions concerning E.12 Physical Sciences Research Studies may be directed to Brad Carpenter (regarding Foundations and PSI) or Mike Robinson (regarding Quantum Leaps) by writing to BPS-PhysicalSciences@nasaprs.com.
Town Hall
A pre-proposer’s townhall for applicants interested in submitting a proposal to these program elements will be held virtually on Jan. 22, 2025, at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. Meeting information will be posted on the NSPIRES page for each of the program elements under “Other Documents.”
Proposals to these program elements shall be submitted via a two-step process
Step-1 proposals must be submitted by Feb. 4, 2025 Step-2 proposals are due on May 6, 2025 Related Resources:
PSI Database is Live with New Features to Improve User Experience Space Biology Physical Sciences View the full article
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By NASA
With the historic first international space docking mission only six months away, preparations on the ground for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) intensified. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, workers in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) stacked the rocket for the mission, the final Saturn rocket assembled for flight. In the nearby Manned Spacecraft Operations Building (MSOB), the Apollo prime crew of Commander Thomas Stafford, Command Module Pilot Vance Brand, and Docking Module Pilot Donald “Deke” Slayton, and their backups Alan Bean, Ronald Evans, and Jack Lousma conducted vacuum chamber tests of the Command Module (CM), the final Apollo spacecraft prepared for flight.
Inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers attach fins to the Saturn IB’s first stage. In the VAB, workers secure the first stage of the Saturn IB rocket onto the milk stool, perched on Mobile Launcher-1. Workers lift the second stage of the Saturn IB rocket prior to mating with the first stage. Workers lower a boilerplate Apollo spacecraft onto the Saturn IB rocket. The Saturn IB rocket, serial number SA-210, used for ASTP had a lengthy history. Contractors originally built its two stages in 1967, at a time when NASA planned many more Saturn IB flights to test Apollo spacecraft components in Earth orbit in preparation for the Moon landing. By 1968, however, after four uncrewed Saturn IB launches, only one launched a crew, Apollo 7. Four more Saturn IBs remained on reserve to launch crews as part of the Apollo Applications Program, renamed Skylab in 1970. Without an immediate mission, the two stages of SA-210 entered long-term storage in 1967. Workers later modified and refurbished the stages for ASTP before shipping them to KSC. The first stage arrived in April 1974 and the second stage in November 1972.
On Jan. 13, 1975, inside the cavernous VAB, workers stacked the Saturn IB rocket’s first stage onto Mobile Launcher-1 (ML-1), modified from its use to launch Saturn V rockets during the Apollo program with the addition of the milk stool pedestal. The milk stool, a 128-foot tall platform, allowed the Saturn IB to use the same Launch Umbilical Tower as the much larger Saturn V rocket at Launch Complex 39. The next day, workers lowered the second stage onto the first, followed by the Instrument Unit two days later. Finally, on Jan. 17 workers topped off the rocket with a boilerplate Apollo spacecraft while engineers continued testing the flight article in the MSOB.
The ASTP Apollo Command and Service Modules arrive at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The ASTP Command Module arrives in KSC’s Manned Spacecraft Operations Building. The Command and Service Modules – CSM-111 – arrived at KSC from the Rockwell International plant in Downey, California, on Sept. 8, 1974, by C-5A Galaxy cargo plane. Rockwell had finished building the spacecraft in March 1970 and placed it in storage until July 1972. Modifications for ASTP took place between August 1972 and August 1974, following which Rockwell shipped the spacecraft to KSC. The sign on the shipping container bore the legend “From A to Soyuz – Apollo/Soyuz – Last and the Best.” Workers at KSC towed the modules to the MSOB for inspection and checkout, joined the two modules, and placed the combined spacecraft into a vacuum chamber.
The prime Apollo crew of Thomas Stafford, left, Vance Brand, and Donald “Deke” Slayton suit up in preparation for an altitude chamber test in the Command Module (CM). The astronauts inside the CM in the altitude chamber. In the MSOB, the prime and backup ASTP crews conducted tests of their spacecraft in an altitude chamber. After both crews completed simulated runs in December 1974, the prime crew of Stafford, Brand, and Slayton suited up, entered the CM inside the chamber, closed the hatch, and conducted an actual test on Jan. 14, with the chamber simulating altitudes of up to 220,000 feet. Two days later, the backup crew of Bean, Evans, and Lousma completed a similar test.
he backup Apollo crew of Alan Bean, left, Ronald Evans, and Jack Lousma suit up in preparation for an altitude chamber test in the Command Module (CM). Workers assist backup crewmember Lousma into the CM. To solve the problem of the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft operating at different atmospheric pressures and compositions and using incompatible docking mechanisms, engineers designed a Docking Module (DM) that acted as both an airlock and a transfer tunnel and a Docking System (DS) that allowed the two nations’ spacecraft to physically join in space. NASA contracted with Rockwell International to build the DM. Engineers equipped one end of the DM with the standard Apollo probe-and-drogue docking mechanism and the other end with the androgynous system that linked up with its opposite half installed on the modified Soyuz spacecraft. During launch, the DM rested inside the Spacecraft Lunar Module (LM) Adaptor (SLA) atop the rocket’s upper stage, much like the LM during Apollo flights. Once in orbit, the astronauts separated the CSM from the upper stage, turned the spacecraft around, docked with the DM and pulled it free.
