Author: ChrisDMarshall
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T-1 day and counting to NASA’s Orion EFT-1
Tomorrow the first Orion mission should be under way, however the future for Orion and it’s carrier rocket Space Launch System (SLS) is not guaranteed. The first flight for SLS is still four years away maybe sooner if they can finish the rocket faster but given the number of delays already it seems more likely…
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Japanese H-2A rocket lifts off carrying Hayabusa 2
This evening a Japanese H-2A rocket lifted off with the Hayabusa 2 Asteroid Sample Return mission. Following the success of the previous Hayabusa mission this mission is designed to go one step further and return an actual sample back to Earth. Once in orbit the second spacecraft and upper stage will coast for 90 minutes…
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T-2 days and counting to NASA’s Orion EFT-1
The first orbital flight of the Orion spacecraft will allow NASA and it’s contractor Lockheed Martin to verify the design of the vehicle in space itself, for this flight there will be no crew members however there will be a vast amount of instrumentation and sensors on board to provide as much data as possible…
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T-3 days and counting to NASA’s Orion EFT-1
Officially known as the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) the vehicle was announced in May 2011. The design of the vehicle is derived from the cancelled Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle which was to be a part of the Constellation program announced by President Bush in 2004, that program was eventually cancelled by President Obama and the…
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T-4 days and counting to NASA’s Orion EFT-1
A few days from now the first flight of NASA’s new crewed space vehicle Orion is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral. The mission called Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) will not be a crewed test flight and is designed to test out the Orion systems and heat shield. For this mission the capsule will…
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Station crew returns to six
Following a picture perfect launch earlier today and successful docking this evening the station crew is back to six members after the hatches between the Soyuz and Station were opened. Terry Virts of NASA, Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency, who will spend the…
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TMA-15M arrives at International Space Station #ISS
Following a four orbit, six hour journey to the International Space Station, the crew of TMA-15M Terry Virts, Anton Shkaplerov and Samantha Cristoforetti have arrived safely, a series of leak checks will now be performed before the hatches between the two vehicles can be opened and the crew can enter the station. Below are screen grabs…
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Expedition 42 crew launched successfully
This afternoon Terry Virts, Anton Shkaplerov and Samantha Cristoforetti began there six hour, four orbit journey to the International Space Station. Launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-15M liftoff occurred on time at 14:01 pm EST. Docking and hatch opening will occur later today, we will post again following each event. Below are some screen captures from the…
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Humans vs Robots for Space Exploration
Last week the European Space Agency achieved an important milestone in the history of Space Exploration with the first landing on a Comet. The lander named Philae was released from it’s parent spacecraft Rosetta and seven hours later touched down in the surface. Due to some complications the spaecraft ended up bouncing and landed two…