NASA has successfully tested the solid rocket booster avionics for the first two test flights of the Space Launch System, America's next heavy-lift launch vehicle. This avionics system includes electrical components for the SLS' solid rocket boosters, which provide propulsion to augment the core stage main engines of the rocket. The first qualification test of the five-segment SLS booster is slated for spring 2013.  Read the full article

Workers recently began cutting and coating the first thermal protection system tiles – part of the heat shield that will protect an Orion spacecraft during an upcoming flight test which will simulate the re-entry speed and heating of returning from deep space.  Read the full article

Engineers at NASA's Stennis Space Center conducted an initial test of the J-2X engine powerpack Feb. 15, kicking off a series of key tests in development of the rocket engine that will carry humans deeper into space than ever before.  Read the full article

A new series of tests on the engine that will help carry humans to deep space will begin next week at NASA's Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi. The tests on the J-2X engine bring NASA one step closer to the first human-rated liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen rocket engine to be developed in 40 years.  Read the full article

On Dec. 15, more than 120 aerospace industry leaders from more than 70 companies attended the Space Launch System's Advanced Booster Industry Day held at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.  Read the full article

NASA conducted a successful 500-second test firing of the J-2X rocket engine on Wednesday, Nov. 9, marking another important step in development of an upper stage for the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS). Read the full article

Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida recently made way for a new generation of rockets when workers took down the gantry that stood in support of space shuttles for 30 years and replaced it with, well, not much really. But that was the idea. Read the full article

NASA is ready to move forward with the development of the Space Launch System -- an advanced heavy-lift launch vehicle that will provide an entirely new national capability for human exploration beyond Earth's orbit. The Space Launch System will give the nation a safe, affordable and sustainable means of reaching beyond our current limits and opening up new discoveries from the unique vantage point of space.  Read the full article

Lockheed Martin’s [NYSE:LMT] state-of-the-art Space Operations Simulation Center (SOSC) has completed its first orbital simulation test with hardware and data that was flown on NASA’s STS-134 space shuttle Endeavour mission to the International Space Station.  Read the full article

Through a new agreement, United Launch Alliance (ULA) will provide technical information to NASA about using the Atlas V rocket to launch astronauts into space. The announcement was made Monday at ULA headquarters in Denver.  Read the full article

The crew of the space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 11:55 p.m. EDT (03:55 GMT). Pilot Greg Johnson then conducted a one and one-half rotation around the orbiting outpost so that his fellow crew members could photograph the station in its current configuration. After completing this aspect of the flight, Endeavour then conducted a first-ever maneuver, one that was added to test out new flight hardware for NASA’s next, planned human-rated spacecraft the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle or MPCV. Read the full article

Forty-five years after its first Saturn V rocket stage test and 35 years after its first space shuttle main engine test, the A-2 Test Stand at NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center achieved a milestone in preparation for its third major rocket engine test project.  Read the full article

Forging a new path forward to ensure safe, affordable and sustainable human exploration beyond low Earth orbit, Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] today unveiled the first Orion spacecraft and a spacious state-of-the-art Space Operations Simulation Center (SOSC). These two major projects, located at Lockheed Martin’s Waterton Facility near Denver, Colo., showcase the NASA-industry teams’ progress for human space flight, the Orion Project and NASA’s Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.  Read the full article

Space tourists can really get the opportunity to fly around the Moon and get back to the Earth in Russian Soyuz, Roscosmos Human Spaceflight Directorate Head Alexey Krasnov told news media.  Read the full article

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne successfully completed assembly of the oxidizer turbopump on NASA’s J-2X rocket engine, moving the next-generation, human-rated rocket engine one step closer to testing at Stennis Space Center, Miss., in 2011. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX) company. Read the full article

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne successfully completed the latest round of tests on the workhorse gas generator for NASA’s J-2X rocket engine. With the first NASA J-2X engine far along in development, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is on track to begin testing in 2011 at Stennis Space Center. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX) company. Read the full article

If ping-pong balls can float a sunken boat, they should be able to keep an uncrewed space capsule simulator from sinking. Right? That's what a team of summer students and engineers think at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. Langley is fabricating a proposed design of an astronaut crew module simulator for uncrewed flight-testing as part of the agency's effort to build a vehicle to replace the space shuttle.  Read the full article

NASA's Pad Abort 1 will be the first fully integrated flight test of the launch abort system being developed for the Orion crew vehicle. The test is part of an ongoing mission to develop safer vehicles for human spaceflight applications.  Read the full article

Constellation program managers agreed to reevaluate the proposed Ares I-Y flight test during an Oct. 30 Control Board and plan to take the decision up the ladder to management at NASA Headquarters soon. The decision could result in the removal of the Ares I-Y flight from the manifest in order to better align test flights with evolving program objectives. Read the full article

LIFTOFF! Ares I-X Completed Its Developmental Flight Test Read the full article

ARES I-X Status Report For October 20, 2009 (L-7 Days to Launch) Read the full article

ARES I-X Status Update for October 13, 2009 (Launch minus 14 Days) Read the full article

ARES I-X Status Update for September 14, 2009 (Launch minus 47 Days) Read the full article

ARES I-X Status Update for May 4, 2009 (Launch minus 118 Days) Read the full article

The last newly manufactured section of the Ares I-X test rocket arrived at the Assembly and Refurbishment Facility of NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Friday Read the full article

NASA scientists developing the next generation of exploration vehicles and heat shields for NASA's Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle experienced "Christmas in July" when they uncrated the heat shields used on the Apollo missions some 35 years ago. These shields now are being analyzed to help with the development and engineering process.  Read the full article

A 1/4th-scale model of the Orion spacecraft is lowered into the 6.2-million-gallon Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Engineers used the test to gather data on how the model behaved and reacted in the water. Photo Credit: NASA  Read the full article

A full-scale rocket motor fires from the Aerojet facility in Sacramento, Calif. NASA completed a full-scale rocket motor test on Thursday, July 17, to further development of the Orion jettison motor, which will separate the spacecraft's launch abort system from the crew module during launch.  Read the full article

Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) recently conducted a successful full-scale severance test of an Ares I-X first stage. The test is a milestone in the development of NASA's Ares I crew launch vehicle and is another step leading to the flight test of Ares I-X in Spring 2009.  Read the full article

NASA and Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, reached another milestone Friday with the successful test firing of a critical safety component for the Orion crew exploration vehicle, NASA's next generation of spaceships. Read the full article

Conditions on the moon will be harsher, but prototype NASA robotic vehicles braved sand storms and unprecedented temperature swings this month on sand dunes near Moses Lake, Wash., to prepare for future lunar expeditions. Teams from seven NASA centers and several universities conducted the tests from June 2-13.  Read the full article

NASA and Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, unveiled Monday a new vertical test stand that will be used later this summer to support NASA's Constellation Program Read the full article

NASA's Kennedy Space Center has awarded a contract to Hensel Phelps of Orlando, Fla., for the construction of the Ares I mobile launcher for the Constellation Program. Read the full article

NASA successfully tested the Launch Abort System jettison motor, the first full-scale test for the Constellation Program's Orion crew exploration vehicle Read the full article

NASA and United Space Alliance engineers and technicians working at NASA's Kennedy Space Center tested procedures they will rely on to handle and load the propellant tanks that will be used on the roll control system of the Ares I.  Read the full article

Ares 1-X Will Be Un-Manned Read the full article

NASA is teaming up technology developed for the space shuttle and designs used for the Apollo Program to produce elements of the next spacecraft destined to deliver astronauts to the moon.  Read the full article