The Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft, launched on March 23, has just reached the International Space Station and was captured by the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Astronaut Tim Kopra, assisted by his colleague Tim Peake, will soon begin the slow maneuver that will move the Cygnus until it docks with the Station’s Harmony node after about two hours.
A few hours ago, the cosmonauts Sergey Volkov and Mikhail Kornienko and the American astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth on the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft, landed without problems in Kazakhstan. Volkov spent about six months on the International Space Station, where he arrived on September 4, 2015 as part of Expedition 45. Kornienko and Kelly spent 340 days on the Station, where they arrived on March 28, 2015 as part of Expedition 43.
A little while ago the Progress MS-1 spaceship docked with the International Space Station in the mission also referred to as Progress 62. The Russian space freighter, which blasted off last Monday, carries food, water, scientific experiments, propellant and various hardware. It’s an important success for the new version of the Progress spacecraft.
A few hours ago the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and after about six anx a half hours reached the International Space Station carrying Tim Peake, Yuri Malenchenko and Tim Kopra. The Soyuz used the fast path normally used but it took a bit longer than anticipated because of a problem with the automatic docking system: as a consequence, the maneuver was conducted manually.
