Seven hours and fifty minutes after a flawless liftoff from Baikonur at 2:42 AM Friday morning (local), the three person crew aboard Expedition 35’s Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft opened the spacecraft’s hatch and entered the International Space Stations’s Poisk module. The new record breaking fast ascent, which was accomplished in four orbits, had been employed on three previous Progress resupply missions but this […]
At 3:43 PM CST today, (2:43AM Friday local) a Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft is scheduled to blast off from the Baikonur space launch facility in Kazakhstan on what will be a record-breaking flight. For the first time ever, the crew aboard the craft will be making a fast ascent which will put the Soyuz in position to dock with […]
For what is now the fourth time, a Space Exploration Technologies Dragon spacecraft has successfully returned from Earth orbit to a well executed landing in the Pacific ocean. Following its release from the International Space Station, which took place in the early morning hours, the SpaceX CRS-2 Dragon performed three inital burns, followed by a sustained 10 minute de-oribit burn […]
Source: RIA Novosti After 5 months aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 34 landed safely in Kazakhstan during late Friday night U.S. time. Carrying Russian crew members Oleg Novitsky, Yevgeny Tarelkin and American Kevin Ford, the Soyuz capsule landed at 7:06 AM Moscow time 30 miles north of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan. The three remaining astronauts aboard ISS will have […]
Monday saw the 1,800th launch of the Russian Soyuz booster, a rocket updated, but also still very recognizable, as an immediate successor to the radio guided R-7 ballistic missile which was first planned in 1953. The record-setting launch, conducted from the space launch facility at Baikonur in Kazakhstan, was carried out on the Soyuz-U variety of the venerable rocket, which boosted a Russian Progress freighter to the International Space Station. The […]
After a 24 hour delay to allow high level winds at the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan to subside, a Soyuz 2-1a rocket blasted off into the night sky at 16:24 UTC carrying the final 6 satellites of Globalstar’s second generation, 24 bird constellation. After separation from the third stage, the restartable Fregat upperstage will deliver the satellites to a circularized 52 degree orbit where they […]
The newest version of the venerable Russian Soyuz launch vehicle continued a successful launch campaign out of the Arianespace/European Space Agency’s equatorial launch facility in French Guiana Saturday evening. Carrying the multi-purpose French Pleiades 1B observation satellite which will serve military, governmental and commercial customers, the Soyuz-ST-A, which includes a Fregat upperstage, lifted off at 8:02 PM CST (11:02 PM local) Specially modified to withstand […]
A previous version of this article contained erroneous information on several accounts. The corrections, which are significant, are illustrative of the unique approach SpaceX is taking in its Falcon / Dragon system. Innerspace.net originally reported that during a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council’s Human Exploration and Operations Committee, ISS Station Manager Mike Suffredini discussed […]
Video of SpaceX Dragon capsule landing yesterday. Tweeted by SpaceX, this video shot from a recovery boat, underscores the accuracy of the Dragon’s re-entry and landing profile. With a splashdown nearly on top of the waiting recovery team, SpaceX demonstrated an accuracy that is sometime elusive in Russian Soyuz capsule’s 25 miles landing ellipse. As long time Russian space industry analyst James Oberg has pointed […]
NASA Press Release: RELEASE : 12-369 New Crew Headed to the International Space Station HOUSTON — NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Evgeny Tarelkin and Oleg Novitskiy launched aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket on their mission to the International Space Station at 5:51 a.m. CDT Tuesday (4:51 p.m. Kazakhstan time). […]
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