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NASA is preparing for a planned May launch of an Atlas-V rocket, built in Alabama. The booster is set to carry the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner space capsule to the International Space Station. Once the vehicle docks with the orbiting outpost, there will be a meeting of two “penguins."
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Boeing’s new Starliner space capsule is on the launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, next door to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The vehicle, on top of an Alabama built Atlas-V rocket, is scheduled for an early May blastoff to the International Space Station.
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The last Delta-IV Heavy type model, built in Alabama, blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The booster carried the NROL-70 payload, reportedly a spy satellite, for the National Reconnaissance Office. The Delta-IV Heavy was built at the United Launch Alliance factory in Decatur. Future launches on future Alabama rockets are planned.
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The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and GEOHuntsville will co-host the GeoResilience Summit, “Why Where Matters,” on Wednesday, April 3, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Jackson Center. The summit will showcase experts from government, industry and academia about national security and technological innovations in Huntsville.
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NASA says the new Boeing Starliner spacecraft could launch to the International Space Station as soon as May 1. The capsule will sit on top of an Atlas-5 rocket, built at the United Launch Alliance factory in Decatur. This will be the first time astronauts have been carried to orbit aboard an Atlas-5.
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NASA is looking back on a bit of space history today while a University of Alabama astronaut is focusing on the future. It was on this date back in 1972 when the crew of Apollo 17 returned to Earth. That was NASA’s last manned lunar mission. Astronaut, and UA grad, Bob Hines is supporting the flight of Artemis Two, which will soon send people back to the moon.
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Today marks a historic anniversary for the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. It was on this date forty years ago that the European Spacelab module blasted off for the first time aboard the Space Shuttle. Marshall managed the twenty foot long science compartment which paved the way for the work done the International Space Station.
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APR's Pat Duggins had the chance to talk with NASA Astronaut Bob Hines. The veteran crew member of the International Space Station's Expedition 67 is only the second University of Alabama graduate to fly in space. Two time Space Shuttle pilot James Kelly is the other. Astronaut Hines is on campus for UA Space Days this week. Duggins began his conversation by asking the NASA veteran what inspired him to pursue a career in space.
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One exhibit at the Marshall Space Flight Center’s Davidson Center for Space Exploration is the Apollo 16 Command Module “Casper.” This aging spacecraft is more poignant this week as the nation mourns the loss of Ken Mattingly, the astronaut who helped Apollo 13 crew return safely home. He died at the age of 87. Mattingly flew in that vehicle on the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission in 1972.
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Nestled atop Sand Mountain is the town of Fyffe. The small community in DeKalb County has a population of just under 1,000 people, but one local festival could double or even triple the size of this area as thousands of visitors flock to Fyffe City Park this weekend. The 18th annual UFO Days Festival is on Saturday, August 26. Festivities begin at 9 a.m. and continue until 10 o’clock that night.