NASA

NASA has delayed the launch of an rocket designed, built, and tested in Alabama on a mission around the moon. The four astronauts’ upcoming trip is being postponed because of near-freezing temperatures expected at the launch site. The first Artemis moonshot with a crew is now targeted for no earlier than Feb. 8, two days later than planned. NASA was all set to conduct a fueling test of the 322-foot moon rocket on Saturday, but called everything off because of the expected cold.

This week marks forty years since seven astronauts were killed in the space shuttle Challenger accident in 1986. Families of the astronauts lost aboard Challenger gathered back at the launch site last week to mark that tragic day 40 years ago. All seven on board were killed when Challenger broke apart following liftoff on January 28, 1986. The Rogers Commission investigation into Challenger disaster assigned part of the blame on a manager at the Marshall Space Flight Center.

NASA's giant Artemis Two rocket is now on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. The 322-foot rocket was rolled out to Launch Pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, with an Orion capsule that will send three American astronauts and one Canadian astronaut on a mission around the moon. The giant moon rocket is known as the “Space Launch System,” or SLS. The new booster was designed, tested, and managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville

NASA began demolishing part of its own history over the weekend. Crews at the Marshall Space Flight Center are removing the Propulsion and Structural Test Facility and the Dynamic Test Facilities. These structures prepared the engines for the space shuttle and the Apollo moon missions. Now, Artemis-2 awaits.

Space weather forecasters issued an alert for incoming severe solar storms that could produce colorful northern lights and temporarily disrupt communications. This may result in an "Aurora Borealis" or Northern Lights, as far south as Alabama.

Jimmy Wales, of Huntsville, is the founder of the online website Wikipedia. He also just authored his first book, “The Seven Rules of Trust,” which will available in bookstores starting tomorrow. It’s based on his work to establish the internet encyclopedia, which is reportedly visited by a billion people every month.

The Trump administration reportedly wants to cancel a collection of science missions at NASA. One, whose development and operation is based at Huntsville’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, appears to be one rallying point for NASA workers planning on staging a protest over federal budget cuts. The demonstration is set to take place on what’s known as “Moon Day” on July 20th, when the agency celebrates the landing astronauts on the moon during Apollo 11 in 1969.

It was sixty years ago this month when NASA astronaut Ed White opened the hatch on his two-man Gemini space capsule and floated outside on the first “spacewalk” which lasted about twenty-three minutes. The U.S. record for the longest spacewalk is jointly held by retired Astronaut Jim Voss, of Opelika. He floated outside ISS for close to nine hours. Voss will be my guest on an upcoming edition of "APR Notebook."

Billionaire Elon Musk said, in response to Trump threatening to cancel his company’s government contracts, he will immediately begin decommissioning the SpaceX Dragon. The rocket that brought two stranded NASA astronauts back to earth is also the only U.S. rocket that can carry crews to and from the International Space Station. Huntsville’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages science on the outpost.

Former NASA astronaut James Halsell was released from a north Alabama prison on Memorial Day. WAFF-TV reports the five time space shuttle crewmember will begin ten years of probation following a 2016 traffic accident in Tuscaloosa that killed two sisters.