A few hours ago, the Chinese Tianhe module was launched from the Wenchang base atop a Long March 5B Y2 rocket. After about an hour, it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage, deployed its solar panels, and reached its orbit. Over the next few days, its thrusters will be used to adjust the orbit to an altitude between 340 and 350 kilometers.
A little while ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in its Crew-2 o SpaceX Crew-2 mission. 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 within the normal rotation of the International Space Station crew, the third one overall. This is also the second mission for the Endeavour, used also for the SpX-DM2 mission.
A few hours ago the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and after a little more than three hours reached the International Space Station with the three new crew members Mark Vande Hei, Oleg Novitskiy, and Pyotr Dubrov on board. For the second time, the ultra-fast route was used which halves the journey duration.
It was afternoon in the USA when SpaceX conducted the flight test of the Starship prototype identified as SN10 in Boca Chica, Texas, the third after the one conducted on February 2, 2020. SpaceX engineers made some refinements to the SN10 to solve the problems that led to the crash of the previous prototypes. SN10 also made a regular flight up to an altitude of about 10 kilometers and then attempted a controlled landing at the end of a series of maneuvers, and this time was successful. Staff and fans watching the test had a few minutes to cheer, then SN10 exploded for reasons yet to be determined. The test was a success, but there’s still work to be done on Starship.
A little while 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 15th official mission, called NG-15 or CRS NG-15, to transport supplies to the International Space Station for NASA.
