August 19 – 25, 2019 | Colorado Space News

United Launch Alliance Set To Launch GPS III Satellite For U.S. Air Force

August 21, 2019 – A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV rocket is in final preparations to launch the second Global Positioning System III (GPS III) satellite, nicknamed Magellan, for the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. The launch is planned for August 22 at Space Launch Complex-37 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The 27-minute launch window opens at 7 a.m. MDT. Read More

NASA Administrator To Tour New Colorado Aerospace Complex

This image, taken August 12, 2019, shows the University of Colorado Boulder Aerospace Engineering Sciences complex. The 175,000-square-foot building will serve as a collaboration hub and pipeline to Colorado’s rapidly growing aerospace industry, which is actively engaging in NASA’s Artemis program and other agency missions. Image Credit: CU Engineering

August 21, 2019 – NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine will visit the University of Colorado Boulder on Friday, August 23, to tour the newly-completed aerospace engineering complex. Read More

NASA Gets A Rare Look At A Rocky Exoplanet’s Surface

This artist’s illustration depicts the exoplanet LHS 3844b, which is 1.3 times the mass of Earth and orbits an M dwarf star. The planet’s surface may be covered mostly in dark lava rock, with no apparent atmosphere, according to observations by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)

August 20, 2019 – A new study using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope provides a rare glimpse of conditions on the surface of a rocky planet orbiting a star beyond the Sun. The study, published in the journal Nature, shows that the planet’s surface may resemble those of Earth’s Moon or Mercury: The planet likely has little to no atmosphere and could be covered in the same cooled volcanic material found in the dark areas of the Moon’s surface, called mare. Read More

Astrobotic Selects ULA Vulcan Centaur Rocket To Launch Its First Mission To The Moon

Image Credit: United Launch Alliance/Astrobotic

August 19, 2019 – Astrobotic announced today that it selected United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket in a competitive commercial procurement to launch its Peregrine lunar lander to the moon in 2021. Read More

Mission To Jupiter’s Icy Moon Confirmed

A 2016 artist’s concept of the Europa Clipper spacecraft. The design is changing as the spacecraft is developed. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

August 19, 2019 – An icy ocean world in our solar system that could tell us more about the potential for life on other worlds is coming into focus with confirmation of the Europa Clipper mission’s next phase. The decision allows the mission to progress to completion of final design, followed by the construction and testing of the entire spacecraft and science payload. Read More