Spacecraft

The Shenzhou 18 mission blasting off atop a Long March-2F rocket (Photo courtesy Xinhua/Li Gang)

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A confirmation has arrived that three Chinese taikonauts from the Shenzhou 18 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 7th crew of the Chinese space station and will remain there for about six months, the standard duration for a mission.

The three taikonauts, as the Chinese call their astronauts, of the Shenzhou 18 mission are Ye Guangfu, Li Cong, and Li Guangsu.

The Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft surrounded by the support crew (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago, cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Marina Vasilevskaya and astronaut Loral O’Hara returned to Earth on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft, which landed in Kazakhstan. Novitsky completed a one-year mission on the International Space Station, Vasilevskaya was a visitor who stayed on the Station for a few days while O’Hara spent a bit more than 6 months on the Station.

The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft approaching the International Space Station (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft, which blasted off about two days ago from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, has reached the International Space Station carrying one new crew member and two visitors. Astronaut Tracy Dyson of NASA is part of Expedition 70/71 while cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos and the Belarusian Marina Vasilevskaya will remain on the Station for a few days.

The Dragon 2 spacecraft docking with the International Space Station in its CRS-30 mission (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago, SpaceX’s Dragon 2 spacecraft docked with the International Space Station’s Harmony module completing the first part of its CRS-30 mission. Astronauts Loral O’Hara and her colleague Mike Barratt monitored the operation but the cargo spacecraft, which blasted off when it was Thursday afternoon in the USA, completed the maneuvers automatically without any problem.