Astronauts

The Crew Dragon Grace spacecraft blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket to start its Ax-4 mission (Image NASA)

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A little while ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Grace spacecraft was launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center on the Axiom Mission 4, or simply Ax-4, mission. After about twelve minutes, it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage. It will spend up to 14 days in orbit, almost all of which will be docked at the International Space Station. It also serves commercial purposes in a collaboration between SpaceX, Axiom Space, and various companies and national space agencies to access the Station for the purpose of conducting tasks useful for the development of new technologies and for scientific research.

The Shenzhou 19 capsule after landing (Image courtesy Xinhua)

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A few hours ago, the three Chinese taikonauts of the Shenzhou 19 mission returned to Earth after spending a little more than six months on the Chinese space station Tiangong, where they arrived on October 29, 2024. The three taikonauts Wang Haoze, Cai Xuzhe, and Song Lingdong had left the station about nine hours earlier to land at a site called Dongfeng in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It’s a procedure that significantly reduces the time to return to Earth and now has become routine.

The Shenzhou 20 spacecraft blasting off (Photo courtesy Xinhua/Li Xin)

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A confirmation has arrived that three Chinese taikonauts from the Shenzhou 20 mission reached the Chinese space station Tiangong with an automated docking maneuver. They blasted off about 6.5 hours earlier atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. They form the 9th crew of the Chinese space station and will remain there for about six months, the standard duration for a mission.

Alexey Ovchinin, Don Pettit and Ivan Vagner enter the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft (Image NASA+)

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A few hours ago, cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner and astronaut Don Pettit returned to Earth on the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft, which landed in Kazakhstan. They had reached the International Space Station on September 11, 2024, as part of a crew rotation that has returned to normal after some time.

On Friday, April 18, Alexey Ovchinin officially handed over command of the International Space Station to Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi. The launch of the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft marked the start of Expedition 73.

The Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft docks with the International Space Station (Image NASA)

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A few hours ago, the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and, after a little more than three hours, reached the International Space Station with three new crew members on board. It docked with the Station’s Prichal module. The ultra-fast track was used, which halves the journey duration and is used whenever the Station’s position makes it possible.