Spacecraft

The Dragon cargo spacecraft departing the International Space Station to end its CRS-25 mission

Yesterday, in the American afternoon, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft ended its CRS-25 (Cargo Resupply Service 25) mission for NASA splashing down smoothly off the Florida Coast. The Dragon left the International Space Station last Friday. For SpaceX, this was the 5th mission of the 2nd contract with NASA to transport supplies to the Station with the new version of the Dragon cargo spacecraft.

Shortly after the splashdown, SpaceX’s recovery ship went to retrieve the Dragon to transport it to the coast. The cargo brought back to Earth will be delivered to NASA within a few hours. The Dragon spacecraft reached the International Space Station on July 16, 2021.

The Dragon 2 cargo sapcecraft blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket to start its CRS-25 mission (Photo NASA)

A few hours ago, the SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in its CRS-25 (Cargo Resupply Service 25) mission, also referred to as SPX-25. After almost exactly 12 minutes it separated successfully from the rocket’s last stage and went en route. This is the 25th mission for the Dragon/Dragon 2 spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station with various cargoes and then return to Earth, again with various cargoes.

The Shenzhou 14 mission starts blasting off atop a Long March-2F rocket (Photo courtesy Xinhua/Li Gang)

The confirmation has arrived that three Chinese taikonauts of the Shenzhou 14 mission have reached the Chinese space station’s Tianhe core module with an automated docking maneuver. They blasted off about seven hours earlier atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. They’re the third crew of the Chinese space station and will remain there for about six months, the standard duration for a mission.

The Progress MS-20 spacecraft approaching the International Space Station (Image NASA TV)

A few hours ago, the Progress MS-20 spacecraft blasted off atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After about nine minutes it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and was placed on its ultra-fast track in its resupply mission to the International Space Station also called Progress 81 or 81P. After almost 3.5 hours it reached the International Space Station docking with its Zvezda module.