Tag: Roscosmos
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Russian space official: “We need to stop lying to ourselves” about health of industry
The chief of Russia’s main spacecraft manufacturer issued a dire warning this week, saying that his corporation has reached a “critical” condition and cannot continue in its present state. “The situation is critical: multi-million dollar debts, interest on loans that ‘eat up’ the budget, many processes that are ineffective, and a significant part of the…
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Russia launches Bion-M No.2 research satellite
Russia launched the Bion-M No.2 satellite at 17:13 UTC on Wednesday, Aug. 20, aboard a Soyuz-2-1b rocket from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. This biomedical satellite is a continuation of a Soviet and later Russian scientific program, which started with the launch of Bion 1 back in 1973. The Bion program aims to study…
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Launch Roundup: SpaceX, Chinese, and Russian missions make up busy week
Two Chinese rockets, a pair of Russian missions, a trio of Falcon 9 launches, a New Shepard, an Electron, and the long-awaited tenth flight of Starship were scheduled to fly this week. In Russia, a Soyuz rocket launched a modernized version of the Vostok capsule that flew crewed missions in the 1960s from Baikonur, while…
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NASA, SpaceX launch Crew-11 mission to the ISS
NASA and SpaceX have launched the 11th operational crew rotation mission to the International Space Station under the Commercial Crew Program, Crew-11. Liftoff occurred at 11:43 AM EDT (15:43 UTC) on Friday, Aug. 1, from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Launch was initially scheduled for Thursday, July 31, but,…
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Roscosmos Ionosfera science mission launches atop Soyuz from Vostochny Cosmodrome
A Soyuz 2.1b rocket launched from Site 1S at Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia, carrying two Ionosfera-M satellites into a Sun-synchronous orbit. Launch took place on Friday, July 25, at 05:54 UTC and saw Soyuz fly on a northern trajectory over vast but sparsely populated territory. The Ionosfera-M no. 3 and no. 4 satellites are flying…
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Launch Roundup: Russian and European science missions launched during busy week
Seven launches took place this week. Four of these are Falcon 9s, with SpaceX launching two customer missions and two Starlink missions. Internationally, Russia and Europe have both launched science payloads, while, in Australia, Gilmour Space intended to attempt to launch its Eris rocket once again, but has delayed again, into next week. In China,…
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NASA, JAXA astronauts discuss upcoming Crew-11 launch to ISS
NASA has updated the launch date for the next crew launch to the International Space Station (ISS). Liftoff of the Crew-11 mission is now scheduled for 12:09 PM EDT (16:09 UTC) on July 31st from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. With their launch now fast approaching, the crew is…
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Butch and Suni weren’t the only ones: the stories of astronauts “stranded” in space
After a planned eight day mission to the ISS that launched in June 2024, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams splashed down near Florida over nine months later on March 18, 2025. The two astronauts missed family events, birthdays, and Christmas while engineers tried to determine whether Boeing’s Starliner capsule would be safe to return with…
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Soyuz MS-27 launches three new crew members to ISS
The fourth crewed space mission of 2025 is now underway. Soyuz MS-27 launched successfully at 05:47 UTC on Tuesday, April 8, from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Roscosmos’ Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritsky, and NASA’s Jonathan “Jonny” Kim were onboard, flying to the International Space Station (ISS). After its nominal launch, Soyuz MS-27…
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NASA switches Starliner crew to SpaceX Dragon as testing continues on troubled Boeing capsule
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 members stand inside the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Nov. 13, 2024. From left are Mission Specialist Kimiya Yui from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Commander NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, Mission Specialist Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos, and Pilot NASA astronaut Mike Fincke. Image: NASA/Josh…