Category Archives: Space Station

A weather observatory on the International Space Station has recorded a set of startling interactions between lightning and the different layers of the planets atmosphere.

Elves, Blue Jets, and Sprites, dont immediately raise interest in astro-meteorology, but these three different dazzling light discharges are what is seen above the storm clouds at the same moment we see lightning striking the Earth.

The problem for us Earth-dwellers trying to see these events is that unless we are so far away as to be able to see above a storm cloud, that storm must also be large enough to produce these powerful lightning flashes.

The Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) isnt limited in that way, and the state-of-the-art weather observatory docked at the ISS is helping scientists get to know this space lightning better.

As recently as 2015, red sprites and blue jets were known to astronomers, as ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen explains in a video from 2016. His was a 10-day project on space lightning aboard the ISS Cupula observatory called, naturally, Thor.

Mogensen managed to use Thors monitoring equipment to record red sprites and blue jets on video in stunning detail, but now Thors successor, ASIM, has added a third, even more impressive phenomena to the panoply of recorded space lightning events.

Just recently, ASIM managed to record blue jets in uninterrupted process. The final blue cone of lightning arced up 31 miles (50 kilometers) from the stratosphere, and upon reaching the ionosphere, triggered ELVES, an elegant acronym for a rather cumbersome designation: Emission of Light and Very Low Frequency perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources.

Elves are expanding halos of ionospheric UV emissions and electrons triggered, as their name suggests, when the electromagnetism of the blue jets streak up into the stratopause, the space between the stratosphere and the ionosphere.

Unable to capture the blue jet-elf combo on footage for our eyes, artists at the European Space Agency have used existing footage to render a small video of what it would look like to the naked eye, 273 miles (440 kilometers) above the Earth.

The data which ASIM managed to capture was used to produce a comprehensive paper of how these lightning flashes occur and how they effect our atmosphere.

MORE: This May Be Earths Oldest Rock But it Was Collected on The Moon

Congratulations to all the scientists and university teams that made this happen as well as the engineers that built the observatory and the support teams on ground operating ASIMa true international collaboration that has led to amazing discoveries, said Astrid Orr, ESAs Physical Sciences Coordinator for human and robotic spaceflight.

RELATED: There Are 300 Million Potentially Habitable Planets in the Milky Way, NASA Reports

Sprites, blue jets, and elves were recently observed by NASAs Juno orbiter to be taking place in the polar regions of Jupiter.

Scientists had predicted these phenomena would be present in the roiling atmosphere of Jupiter, and found them exactly where one might find them on Earth.

Now that we know what we are looking for, it will be easier to find them at Jupiter and on other planets, said Rohini Giles, a Juno scientist and the lead author of their corresponding paper published last October.

CHECK OUT: Today Marks 3000 Days on Mars For the Genius Curiosity Rover See Celebration Photos From the Red Planet

And comparing sprites and elves from Jupiter with those here on Earth will help us better understand electrical activity in planetary atmospheres.

(WATCH the video of elves from space below.)

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Space Station Captures Footage of Blue Lightning Bursting Toward Space - Good News Network

Astronauts are scheduled to take a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) today to install a new British-built communications system that will deliver almost instantaneous messages back to Earth.

The British-funded and developed system will speed up scientists' access to data from experiments on board the ISS, from investigations into the effects of radiation on seeds through to biomining research.

The European Space Agency (ESA) project aims to tackle the delays in getting experimental data back to Earth, which can currently take months to receive and sometimes leaves hard drives corrupted or data lost during transit.

The new ColKa (Columbus Ka-band) terminal will be able to rapidly transmit data to a ground station at the Harwell Campus, Oxfordshire, near ESA's European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications.

NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins will venture outside the ISS for six hours on Wednesday to install it.

They will go without food or a significant rest as they work in the harsh vacuum of space.

Their space suits will protect them from temperatures as hot as 120 degrees Celsius in the sunlight and as cold as minus 160 Celsius when the sun is on the other side of the planet.

They will mount the device, which is the size of a large suitcase, to ESA's Columbus module on the ISS.

Amanda Solloway, the UK's science minister, said: "This mission to install pioneering UK-built technology in space exemplifies how government backing is helping our most innovative companies push the boundaries of what we can achieve in space as well as back home on Earth.

