Tag: ISS
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Georges Lemaître docks to ISS
Two weeks after lifting off from French Guiana the final European Automated Docking Vehicle Georges Lemaître (ATV5) docked with the International Space Station today. During the two week voyage the vehicle tested different technologies before performing a successful automated docking today. Following the docking the latches between the vehicles were successfully closed. Over the next two…
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Last ATV begins journey to the station
This evening the second of three planned launches this week lifted off carrying the final European Automated Transfer Vehicle to orbit. The Ariane 5 rocket lifted off at 7:47:38 p.m. EDT from French Guiana carrying the ATV spacecraft, 64 minutes after liftoff the vehicle is scheduled to separate from the upper stage to begin it’s two…
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5000 and counting
As of today the International Space Station has been continuously occupied for 5,000 days. The adventure began on November 2nd 2000 when the three member Expedition One crew arrived at the station. Since that time there have been 214 visitors on the station including the six that are currently on the station, there have been 37 shuttle visits,…
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Weekly Space Blog 6/20
Hubble to search for New Horizons next target When New Horizons was first launched towards Pluto the plan was for it to complete it’s mission and then fly on to another object in the Kuiper belt and perform the same observations as it does at Pluto. The second destination has not yet been choose and researchers…
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Weekly Space Blog 6/13
Orbital ISS Launched Delayed again The ORB-2 Cygnus cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has been delayed again due to the on-going investigation into an AJ26 engine failure last month during testing. The Antares rocket which launches the Cygnus spacecraft uses two of the AJ26 engines on the first stage to orbit. The…
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Weekly Space Blog 6/6
Kepler back online The Kepler spacecraft that was sidelined last year after two of it’s gyroscopes failed has been re-purposed to the K2 mission. The original mission of Kepler was to continuously observe the same patch of the sky looking for slight dips in the brightness of the star. This indicated that a planet or…