Spacecraft

Super Heavy Booster 7 blasting off with Starship 24 atop (Image courtesy SpaceX)

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SpaceX conducted the flight test of its prototype Super Heavy rocket and Starship, launched from Boca Chica, Texas. This is the first test that saw the whole system of Elon Musk’s company which should revolutionize space travel with an unprecedented transport capacity and being totally reusable. In this case, however, these are prototypes with the Super Heavy identified as Booster 7 and Starship identified as Starship 24 or Ship24 or simply S24 which don’t have the safety requirements needed to conduct controlled landings. The test ended after almost 4 minutes with the explosion of both vehicles.

The Dragon cargo spacecraft departing the International Space Station in its CRS-27 mission (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft ended its CRS-27 (Cargo Resupply Service 27) mission for NASA splashing down smoothly off the Florida Coast. The Dragon left the International Space Station a few hours earlier. For SpaceX, this was the 7th 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 March 16, 2023.

The Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft departing the International Space Station (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago, the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan after departing the International Space Station almost two hours earlier. Generally, the staff arrives shortly after to assist the crew who have just returned from the Station but in this case, there’s no one on board due to the problems encountered in December 2022 with the cooling system, which made the journey unsafe for the humans.

The Dragon cargo spacecraft about to dock with the International Space Station in its CRS-27 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-27 mission. Astronaut Woody Hoburg monitored the operation, but the cargo spacecraft, which blasted off when it was Tuesday in the USA, completed the maneuvers automatically without any problem. Actually, it arrived about 20 minutes earlier than scheduled.

The Dragon 2 spacecraft' blasts off atop a Falcon 9 rocket to start its CRS-27 mission (Photo courtesy SpaceX)

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A few hours ago, the SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in its CRS-27 (Cargo Resupply Service 27) mission, also referred to as SPX-27. After almost exactly 12 minutes it separated successfully from the rocket’s last stage and went en route. This is the 27th 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.