"Strengthening the speed at which data can be transmitted from space will bring enormous benefits to scientists and researchers across Europe, helping them progress vital research faster, while opening up numerous commercial opportunities for UK firms as we build back better."

The contract to build ColKa was awarded to British firm MDA UK after the UK Space Agency invested 40m in ESA's space exploration programme in 2012.

Britain committed to another 180m investment in the programme in November 2019, which will collaborate with NASA to build the lunar gateway system and, eventually, bring back the first samples collected on Mars.

David Kenyon, MDA UK's managing director, said: "We are extremely excited that ColKa is being brought into service.

"This system is our first flight system developed through MDA UK, and we now have equipment for another seven flight missions, including four lunar systems, under development in Harwell.

"ColKa will bring tremendous benefit to all our ESA astronauts, scientists and projects," Mr Kenyon added.

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Spacewalk set to install British instrument on International Space Station - Sky News

Two astronauts will today undertake a spacewalk to install a revolutionary piece of government-funded technology on the International Space Station (ISS), marking the UKs first major industrial contribution to the spacecraft.

Called ColKa for Columbus Ka-band Terminal, the UK Space Agency-funded system will revolutionise scientists ability in the UK and Europe to access the results of their space-based experiments, from investigations into the effects of radiation on seeds to biomining research. The results will help unlock benefits for all of us, from understanding how our bodies and muscles age to furthering our understanding of illnesses like cancer and Parkinsons Disease.

This giant leap forward for research carried out in the Columbus module will allow astronauts and researchers to benefit from a dedicated link back to Earth at home broadband speeds. Currently, results are returned to Earth on a hard drive, which could take months to receive, with data sometimes being lost in transit. The new terminal will enable results to be delivered to scientists just a day or two after the data is recorded - allowing scientists to process information much more quickly and adjust experiments if they see any problems with the data, such as an unclear image.

NASAs Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins will venture outside the space station for 6 hours to mount the UK-built large suitcase-sized device to the European Space Agencys Columbus module on the ISS.

Science Minister Amanda Solloway said:

This mission to install pioneering UK-built technology in space exemplifies how government backing is helping our most innovative companies push the boundaries of what we can achieve in space as well as back home on Earth.

Strengthening the speed at which data can be transmitted from space will bring enormous benefits to scientists and researchers across Europe, helping them progress vital research faster, while opening up numerous commercial opportunities for UK firms as we build back better.

The ColKa antenna during testing. Credit: ESA - M. Cowan

Tethered to the ISS by a retractable steel cable, the astronauts face challenging conditions as they work to install the terminal, orbiting Earth at an altitude of 250 miles.

The astronauts will go without food for hours as they work in the harsh thermal vacuum of space, where the temperature can be as hot as 120 degrees Celsius in the sunlight, down to minus 160C when the Sun is out of sight.

The data will be transmitted to a ground station at Harwell Campus, Oxfordshire, near ESAs European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications, and from there it will be transferred to the Columbus Control Centre and user centres across Europe.

Columbus was conceived and designed over 20 years ago, when the internet was in its infancy. The laboratory was launched to the Station in 2008 and uses the Stations network and NASAs infrastructure for communications with the Columbus Control Centre.

David Kenyon, Managing Director at MDA UK based in Harwell, which designed and built ColKa using the RAL Space clean rooms on the Harwell Campus, said:

We are extremely excited that ColKa is being brought into service. This system is our first flight system developed through MDA UK, and we now have equipment for another seven flight missions, including four lunar systems, under development in Harwell. ColKa will bring tremendous benefit to all our ESA astronauts, scientists and projects.

The contract was awarded to MDA UK following the UK Space Agencys investment of 40m in ESAs space exploration programme in 2012. In November 2019 the UK committed 180 million to the European Space Agencys global exploration programme, which, along with the lunar gateway and lunar communications, will include bringing back the first samples from Mars and support the US ambition to have a sustainable presence on the Moon.

To date, UK scientists have been involved in 17 cutting-edge experiments that have taken place on the ISS and 33 others that are currently being developed and readied for future flight. In total, more than 2,700 investigations from researchers in 108 countries have been accomplished aboard the orbiting facility.

The UKs space sector is going from strength to strength, employing around 42,000 people and carrying out world-class science while growing the economy.

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Spacewalk to fit ground-breaking British kit to International Space Station - GOV.UK

Two astronauts will walk in space today to upgrade the International Space Stations datacomms. Their efforts will mean that data collected in science experiments conducted aboard the ISS will no longer be sent to Earth via hard drives carried by returning astronauts.

