First Stage Engines

Engine testing for the inaugural Falcon 9 flight proceeds at a rapid pace with no major problems or concerns. Six of the nine first stage flight engines have completed acceptance testing and all nine flight engines are on schedule to complete acceptance testing by mid July.

Merlin 1C first stage engine firing on the stand at our Texas testing facility.

is image LO3-154-H was taken by Lunar Orbiter III on 20 February 1967 and shows the landing site for both Surveyor III (landed 20 April 1967) and Apollo 12 (landed 19 November 1969). Figure 1 shows the region without labels. Figure 2 shows major features plus EVA routes.

[More images at moonviews.com]

The interstellar stuff that became incorporated into the planets and life on Earth has younger cosmic roots than theories predict, according to the University of Chicago postdoctoral scholar Philipp Heck and his international team of colleagues.

The LCROSS First Week Rehearsal was all it was cooked up to be. With a fully realistic operations timeline, long hours, and a representative dose of problems inserted by our beloved Test Conductor, "FWR" was all-consuming. Our team emerged successful, having achieved all of the major objectives of the first week. However, this test was not a walk in the park. Under the stress of continuous day-and-night operations and contending with the challenge of various anomalies, the team learned a number of valuable lessons that we'll certainly carry into flight.

The PharmaSat nanosatellite has successfully completed an experiment that could help scientists better understand how effectively drugs work in space. PharmaSat continues to collect data that could help scientists learn more about how yeast adapts to changes in its environment.

This image was taken by Lunar Orbiter IV in May 1967 and shows the south pole of the Moon. Figure 1 shows the region without labels. Figure 2 shows major features plus notation regarding processing artifacts from the spacecraft's film processing system. The moon's south pole is located near the rim of Shackleton Crater. [Larger images at moonviews.com]