Tag: Russia
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Launch Roundup: Delta IV swan song, Angara test flight from Russia, and three Falcon 9 flights
The second week of April not only has a long-awaited total solar eclipse but also orbital launches from Russia and the United States. Besides the long-awaited NROL-70 Delta IV Heavy finale, there was a test flight of the Russian Angara rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia and a handful of Falcon 9 launches. Delta…
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Rocket Report: Blue Origin to resume human flights; progress for Polaris Dawn
Welcome to Edition 6.38 of the Rocket Report! Ed Dwight was close to joining NASA’s astronaut corps more than 60 years ago. With an aeronautical engineering degree and experience as an Air Force test pilot, Dwight met the qualifications to become an astronaut. He was one of 26 test pilots the Air Force recommended to…
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Russia has a plan to “restore” its dominant position in the global launch market
It has been a terrible decade for the Russian launch industry, which once led the world. The country’s long-running workhorse, the Proton rocket, ran into reliability issues and will soon be retired. Russia’s next-generation rocket, Angara, is fully expendable and still flying dummy payloads on test flights a decade after its debut. And the ever-reliable…
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Soyuz MS-25 launches to ISS with crew from Russia, Belarus, and NASA
The fourth human spaceflight — and third orbital human flight — of the year has successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to the International Space Station (ISS). Soyuz MS-25 was scheduled to fly on Thursday, March 21, at 13:21 UTC from Site 31/6 at the spaceport. Mission commander Oleg Novitsky, representing Roscosmos, NASA’s Tracy Caldwell…
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Thomas Stafford, who flew to the Moon and docked with Soyuz, dies at 93
Former NASA astronaut Thomas Stafford, a three-star Air Force general known for a historic handshake in space with a Soviet cosmonaut nearly 50 years ago, died Monday in Florida. He was 93. Stafford was perhaps the most accomplished astronaut of his era who never walked on the Moon. He flew in space four times, helping…
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Launch Roundup: two missions to the ISS, including first Dragon 2 from SLC-40
SpaceX is preparing to launch three Falcon 9s, including two Starlink missions. Additionally, launching this week are two Chinese rockets, an Electron, and a crewed Soyuz. SpaceX will continue to strive for a record-breaking year by launching from all three of its Falcon 9 launch pads this week, which will take its launch total to…
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Russia’s next-generation rocket is a decade old and still flying dummy payloads
By some measures, Russia’s next-generation flagship rocket program—the Angara—is now three decades old. The Russian government approved the development of the Angara rocket in 1992, soon after the fall of the Soviet Union ushered in a prolonged economic recession. It has been nearly 10 years since Russia launched the first Angara test flights. The heaviest…
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Rocket Report: Falcon 9 flies for 300th time; an intriguing launch from Russia
Welcome to Edition 6.31 of the Rocket Report! Photographers at Cape Canaveral, Florida, noticed a change to the spaceport’s skyline this week. Blue Origin has erected a full-size simulator of its New Glenn rocket vertically on its launch pad for a series of fit checks and tests. Late last year, we reported Blue Origin was…
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Three terms sure to grab attention: Russia, nuclear, anti-satellite weapon
When you think about the prospect of Russia putting nukes in space, you can understand why some people might fill in the blanks and envision a surprise apocalyptic bombardment from orbit. That is the nightmarish prophecy members of Congress tried to extinguish Wednesday after news leaked that US intelligence officials obtained information about Russian preparations…
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Launch Roundup: Falcon 9’s 300th Flight and SpaceX to launch lunar lander
On the week of the sixth anniversary of the first flight of Falcon Heavy, SpaceX launched four separate Falcon 9 missions. Meanwhile, Roscosmos resupplied the International Space Station (ISS) with Progress MS-26 launching on Soyuz. Early Thursday morning, Falcon 9 launched from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) taking NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud,…