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Welcome to Kennedy Now! A look at some of the recent accomplishments and changes under way at America's
premiere spaceport.
Kennedy Space Center started the New Year with the thunder and fire of three
liftoffs in about four weeks.
SpaceX capped the mission succession when a Falcon 9 rocket catapulted away from Space Launch Complex 40
on March 1 sending a cargo-laden Dragon capsule on a course to resupply the International Space Station.
Kennedy's commitment to the station reaches beyond launch specialties.
Technicians working inside the specialized facilities at Kennedy packed about 1,200 pounds of
experiments, supplies and equipment to withstand launch and ascent inside the SpaceX Dragon.
Workers at Kennedy also loaded equipment and supplies for a supply flight that will start
later this year in Japan. The material will fly inside an HTV launching to the orbiting station.
Kicking off the 2013 launch schedule, a communications satellite rode into orbit atop an Atlas V on
January 31. Called TDRS-K, the spacecraft was built specifically for NASA's unique needs to stay in
contact with the station and the agency's fleet of scientific spacecraft
On February 11, teams from Kennedy converged on California to oversee the flawless countdown
and launch of a cutting edge spacecraft that will continue to collect data about
Earth's changing conditions.
The Landsat Data Continuity Mission satellite, to be renamed Landsat 8,
soared on the strength of an Atlas V booster, a rocket that is fast-becoming the agency's workhorse.
With new resupply rockets, spacecraft and cargo already taking shape for launch this year from Kennedy,
along with a new mission to Mars called Maven, there will be no shortage of
fresh thunder rocking America's premiere spaceport in 2013.
That's Kennedy Now!