Launches

The Lucy space probe blasting off atop an Atlas V 401 rocket (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago NASA’s Lucy mission blasted off atop an Atlas V 401 rocket from Cape Canaveral. Almost 58 minutes after launch, the space probe separated regularly from the rocket’s last stage and entered the trajectory that is programmed to lead it towards Jupiter’s orbit, where there are the so-called Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. There, Lucy will begin a series of flybys on a mission that is expected to last approximately 12 years.

The launch of the Shenzhou 13 mission (Photo courtesy Xinhua)

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A confirmation has arrived that the three Chinese taikonauts of the Shenzhou 13 mission have reached the Chinese space station’s Tianhe core module with an automated docking maneuver. They blasted off about six and a half hours earlier on a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. They’re the second crew of the Chinese space station and will remain there for about six months, twice the length of the Shenzhou 12 mission.

The New Shepard rocket blasting off in its NS-18 flight (Image courtesy Blue Origin)

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Yesterday, Blue Origin conducted the second crewed flight of its New Shepard rocket, which included actor William Shatner, famous especially for playing James Kirk in the “Star Trek” saga. The rocket blasted off from the company’s spaceport in Van Horn, Texas, and after about 3 minutes the spacecraft named “RSS First Step” separated from the rocket and reached an altitude of about 107 kilometers, more than the 100 kilometers of the Kármán Line that officially marks the boundary with space. Both the single-stage rocket and the spacecraft are reusable, so both landed at the end of the flight.

The Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft blasting off in the Inspiration4 mission (Photo courtesy Inspiration4 / John Kraus)

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A few hours ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in the Inspiration4 mission. After about eleven minutes it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage. It will spend three days in orbit for the first completely private crewed space mission. It opens a further frontier for space tourism but is also linked to a charity campaign for the American St. Jude hospital in Memphis.

The Dragon 2 cargo spacecraft starting its CRS-23 mission blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago, the SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in its CRS-23 (Cargo Resupply Service 23) mission, also referred to as SPX-23. After almost exactly 12 minutes it separated successfully from the rocket’s last stage and went en route. This is the 23rd mission, the 3rd for the Dragon 2 version, for the Dragon spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station with various cargoes and then return to Earth, again with various cargoes.