The space walkers are expected to take six hours to install the ColKa (Columbus Ka-band), a fridge-sized terminal funded by the UK Space Agency and built by MDA UK.

The ISS Columbus module, launched in 2008, currently has lousy data comms to ground stations on Earth. Hence the physical transfer of data by hard drives. However, arrival is contingent on the return schedule of the astronaut, which may result in many weeks delay.

With the new set-up, results are delivered to scientists a day or two after the data is recorded. Data transmission is asynchronously bi-directional. ColKa promises speeds of up to 50 Mbit/s in downlink and up to 2 Mbit/s in uplink.

This will allow high data volume downlink, including video streaming. Speed is limited by the ISS-Earth comms infrastructure components. The terminal itself is capable of speeds of up to 400 Mbit/s downlink and 50 Mbit/s uplink.

ColKa will send signals from the Station, which orbits at an altitude of 400km above Earth, even further into space, where they will be picked up by EDRS satellites in geostationary orbit 36,000 km above the surface.From there the data is transmitted data to a ground station at Harwell Campus, Oxfordshire. Then the signals are transferred to the Columbus Control Centre and user centres across Europe.

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Astronauts walk in space to upgrade International Space Station datacomms. No more hard drives by courier Blocks and Files - Blocks and Files

File image of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch (Photo by Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The first private space station crew was introduced Tuesday: Three men who are each paying $55 million to fly on a SpaceX rocket.

Theyll be led by a former NASA astronaut now working for Axiom Space, the Houston company that arranged the trip for next January.

"This is the first private flight to the International Space Station. Its never been done before," said Axioms chief executive and president Mike Suffredini, a former space station program manager for NASA.

While mission commander Michael Lopez-Alegria is well known in space circles, "the other three guys are just people who want to be able to go to space, and were providing that opportunity," Suffredini told The Associated Press.

RELATED:SpaceX completes 1st rocket launch of 2021

The first crew will spend eight days at the space station, and will take one or two days to get there aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule following liftoff from Cape Canaveral.

Russia has been in the off-the-planet tourism business for years, selling rides to the International Space Station since 2001. Other space companies like Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos Blue Origin plan to take paying customers on up-and-down flights lasting just minutes. These trips much more affordable with seats going for hundreds of thousands versus millions could kick off this year.

Axioms first customers include Larry Connor, a real estate and tech entrepreneur from Dayton, Ohio, Canadian financier Mark Pathy and Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe, a close friend of Israels first astronaut Ilan Ramon, who was killed in the space shuttle Columbia accident in 2003.

RELATED:'Super Earth': NASA discovers 10B year-old planet unlike any other in deep space

"These guys are all very involved and doing it for kind of for the betterment of their communities and countries, and so we couldnt be happier with this makeup of the first crew because of their drive and their interest," Suffredini said.

Each of these first paying customers intends to perform science research in orbit, he said, along with educational outreach.

Lopez-Alegria, a former space station resident and spacewalking leader, called the group a "collection of pioneers."

Tom Cruise was mentioned last year as a potential crew member; NASA top officials confirmed he was interested in filming a movie at the space station. There was no word Tuesday on whether Cruise will catch the next Axiom flight. Suffredini declined to comment.

Each of the private astronauts had to pass medical tests and will get 15 weeks of training, according to Suffredini. The 70-year-old Connor will become the second-oldest person to fly in space, after John Glenns shuttle flight in 1998 at age 77. Hell also serve under Lopez-Alegria as the capsule pilot.

Axiom plans about two private missions a year to the space station. It also is working to launch its own live-in compartments to the station beginning in 2024. This section would be detached from the station once its retired by NASA and the international partners, and become its own private outpost.

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3 men paying $55M each to fly to International Space Station from Florida - FOX 35 Orlando

The first fully private, multi-person space station crew has been introduced: three men who are each paying $US55 million ($71 million) to fly on a SpaceX rocket.

They will be led by a former NASA astronaut now working for Axiom Space, the Houston company that arranged the trip for next January.

"This is the first private flight to the International Space Station (ISS). It's never been done before," said Axiom's chief executive and president Mike Suffredini, a former space station program manager for NASA.

