ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter circling Mars since October 2016 this week finished a delicate aero-braking campaign of nearly one year that moved the spacecraft from a highly elliptical orbit into a nearly circular Low Mars Orbit in preparation for a final set of trimming maneuvers and the start of a highly anticipated science mission.
Read more
The third Stage of the Soyuz 2-1A rocket that launched the Progress MS-08 spacecraft on its path to the International Space Station re-entered the atmosphere on Friday, February 16, 2018 over Canada.
Read more
The Progress MS-08 cargo spacecraft pulled into its orbital docking port on Thursday after a two-day journey to the International Space Station, marking the delivery of 2,494 Kilograms of cargo to the orbiting outpost.
Read more
After a two-day delay, Russia’s Soyuz 2-1A rocket lifted off from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 8:13:33 UTC on February 13, 2018 on a nine-minute climb into orbit with the Progress MS-08 cargo spacecraft headed to the International Space Station.
Read more
After a two-day delay, Russia’s Soyuz 2-1A rocket lifted off from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 8:13:33 UTC on February 13, 2018 on a nine-minute climb into orbit with the Progress MS-08 cargo spacecraft headed to the International Space Station.
Read more
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
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
Russia’s Soyuz rocket on Thursday lifted off from the frozen grounds of the Vostochny Cosmodrome on a mission to redeem itself after encountering a launch failure on its last flight from the new launch base established in the country’s Far East.
Read more
A Russian Soyuz 2-1A / Fregat launch vehicle lifted off from the country’s Far Eastern Vostochny Cosmodrome at 2:07:18 UTC on February 1, 2018 with a pair of Kanopus-V imaging satellites as primary payloads and nine Micro- and CubeSats as secondary passengers.
Read more
A Russian Soyuz 2-1A / Fregat launch vehicle lifted off from the country’s Far Eastern Vostochny Cosmodrome at 2:07:18 UTC on February 1, 2018 with a pair of Kanopus-V imaging satellites as primary payloads and nine Micro- and CubeSats as secondary passengers.
Read more
Russia’s Soyuz rocket stands ready for liftoff from the Far Eastern Vostochny Cosmodrome on Thursday with a cluster of eleven satellites, set to rehabilitate the Soyuz/Fregat combination after encountering a failure on its last Vostochny launch in November.
Read more
The re-entry of an eight-metric-ton Zenit rocket stage was observed from the Peru/Brazil border in the afternoon skies of January 27, 2018, one month after the rocket took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to lift a communications satellite into orbit for Angola.
Read more
The Russian-built AngoSat-1 communications satellite launched into orbit on December 26 has not shown any signs of life despite reports of communications with the satellite being restored after a temporary outage immediately after its arrival in a drift orbit above the equator.
Read more
The year 2017 saw a total of 90 known orbital launch attempts from seven nations and space ports in eight different countries. 2017 had the second most orbital launch attempts of any year in the current century, short of 92 launches in 2014 and showing a slight increase from 2016 that had 85 known launch attempts.
Read more
Russia’s Progress MS-06 cargo spacecraft closed out a mission of over six months on Thursday, departing the International Space Station after a 194-day stay and firing its main engine to drop out of orbit for a fiery re-entry
Read more