Tag: Soyuz
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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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Launch Roundup: Falcon 9 to fly five missions during busy week
Five Falcon 9 missions launched this week, including the first-ever crewed mission to a polar orbit and several Starlink missions. Internationally, China also launched two missions, and Russia plans to send Soyuz to the International Space Station to conclude the week. The week kicked off with Falcon 9 launching Starlink Group 6-80 into low-Earth orbit…
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Launch Roundup: Falcon 9 to fly five missions during busy week
Five Falcon 9 missions launched this week, including the first-ever crewed mission to a polar orbit and several Starlink missions. Internationally, China also launched two missions, and Russia plans to send Soyuz to the International Space Station to conclude the week. The week kicked off with Falcon 9 launching Starlink Group 6-80 into low-Earth orbit…
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Launch Roundup: Soyuz flies; New Shepard simulates lunar gravity
This week’s launch manifest is quite diverse, featuring the launches of four different rockets worldwide. Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket has simulated the Moon’s gravity from just beyond the Kármán line, and Rocket Lab launched Electron for the first time this year from New Zealand. Russia launched Soyuz for the first time in 2025…
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Russia just launched the 2,000th Semyorka rocket—it’s both a triumph and tragedy
The Russian space program reached a significant milestone over the holidays with the 2,000th launch of a rocket from the “R-7” family of boosters. The launch took place on Christmas Day when an R-7 rocket lifted off, carrying a remote-sensing satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. This family of rockets has an incredible heritage dating back…
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International Space Station finishes challenging year as plans are made for its retirement
The International Space Station continues to act as humanity’s outpost in low-Earth orbit, a role that began at the turn of this century. However, the ISS is showing its age and plans are being advanced for its retirement around 2030. Several events on the Station in 2024 underlined just how the ISS program was dealing…
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Launch Roundup: SpaceX, China, and Russia maintain busy launch manifests through the holidays
At the start of this week, Monday, Dec. 23, there had been 24 launch attempts worldwide. There was no let-up during the holiday period, with six further launch attempts taking place. The SpaceX launch manifest for this week included a single customer payload and three batches of Starlink satellites. SpaceX’s target of 136 launches for…
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ISS and Expedition 72 crew stay busy with experiments, cargo arrivals, and spacecraft movements
The International Space Station and the Expedition 72 crew have transitioned from an eventful summer into a more normal, operational routine in the last few months, although the Station has dealt with unexpected issues in recent weeks. Station commander Suni Williams and her Boeing Crewed Flight Test crewmate Butch Wilmore, both veteran NASA astronauts and…
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Launch Roundup: Sentinel 1C and PROBA 3 among ten planned launches
This week is busy in spaceflight, with 10 orbital launches planned throughout the week. China has, as expected, continued its launch cadence from last week with three more launches this week. SpaceX planned to launch five Falcon 9 missions in five days with the launches of four Starlink missions and one customer payload but has…
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Launch Roundup: ZhuQue-2E and Chang Zheng 12 take first flights; SpaceX launches classified mission
This week Landspace debuted the enhanced version of its ZhuQue-2 rocket and the Chang Zheng 12 rocket has also taken its maiden flight. Roscosmos has launched one of two planned Soyuz missions – the highly classified mission from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome has now been delayed until next week. In contrast, four Falcon 9 missions are…