Space tourists have taken individual flights to the ISS aboard Russian rockets, but this will be the first flight carrying multiple private astronauts, on a private rocket.

While mission commander Michael Lopez-Alegria is well known in space circles, "the other three guys are just people who want to be able to go to space, and we're providing that opportunity," Mr Suffredini told The Associated Press.

The first crew will spend eight days at the space station and will take one or two days to get there aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule following lift-off from Cape Canaveral.

Russia had been in the off-the-planet tourism business since 2001, selling rides to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz spacecraft.

That program, brokered by private company Space Adventures, sent seven paying customers on multi-days visits to the ISS but was stopped in 2009 when crew size on the station increased.

The cost of those trips ranged from $US20 million to $US25 million.

NASA announced plans for a resumption of private tourism to the ISS in June 2019, following a 2017 announcement that returning humans to space was a priority of then-president Donald Trump's administration.

Other space companies like Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin plan to take paying customers on up-and-down flights lasting just minutes. These trips much more affordable with seats going for hundreds of thousands versus millions could kick off this year.

Axiom's first customers include Larry Connor, a real estate and tech entrepreneur from Dayton, Ohio, Canadian financier Mark Pathy and Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe, a close friend of Israel's first astronaut Ilan Ramon, who was killed in the space shuttle Columbia accident in 2003.

"These guys are all very involved and doing it for kind of the betterment of their communities and countries, and so we couldn't be happier with this makeup of the first crew because of their drive and their interest," Mr Suffredini said.

Each of these first paying customers intends to perform science research in orbit, he said, along with educational outreach.

Captain Lopez-Alegria, a former space station resident and spacewalking leader, called the group a "collection of pioneers."

Andy Thomas discusses how NASA's space program and the skills needed to be an astronaut have changed over time.

Tom Cruise was mentioned last year as a potential crew member: NASA top officials confirmed he was interested in filming a movie at the space station.

There has been no word on whether Cruise will catch the next Axiom flight and Mr Suffredini has declined to comment.

Each of the private astronauts had to pass medical tests and will get 15 weeks of training, according to Mr Suffredini.

The 70-year-old Mr Connor will become the second-oldest person to fly in space, after John Glenn's shuttle flight in 1998 at age 77. He willl also serve under Captain Lopez-Alegria as the capsule pilot.

Axiom plans about two private missions a year to the space station. It also is working to launch its own live-in compartments to the station beginning in 2024. This section would be detached from the station once it is retired by NASA and the international partners, and become its own private outpost.

ABC/AP

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Space tourists paying $71 million each to be first all-private International Space Station crew - ABC News

Scientists on the International Space Station spotted a bright-blue lightning bolt shooting upward from thunderclouds.

Blue jets can be difficult to spot from the ground, since the electrical discharges erupt from the tops of thunderclouds. But from space, scientists can peer down at this cerulean lightshow from above. On Feb. 26, 2019, instruments aboard the space station captured a blue jet shooting out of a thunderstorm cell near Nauru, a small island in the central Pacific Ocean. The scientists described the event in a new report, published Jan. 20 in the journal Nature.

The scientists first saw five intense flashes of blue light, each lasting about 10 to 20 milliseconds. The blue jet then fanned out from the cloud in a narrow cone shape that stretched into the stratosphere, the atmospheric layer that extends from about 6 to 31 miles (10 to 50 kilometers) above the Earth's surface.

Related: Photos of elves and blue jets: See Earth's weirdest lightning

Blue jets seem to appear when the positively-charged upper region of a cloud interacts with the negatively charged boundary between the cloud and the air above, according to the report. The blue jet appears as a result of this "electric breakdown," where the opposing charges swap places in the cloud and briefly equalize, releasing static electricity. However, the properties of blue jets and the altitude to which they extend above clouds "are not well characterized," the authors noted, so this study adds to our understanding of the dramatic phenomenon.

Four of the flashes preceding the blue jet came with a small pulse of ultraviolet light (UV), the scientists noted. They identified these emissions as so-called "elves," another phenomenon seen in the upper atmosphere.

"Elves" an acronym that stands for Emissions of Light and Very Low Frequency Perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources are light emissions that appear as rapidly expanding rings in the ionosphere, a layer of charged particles that extends from roughly 35 miles to 620 miles (60 to 1,000 km) above the planet surface. Elves occur when radio waves push electrons through the ionosphere, causing them to accelerate and collide with other charged particles, releasing energy as light, the authors wrote.

