Next Two Beidou Navigation Satellites Orbited by Chinese Long March 3B

China conducted its seventh orbital space launch of the year on Monday with a Long March 3B rocket placing the next pair of Beidou-3 navigation satellites into orbit to join the country’s growing Global Navigation Satellite System that is expected to reach operational strength later this year.

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Soyuz Ignition Abort Thwarts Express Rendezvous Plans for Progress MS-08 Cargo Craft

It was a Déjà vu at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sunday when a Soyuz rocket stood fully fueled for an express cargo delivery to the International Space Station but suffered a last-second abort of its countdown moments before lighting the engines

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Soyuz Rocket Rolls out for Launch of Progress MS-08 Cargo Craft on Two-Orbit ISS Rendezvous

Winter remained with a firm grip on Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome on Friday when a Soyuz 2-1A emerged from its assembly hall and rolled to its launch pad for a Sunday liftoff with the Progress MS-08 cargo spacecraft on an expedited, two-orbit rendezvous with the International Space Station.

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Successful Falcon Heavy Test Flight: “Starman” Reaches Orbit, 2/3 Rocket Cores Recovered

The stakes were high for SpaceX on Tuesday when their triple-core monster rocket leapt off from Florida’s Space Coast on an ambitious shakedown mission that held many unknowns for the California-based company.

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Video Collection: Falcon Heavy Launch & Simultaneous Booster Return from around Cape Canaveral

SpaceX achieved a momentous feat on Tuesday, February 6, 2018 when successfully launching the company’s Falcon Heavy rocket on a high-stakes shakedown mission – successfully boosting into orbit and later off into Deep Space a midnight-cherry Tesla Roadster as a novelty-payload chosen for this flight by SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk.

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Video: Falcon Heavy’s Long-Awaited Shakedown Mission

SpaceX’s triple-core monster rocket leapt off its LC-39A Launch Pad at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 20:45:00.49 UTC on February 6, 2018, embarking on a long-awaited shakedown mission and in the process becoming the most powerful rocket currently in service.

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Preview: SpaceX Set to Debut Falcon Heavy Rocket via Long-Awaited Shakedown Flight

A decade-long journey to the launch pad could end on Tuesday for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket with the long-awaited maiden launch of the tri-core rocket. With a commercial launch license from the FAA in hand, a clean Launch Readiness Review and fair weather forecast, SpaceX wheeled the monster rocket up the ramp to Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center Sunday night and placed it in its vertical launch position for liftoff on Tuesday during a two-and-a-half-hour window opening at 18:30 UTC, 1:30 p.m. local time.

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Japan’s SS-520 CubeSat Launch Vehicle Achieves Success on Second Try

A beefed-up sounding rocket-turned-orbital-launch-vehicle zoomed into the skies over Japan’s Kyushu Island on Saturday in a bid to become the smallest launch vehicle to successfully achieve orbit one year after its inaugural test flight crashed into the Pacific Ocean.

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Russian ISS Segment Receives High-Rate Communications Capability via Record-Setting EVA

Two Russian Cosmonauts had a trial of patience on Friday when working on the Service Module of the International Space Station to replace antiquated communications gear with new electronics to enable the Russian ISS Segment to connect to Russia’s Luch satellites positioned in Geostationary Orbit as high-altitude relay points.

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World’s Smallest Launch Vehicle Ready for Second Attempt at Reaching Orbit

Just over a year after crashing into the Pacific Ocean on its first test flight, Japan’s SS-520 sounding-rocket-turned-orbital-launch-vehicle stands ready for another try to become the world’s smallest orbital launch vehicle, just powerful enough to lift a three-Kilogram CubeSat.

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Russian Cosmonauts set for Ambitious EVA to Revamp High-Gain Communications System

Two Russian Cosmonauts are set for a complex six-hour and 40-minute spacewalk on Friday outside the International Space Station to work on the exterior of the Russian ISS Segment to replace communications gear on the Zvezda Service Module.

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