Spacecraft

The Crew Dragon Resilience starts its Crew-1 mission blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket (Photo NASA/Joel Kowsky)

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A few hours ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in its Crew-1 o SpaceX Crew-1 mission with Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, and Soichi Noguchi on board. After about eleven minutes, it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and went en route to carry out its mission. This is the second crewed mission of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, this time within the normal rotation of the International Space Station crew.

Chris Cassidy, Anatoly Ivanishin e Ivan Vagner (Photo NASA)

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A few hours ago, astronaut Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner returned to Earth on the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft, that landed in Kazakhstan. The three of them spent a bit more than 6 months on the International Space Station, where they arrived on April 9, 2020 as part of Expedition 62. After landing, they were assisted by a skeleton crew with the precautions needed to avoid the risk of Covid-19 infection.

The Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft docking with the International Space Station (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and after a little more than three hours reached the International Space Station with three astronauts on board: Kate Rubins, Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. For the first time, the ultra-fast route was used which halves the journey duration. In the period preceding a launch, it’s normal for astronauts and cosmonauts to remain in quarantine. In this case it was also extended to the personnel who managed the launch, with limits to the people who could have been in Baikonur.

The Cygnus Kalpana Chawla starts its NG-14 mission blasting off atop an Antares rocket (Photo Wallops/Patrick Black)

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A few hours ago Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft blasted off atop an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), part of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) on Wallops Island. After about nine minutes it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage went en route to its destination. This is its 14th official mission, called NG-14 or CRS NG-14, to transport supplies to the International Space Station for NASA.