The team observed the flashes, elves and blue jet using the European Space Agency's Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM), a collection of optical cameras, photometers, X-ray detectors and gamma-ray detectors attached to a module on the space station.

"This paper is an impressive highlight of the many new phenomena ASIM is observing above thunderstorms," Astrid Orr, physical sciences coordinator for human and robotic spaceflight with the European Space Agency (ESA), said in a statement. Experts also suspect that upper atmosphere phenomena, like blue jets, may affect the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, since the ozone layer sits within the stratosphere where they occur, according to the ESA statement.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Upward-shooting 'blue jet' lightning spotted from International Space Station - Livescience.com

Editor's note: SpaceX has postponed the launch of its first Starlink mission of 2021 until Wednesday, Jan. 20, at 8:02 a.m. EST (1302 GMT) due to bad weather conditions at sea for its Falcon 9 rocket's landing.

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. SpaceX will launch its first batch of Starlink satellites in 2021 on Monday (Jan. 18) to expand the company's growing megaconstellation and you can watch the action live online.

The Hawthorne, California-based company will loft 60 Starlink internet satellites on its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's historic Pad 39A here at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:45 a.m. EDT (1422 GMT).

You can watch the launch live here and on the Space.com homepage, courtesy of SpaceX, beginning about 15 minutes before liftoff. You can also watch the launch directly via SpaceX.

Related: SpaceX's Starlink satellite megaconstellation launches in photos

SpaceX already has one launch under its belt this year and is looking to ramp up the pace. 2020 was a banner year for the private spaceflight company, which included two different astronaut missions to the International Space Station the first for a commercial company.

It was also the company's busiest launch year to date, with a record 26 flights, smashing the previous record of 18 set in 2018. This year SpaceX has even bigger ambitions, as the company plans to launch 40 rockets between its California and Florida launch sites.

Following liftoff on Monday, the Falcon 9's first stage is expected to land on SpaceX's drone ship, "Just Read the Instructions" in the Atlantic Ocean. (SpaceXs main drone ship, "Of Course I Still Love You," is undergoing maintenance before it returns to service following a busy year.) If successful, the landing will mark the 72nd recovery of a first stage booster for the California-based rocket manufacturer.

The rocket featured in this launch will be another record-setting booster. Known as B1051, this flight proven booster will embark on its eighth flight the first of SpaceX's fleet to do so. It will also mark one of SpaceX's shortest turnaround times between flights as this particular last flew just over a month ago.

To date, B1051 has carried an assortment of payloads, including an uncrewed Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station as part of a 2019 flight test, followed by a trio of Earth-observing satellites for Canada as well as four different Starlink missions. Most recently, it carried a 15,432-lb. (7,000 kilograms) satellite into orbit for Sirius XM, that will beam down content to Sirius subscribers across the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean.

Related: See the evolution of SpaceX's rockets in pictures

SpaceX created its Starlink internet program to connect users around the globe and provide reliable and affordable internet service, mainly to remote and rural areas. By using a small terminal (no larger than a laptop), users on the ground will be able to connect to the ever-growing network. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said that the company needs to launch between 500 and 800 satellites in order to begin rolling out service.

To date, SpaceX has launched more than 1,000 of the internet-beaming satellites into orbit, in an effort to fill out its planned initial constellation of 1,440 spacecraft. SpaceX has already begun beta-testing its space-based internet service, and the initial testing phase has shown that the service is reliable.

The phase is going so well that SpaceX has even started to offer users in the U.K. to help in the beta-testing. The company received a license to start operating in the U.K. last year, thanks to local telecoms regulator Ofcom.

Related: SpaceX launches 60 Starlink satellites in dazzling nighttime liftoff

Monday's launch marks the 102nd flight overall for SpaceXs workhorse two-stage Falcon 9 rocket, as well as the 51st reflight of a Falcon 9 rocket since the company began recovering boosters in 2015.

Over the past five years, the company has honed its recovery efforts, while continuing to prove Falcon 9s reliability. Flying previously flown boosters has now become commonplace for SpaceX, and has allowed the company to launch its rockets at a record pace.

To date, SpaceX has successfully landed its first-stage boosters 71 times. Now that the company has two fully operational drone-ship landing platforms "Of Course I Still Love You" and "Just Read the Instructions" in Florida, its able to launch (and land) more rockets. The newer drone ship on the block, "Just Read the Instructions," is already at the recovery zone waiting for its turn to catch B1051 when it returns to Earth on Monday.

