NASA Follows an Active Launch Schedule in 2012

NASA will devote a considerable amount of time to testing rockets and space vehicles in 2012. Other missions that partner with the Russians will shuffle the crews back and forth from the International Space Station. There is also mission on tap to send a space telescope to study X-rays coming from deep space.

The brunt of the heavy lifting in 2012 will fall to the Russians and the venerable Soyuz spacecraft. Various forms of the Soyuz spacecraft has been operating since its first flight took place in 1966 as an unmanned spacecraft. There are four Soyuz launches scheduled for 2012. The Soyuz launches will take place in March, May, October, and November. All of the Soyuz launches will occur at Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The Russians will also offer the launch facilities at Baikonur Cosmodrome to the European Space Agency. A robotic arm will be carried atop a Proton rocket to the International Space Agency in May. The European Robotic Arm will be used in the Russian module of the International Space Agency. The arm will be used to ferry external payloads around the space station, and can also be used to move astronauts around external portions of the space station.

A new space telescope will will be headed for the heavens in the spring of 2014. The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope will launch from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll. The mission, called NuSTAR will place a high energy x-ray telescope in Earth orbit. NuSTAR is expected outperform Earth based telescopes, and will help scientists count how many black holes are our universe.

NASA will also test vehicles as a part of the commercial space program. Vehicle test launches will occur in January, February an May. The tests will be of the Falcon 9, and there will be two tests of the Cygnus/Taurus II vehicle.

There will be two launches at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Atlas V rocket will be used in both launches. One rocket will carry the Radiation Belt Storm Probes into low Earth orbit in August. The other Atlas V will carry a tracking an communications satellite into Earth orbit late in the year.

Even though the space shuttle program has ended, NASA still remains active in 2012, and there are even more exciting mission expected to start in 2013.

Source:
NASA Launch Schedule