NASA Huntsville Alabama

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.

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.

William Ray Lucas , the man who led a NASA facility that shouldered much of the blame for the 1986 Challenger explosion, has died. Laughlin Service Funeral Home director Bryan Peek said Saturday that Lucas died Monday at his home in Huntsville, Alabama. Lucas was director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville when the Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986, just 73 seconds after liftoff. He resigned months later after a presidential commission blamed a design fault in the shuttle's booster rockets for the disaster.

A tribute to Huntsville's scientific legacy in astrophysics is taking place on Aug. 16 dubbed Legacy of the Invisible. The event is celebrating the Rocket City’s newest art installation inspired by the area’s scientists and engineers.

The third fully commercial crew of astronauts is moving aboard NASA’s International Space Station for a fourteen day stay. APR News was invited to take part in the “live” coverage of the launch of the Axiom-3 mission on CBS-TV News in New York City.

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.

More than 800 students from across the U.S. and Puerto Rico launched high-powered, amateur rockets near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as part of the culminating event for the agency’s annual Student Launch challenge.

A civilian trip to the International Space Station and bits of an asteroid could keep the U.S. Space Program and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville busy in 2023.