Workers lower the DM into Chamber B in the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Workers lower the DM into Chamber B in the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. After extensive vacuum testing in Chamber B of the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the flight DM arrived at KSC on Oct. 29, 1974, and workers prepared it for more testing in a vacuum chamber in the MSOB. The flight DS arrived at KSC on Jan. 3, 1975, and two weeks later workers installed it on the DM. On Jan. 27, engineers lowered the DM onto the CM in the altitude chamber to conduct a mechanical docking test. Engineers conducted 10 days of joint tests of television and audio equipment to ensure systems compatibility.
Workers conduct a docking test of the Docking Module with the Command Module at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA support astronaut Robert Overmyer, right, works with engineers during compatibility testing. To be continued…
Major events around the world in January 1975:
January 5 – Musical The Wiz opens on Broadway, runs for 1,672 performances.
January 6 – The game show Wheel of Fortune debuts on NBC.
January 8 – Ella Grasso of Connecticut becomes the first elected female governor in the U.S.
January 11 – The S-II second stage of the Saturn V rocket that launched Skylab reenters the Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
January 12 – The Pittsburg Steelers beat the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IX, played in Tulane Stadium in New Orleans.
January 15 – Space Mountain opens at Disney World in Orlando.
January 18 – The Jeffersons premieres on CBS.
January 22 – Launch of the Landsat-2 Earth resources monitoring satellite.
January 30 – Ernő Rubik applies for a patent in Hungary for his Magic Cube, later known as Rubik’s Cube.
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By NASA
Kennedy Space Center Director and charter members of the Florida University Space Research Consortium signed a memorandum of understanding on Jan. 8, 2025. From left: Jennifer Kunz, Associate Director, Technical, Kennedy Space Center; Kelvin Manning, Deputy Director, Kennedy Space Center; Dr. Kent Fuchs, Interim President, University of Florida; Janet Petro, Director, Kennedy Space Center; Jeanette Nuñez, Florida Lieutenant Governor; Dr. Alexander Cartwright, President, University of Central Florida; Dr. Barry Butler, President, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. NASA/Kim Shiflett The future of research and technology at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is expanding Wednesday, as Kennedy’s center director and charter members in the Florida University Space Research Consortium signed a memorandum of understanding in research and development to assist with missions and contribute to NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach.
Officials from the consortium – designated in 2024 as the state’s official space research entity – NASA leaders, and guests participated in the signing ceremony held at Kennedy, marking a critical milestone in a partnership to advance research, technology development, education, and communication between the spaceport and the state’s growing space industry.
“Through this agreement, NASA will benefit in new and exciting ways from our longtime partnership with the universities that make Florida shine,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “As we move deeper into this golden era of space exploration, a new generation of thinkers and leaders will lead the way – thinkers and leaders like the researchers, faculty, and students of the Artemis Generation, whom we are pleased to work with through the consortium.”
The creation of the consortium was the result of more than a year of effort by leaders at Kennedy, the University of Florida, the University of Central Florida, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The agreement highlights the partnership and serves as the official start to partnering activities, with Florida now the only state with a university consortium affiliated with one of NASA’s centers.
Present at the event was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. “It was great to visit the Space Coast Jan. 8 to announce the Florida University Space Research Consortium—our state’s official space research entity. Home to a thriving aerospace industry and world-class higher education institutions, Florida is the ideal place to launch this initiative. We are primed to lead the nation in developing a blueprint for state-space partnerships into the future.”
The mission of the consortium is to foster a symbiotic relationship between NASA Kennedy and Florida’s universities to drive innovation in space exploration, research, and technology through academic collaboration, joint projects, and workforce development.
“The launch of the Florida University Space Research Consortium is a significant milestone for our state’s aerospace sector, bringing together our world-class education system with cutting edge research and development,” said Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez. “This consortium will undoubtedly further strengthen and deepen Florida’s position as the leader in the global aerospace economy.”
The memorandum of understanding marks the dawn of a new era of cooperation between the Florida spaceport and the state’s university system, starting with the three charter universities with plans to expand to other state universities interested in participating. The push to enhance research and technological collaboration with universities has been a priority at NASA for years and has seen success at other NASA centers across the country.
While Kennedy becomes the first NASA center affiliated with a university consortium, recently NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley partnered with University of California, Berkeley, on development of the Berkeley Space Center at NASA Research Park, located at Ames. Still in development, the project is envisioned as a 36-acre discovery and innovation hub to include educational spaces, labs, offices, student housing, and a new conference center. More recently, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston teamed up with Texas A&M University to break ground on a building that will become a testing laboratory for apparatuses in development for NASA’s Moon to Mars plans. In attendance for the groundbreaking was Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro, who was one of the signatories on the agreement.
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro signs a memorandum of understanding between Kennedy Space Center and the Florida University Space Research Consortium on Jan. 8, 2025. NASA/Kim Shiflett “This agreement is a shining example of what it looks like when we link arms and create a space for the whole to be greater than all our parts,” said Petro. “This symbiotic partnership makes way for collaborative research opportunities and increased exposure to advanced technology, significantly enhancing NASA’s research output in fields such as aerospace engineering, materials science, robotics, and environmental science, all of which are necessary for long-term human exploration as we learn to live and work deeper into space than ever before.”
For more information about NASA Kennedy, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/kennedy
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