Related: Why SpaceX's Starlink satellites caught astronomers off guard

SpaceX is expected to continue its tradition of recovering the Falcon 9's payload fairing, or nose cone, on this flight. The company has two net-equipped boats called GO Ms. Tree and GO Ms. Chief that it uses to snag the fairings as they fall back to Earth in two pieces.

Each piece of the clamshell-like hardware, which cost approximately $6 million combined, is outfitted with software that navigates it to the recovery zone, and a parachute system that lets them gently land in the ocean or the outstretched net of GO Ms. Tree and GO Ms. Chief.

The boats are also able to scoop the fairings up out of the water as making a midair catch is tricky and dependent upon several factors, like weather and winds. Typically the team decides whether it will catch or scoop the day of launch. And those recovery efforts take place roughly 45 minutes after liftoff.

Currently, weather is 70% go for the launch opportunity on Monday, with the only weather concerns being the potential for cumulus clouds over the launch site. There is a backup launch time on Tuesday if need be. The launch weather that day looks even better, with a 90% chance of favorable launch conditions.

If everything goes as planned, this could mark the first of two SpaceX launches from Florida this week. The Hawthorne, California based company is planning to launch a rideshare mission on Thursday (Jan. 21). And could cap off the month with another Starlink mission.

Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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SpaceX will launch its 1st Starlink satellites of 2021 on Wednesday. Here's how to watch. - Space.com

Update for 9:48 pm: NASA test-fired its first Space Launch System core booster Saturday, but the trial did not go as planned. Read our full story here.

NASA will attempt to fire the engines on its Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket for the first time today and you can watch the fiery action live online.

As part of a critical test before the rocket behemoth lifts off for the first time, the agency plans to ignite the four main engines on its heavy-lift core booster this at about 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT) today, Jan. 16. The test, which is designed to simulate the core stage's performance during launch, will take place at the agencys Stennis Space Center, in Mississippi.

You can watch the test live here and on the Space.com homepage, courtesy of NASA, beginning at 4:20 p.m. EST (1920 GMT). You'll also be able to watch the test directly from NASA here.

Today's engine test is the final step in the agency's "Green Run" series of tests designed to ensure the SLS rocket is ready for its first launch called Artemis 1 that will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the moon. That first flight is scheduled to blast off later this year.

Video: How NASA's SLS megarocket engine test works

The SLS is NASA's next-generation heavy-lift rocket that will ferry astronauts to the moon as part of the agencys Artemis lunar program. Launching by the end of this year, Artemis 1 will be the first in a series of missions that will culminate in NASA's first crewed lunar landing since the Apollo era. That mission, called Artemis 3, could happen as soon as 2024 if all goes as planned.

To that end, NASA is putting the massive SLS rocket's four RS-25 engines through their paces prior to launch. The agency has been systematically testing each engine and conducting launch-day procedures such as fueling to ensure all systems are working as expected.

The upcoming hot-fire engine test, is the final step in the testing process. On Saturday, engineers will load the SLS core booster with over 700,000 gallons of superchilled propellant before igniting all four of its RS-25 engines at once. This will mark the first time that four RS-25 engines will fire at the same time. (The same engines powered the space shuttle but it took only three to make the orbiter fly.)

Related: These are the space missions to watch in 2021

Burning for approximately 8 minutes the duration they'll burn during a launch to the moon the RS-25 quartet will generate a whopping 1.6 million pounds of thrust during the test.

"When we ignite the engines, the stage actually will think it is flying," Ryan McKibben, NASA's Green Run test conductor at Stennis Space Center, said during a pre-test media conference on Jan. 12. "That's what it's built to do. But of course, it won't go anywhere because the stage is fastened at the same locations where the solid rocket boosters anchored would be anchored."

As part of the agencys Green Run testing schedule, the megarocket underwent two wet dress rehearsals, during which fuel was loaded, and subsequently drained. Officials said that the tests went well; however, they were not without issue. One of the fueling ops ended early, one was delayed due to temperature issues, and the campaign was also affected by multiple tropical storms as well as the global pandemic. As a result, the agency chose to delay the hot fire test.

