Spaceflight Insider
Cullen Desforges
May 15th, 2021
The New Zealand launch site for Rocket Lab, where the 20th Electron mission, “Running Out Of Toes” launched on May 15, 2021. The mission payload was lost following a flight anomaly following stage separation. Credit: Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab successfully launched its Electron rocket from the shores of New Zealand on May 15 at 11:11 UTC, but unfortunately suffered an unexpected anomaly during staging.
Affectionately dubbed “Running Out of Toes,” the Electron rocket assigned to fly the 20
th mission of the type lifted to the skies from Launch Complex-1 at the company’s launch site in New Zealand. After pushing the rocket into stage separation, the first stage made its way back to earth via parachute before splashing down into the Pacific Ocean. It was then recovered by what Rocket Lab refers to as ‘ORCA’, or Ocean Recovery and Capture Apparatus.
Spaceflight Insider
Cullen Desforges
May 10th, 2021
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter takes flight for a fifth time to move to another airfield ahead of the expected traverse path of the Perseverance rover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Last week, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter successfully took to the Martial skies, once again proving its capabilities as a fully-functioning aircraft by starting a new demonstration phase.
The helicopter took to the skies at 3:26 p.m. EDT (19:26 UTC, 12:33 p.m. local Martian time) May 7, 2021, with data relayed back to earth at around 7:30 p.m. EDT (23:30 UTC). While the first four flights of Ingenuity were experimental in nature, the fifth flight set out to prove Ingenuity as a functioning aircraft on another planet by taking a one-way trip.
Spaceflight Insider
Cullen Desforges
May 3rd, 2021
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is viewed by one of the hazard cameras aboard the Perseverance rover during the helicopter’s fourth flight on April 30, 2021. Credit: NASA
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has once again proven itself to be the aeronautic showstopper of 2021 with its fourth flight above the Martian surface, setting the stage for a 30-day “operations demonstration” phase.
The fourth flight of the Ingenuity helicopter took place at 10:46 a.m. EDT (14:46 UTC, 12:30 p.m. local Mars time) April 30, 2021. This was a day later than planned because the device did not transition to flight mode in order for the actual flight to occur.
Spaceflight Insider
Cullen Desforges
April 29th, 2021
Former U.S. Senator Bill Nelson appears before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation April 21, 2021, in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington. Photo and Caption Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
On Thursday, April 29, 2021, the U.S. Senate confirmed Bill Nelson by unanimous consent to be the next NASA administrator.
Nelson was formally nominated by President Joe Biden on March 19, 2021, to replace the previous administrator, Jim Bridenstine, who served under the Trump administration until Jan. 20, 2021.
“I am honored by the president’s nomination and the Senate vote,” Nelson said in a NASA news release. “I will try to merit that trust. Onward and upward!”