Launches

The Progress MS-15 cargo spacecraft approaching the International Space Station (Image NASA)

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A few hours ago the Progress MS-15 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 ultra-fast track in its resupply mission to the International Space Station also called Progress 76 or 76P. After almost 3.5 hours it reached the International Space Station docking with its Pirs module. There was a moment of uncertainty because the cargo freighter was berthing with a misalignment, but the problem was quickly resolved.

Tianwen-1 blasting off atop a Long March 5 rocket (Photo courtesy Xinhua/Cai Yang)

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A few hours ago the Chinese mission Tianwen-1 blasted off atop a Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang center in China. About 36 minutes after the launch, the spacecraft regularly separated from the rocket’s last stage and entered the trajectory that is scheduled to bring it into the planet Mars’ orbit in February 2021. There, a lander and a rover will separate from the space probe that will remain in orbit and will land on the red planet.

The Hope space probe blasting off atop an H-IIA rocket (Image courtesy MHI / JAXA)

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A few hours ago the Arab space probe Hope, or Al Amal, was launched atop an H-IIA rocket from the Tanegashima space center in Japan. About an hour after the launch, Hope regularly separated from the rocket’s last stage and went on the route that is scheduled to take it to the planet Mars’ orbit in February 2021. The communication of the solar panel deployment had a few minutes of delay, and that caused concern at the mission control center at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, but in the end, everything went well.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft starts its SPX-DM2 mission blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in its SpX-DM2 (SpaceX Demonstration Mission 2) or SpaceX Demo-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 first crewed mission of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, in this case with Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on board.

The HTV-9 spacecraft blasting off atop a H-IIB rocket (Image courtesy JAXA)

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A little while ago the HTV-9 spacecraft blasted off atop a H-IIB rocket from the Tanegashima space center in Japan for a resupply mission to the International Space Station. About fifteen minutes after the launch, the cargo spacecraft separated regularly from the rocket’s last stage, entered its preliminary orbit and deployed its solar panels and navigation antennas.