Month: September 2014

  • Soyuz TMA-14M hatches opened

    The three crew members Aleksandr Samokutyayev, Yelena Serova and Barry E. Wilmore aboard the Soyuz TMA-14M have now entered their home for the next six months. Following a smooth docking, leak checks were performed and the hatches opened allowing the crew to enter the station. Just before the hatches opened NASA confirmed that after the docking…

  • Soyuz TMA-14M arrives at Station

    Despite having a problem deploying one of it’s two Solar Arrays, after arriving on orbit this afternoon, the Soyuz TMA-14M arrived at the International Space Station after a four orbit, six hour journey. During approach to the station Cosmonaut Max Suraev was asked to take pictures of the approaching vehicle to help controllers back on…

  • TMA-14M launches successfully

    A Soyuz TMA-14M carrying cosmonaut Aleksandr Samokutyayev, the first female cosmonaut Yelena Serova and astronaut Barry E. Wilmore lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 4:25pm EDT to begin a four orbit, six hour journey to the International Space Station to complete the Expedition 41 crew complement. Following a smooth ride to orbit the spacecraft transitioned…

  • India’s Mars Orbiter Mission successfully insert into Orbit

    Today India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft arrived at Mars and was successfully placed into orbit.  Launched 5th November, 13 days before NASA’s Maven the spacecraft, it took a slightly different route to Mars resulting in it arriving three days after MAVEN.  This is the first spacecraft from India to travel this far from Earth and it…

  • NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft reaches Mars

    Following a ten month, 442 million miles journey NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) successfully entered into orbit of Mars this evening.  The orbit insertion maneuver began with six thruster engines firing briefly to damp out deviations in pointing. Then, the six main engines quickly ignite and burn for 33 minutes to slow the craft,…

  • SpaceX CRS-4 Mission Launches Successfully

    At 1:52:04am EDT today a SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying a Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station for the fourth CRS mission under the NASA’s commercial cargo program.  The launch originally scheduled for yesterday had to be scrubbed due to weather constrains. Unlike the recent satellite launches which had long launch…

  • Exciting times in Space

    A lot has happened in Space or related to Space recently and the future is looking very bright. Below is a summary of some of the recent news and upcoming events. SpaceX and Boeing awarded CCtCap contracts – We now have two companies contracted to build manned spacecraft to deliver crew to the ISS.  Currently…

  • ULA and Blue Origin unveil BE-4 rocket engine

    Today United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Blue Origin announced a new liquid oxygen, liquefied natural gas (LNG) rocket engine that delivers 550,000-lbf of thrust at sea level. The engine has been in development at Blue Origin for three years and a pair of them will be integrated into the Atlas rocket in appropriately three/four years. The…

  • Atlas V launches with CLIO payload

    This evening a United Launch Alliance Atlas V lifted off with a secret payload called CLIO for the Department of Defense.  Details of the orbit or what the payload is for has not been made available.  The launch was delayed several times due to weather constrains but those cleared allowing a liftoff to occur at 8:10pm…

  • CCtCap awards announced

    Today at 4pm EDT from Kennedy Space Center NASA announced the winners of the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts. And the winners are: Boeing – The CST-100 capsule seen to the right has been awarded $4.2 billion of the money.  Over the next three years Boeing will have to complete a number of milestones below to…