Tag: Soyuz
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Japan prepares new ISS cargo vehicle as trio of cargo spacecraft deliver new experiments and hardware
The International Space Station (ISS) recently welcomed three spacecraft that delivered much-needed cargo to support Expedition 73’s seven-member astronaut crew, ensuring the crew and Station are supplied with food, water, clothing, and equipment. Meanwhile, the crew continued with its usual collection of experiments and maintenance tasks. As the Progress, Cargo Dragon, and Cygnus spacecraft continue…
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Progress MS-32 launches to ISS from Baikonur
Just over two weeks after the CRS-33 cargo delivery to the International Space Station, another cargo ship is now flying to humanity’s orbital outpost, this time from the other side of the world. Progress MS-32, which rolled out to its launch pad on Monday, Sept. 8, flew atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from Site 31/6…
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Launch Roundup: Cygnus XL and Progress fly cargo missions to ISS
Two cargo resupply missions have launched to the International Space Station this week. A Russian Soyuz launched the Progress MS-32 spacecraft Thursday, to be followed on Sunday by a Falcon 9 carrying Northrop Grumman’s new Cygnus XL vehicle. In addition to Cygnus XL, Falcon 9 launched one Starlink mission and two customer missions. Russia and…
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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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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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Launch Roundup: Starship Flight 9; SpaceX starts new Starlink shell; China, Russia also launch
This Launch Roundup has been extended to include the launch of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 9 on Tuesday/Wednesday. SpaceX was expected to begin building a new shell for its Starlink constellation last week, launching from Vandenberg to a polar orbit. This mission was postponed until Tuesday and now falls into the scope of this Roundup. Two…
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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…