Category: ISS
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SpaceX completes Crewed Dragon mission
This morning the first Crewed Dragon mission came to an end with a successful splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. The spacecraft which was launched last Saturday spent five days docked to the International Space Station during which time the crew spent time unloading and loading cargo and performing tests and inspections. The hatches between the…
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Hatches Open on Crew Dragon
In another critical milestone the hatches between the International Space Station and Crewed Dragon were opened at 8:07 am EST today. We were also treated to amazing views from inside the Dragon vehicle as the hatches were opened, the first time for a capsule docked to the station. Over the next few days the crew…
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Crewed Dragon successfully Docks to ISS
Following a 27 hour journey to the International Space Station to crewed Dragon spacecraft has successfully docked to the International Docking Adapter on the station. During the docking, a number of tests were performed to ensure the system was working as needed and once those were complete the vehicle completed the automated docking at 6:03…
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SpaceX Launches Crewed Dragon
At 2:49 am EST today SpaceX launched the first of their Crewed Dragon spacecraft on a mission to the International Space Station. As this was the first launch of the spacecraft there were no crew members onboard however the vehicle is heavily instrumented and does carry a dummy called Ripley which will allow SpaceX and…
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SpaceX launches Dragon for CRS-16 mission
At 1:16 pm EST today a Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 40 carrying a Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station for there CRS-16 mission. The Dragon capsule used for this launch was previously flown on the CRS-10 mission. 10 minutes later the Dragon capsule was delivered to…
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Soyuz MS-11 launches and docks successfully
Just over seven weeks after the MS-10 launch failed to reach space Russia resumed crewed launches today with the successful launch and docking of the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft today. The launch lifted off at 6:31 am EST and successfully docked at 12:34 pm EST just four orbits later. Once the leak checks are completed the…
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Soyuz MS-10 aborts after launch, lands safely
What had become almost a routine process for Russia’s space program ran into an issue today when the launch of two crew members cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and astronaut Nick Hague aborted shortly after the first stage booster separation. The two crew members were on their way to the International Space Station (ISS) and the flight…
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Russia launches Progress 70 and completes fastest docking ever
Today Russia launched their latest Progress spacecraft to the International Space Station. The spacecraft lifted off at 17:51 EDT and then used an accelerated approach to dock just 3h 40m later making this the fastest launch to docking ever for Progress. This was the third time Russia had attempted this, however, the previous two times…
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My first live launch – SpaceX CRS-15
Today my family and I were able to see our first live rocket launch with the successful liftoff of the Falcon 9 carrying the Dragon Spacecraft to orbit for SpaceX’s CRS-15 mission to the International Space Station. Originally the plan was to get up a 2 in the morning and drive from Davenport, FL to…
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Orbital ATK launches Cygnus J.R. Thompson
Orbital ATK successfully launched their Cygnus spacecraft towards the International Space Station this morning. The spacecraft named J.R. Thompon is carrying 7,385 lbs of cargo to the station and is scheduled to be captured on Thursday by the stations Canadarm 2. As with the previous Cygnus launches the spacecraft was given a name this time…