Photos: NASA's 1st SLS megarocket core stage for the moon has its engines

Agency officials explained that the delays proved fruitful as the team was able to revise procedures and update the terminal countdown sequence based on pre-flight testing.

The test is scheduled to take place late Saturday afternoon, and that morning, the day will start with a go/no-go meeting where the team will decide to begin fueling procedures. Once that's underway, a final poll will be conducted at T-10 minutes to determine if its safe to proceed with the hot fire test.

The engines will burn for 485 seconds, or roughly 8 minutes. Once the test is complete, a data review will begin, and is expected to take several days, according to NASAs Julie Basser, program manager for SLS at Marshall Space Flight Center.

"This is the first time we fired up this core stage and this is a huge milestone for us," she said. We are doing everything we can to ensure that we get the most out of this hot fire test and we are ready for launch. Testing provides an opportunity to learn and make sure that the rocket is ready to fly astronauts to the moon."

If all goes as expected the core stage will be refurbished and then shipped to Kennedy Space Center to prepare for launch. Its expected arrival is slated for sometime in February, where it will be integrated with the rest of the vehicle already on site.

Currently, the massive rocket's solid rocket booster segments are being stacked one by one in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Along with the four RS-25 engines, the SLS will be powered by two solid rocket boosters that consist of five segments fitted together. (Each booster is made from recovered segments that were used on NASA's space shuttle program.)

Once fully assembled, each of the two solid rocket boosters will stand 177-feet-tall (54-meters) and produce more than 3.6 million pounds of thrust at liftoff the bulk of the power during the first two minutes of launch and flight.

Related: Coronavirus delays key tests of NASA's new SLS megarocket

This first SLS rocket will be used for the Artemis 1 mission, which is an uncrewed flight that will send NASA's Orion space capsule on a trip around the moon, helping pave the way for an eventual planned lunar landing near the moons south polar region.

Orion is the third vehicle NASA currently has in development that will eventually fly NASA astronauts to low-Earth orbit and beyond. The first, SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule entered service in 2020 as it ferried astronauts to the space station in May and November.

Boeings Starliner crew capsule is expected to launch astronauts later this year, following a successful second orbital flight test. Starliner first launched in 2019, on an uncrewed flight to the space station but failed to reach the orbital outpost following a series of software anomalies. Its next test flight is scheduled for no earlier than March and if all goes well, then it will carry a crew of three astronauts to the space station later this year.

Having three different astronaut-toting capsules will provide NASA with the flexibility to routinely send astronauts to low-Earth orbit while also exploring the moon and eventually Mars.

Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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NASA will test-fire its 1st SLS megarocket for moon missions today. Here's how to watch. - Space.com

Tourism expected to bounce back in 2021

Like much of Central Florida, the economy in Brevard County relies heavily on tourism. Officials there are hoping as the coronavirus vaccine becomes widely distributed, thousands will return to Space Coast beaches, cruise ships and rocket launch events.

INDIALANTIC, Fla. - Dark clouds loomed over a usually sunnyFloridawhen the coronavirus pandemic hit the tourism industry. But this year, things are looking up, analysts say, especially for oneFloridacounty with an already busy schedule.

In Brevard County, the director of tourism says they lost approximately $500 million last year in visitor spending. Now, they're hoping to make up for the lost time.

"The Space Coast was literally the number one location for launches in 2020. We had the most launches in the world. We think that is going to continue into 2021," said Peter Cranis, the Space Coast Office of Tourism executive director.

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With a full calendar of launches scheduled, Cranis predicts Brevard could draw hundreds of thousands of visitors. He is also feeling confident about a significant return in cruising and visitors flying intoOrlando.

"A lot of people are hopping in their car and wanting a beach getaway, so we are benefiting from that. We are hoping by spring and summer that we will begin to see some of those visitors coming from a little farther north," Cranis said.

The Space Coast Office of Tourism is spending $2 million on a summer marketing campaign. Thats more than double what they spent in 2020.

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"If you are coming to the beach for a vacation why not come to the space coast because it is very likely that at any given time you might see a launch. I mean, they are doing about a launch a week and so thats something that we will incorporate into our promotions very heavily," Cranis said.

The Space Coast will have some star power too. Actor Tom Cruise is expected to film one of his next movies at the International Space Station.

Tune in to FOX 35 Orlando for the latest news.

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Space Coast tourism expected to bounce back in 2021 - FOX 35 Orlando