Cargo spaceship

Progress MS-18 spacecraft blasted off atop a Soyuz-2.1a rocket (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago, the Progress MS-18 spacecraft blasted off atop a Soyuz-2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After about nine minutes it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and was placed on its route. The cargo spacecraft began its resupply mission to the International Space Station also called Progress 79 or 79P. In this mission, the route used is the one that requires about two days.

The Dragon cargo spacecraft departing the International Space Station to end its CRS-23 mission (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft ended its CRS-23 (Cargo Resupply Service 23) mission for NASA splashing down smoothly in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Florida. The Dragon left the International Space Station a few hours earlier. For SpaceX, this was the third mission of the second contract with NASA to transport resupplies to the Station with the new version of the Dragon cargo spacecraft, which splashes down near the East coast of the USA instead of the Pacific Ocean.

The launch of the Tianzhou 3 cargo spacecraft (Photo courtesy CASC)

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Yesterday, the Chinese cargo spacecraft Tianzhou 3 reached the Chinese space station’s Tianhe core module. It was launched about 6.5 hours earlier on a Long March-7 Y4 rocket from the Wenchang base. This is the second cargo spacecraft launched to the new Chinese space station and carries propellant along with supplies of various kinds for the taikonauts, as the Chinese call their astronauts, who will arrive in October.