A little while ago the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with aboard the three new crew members Serena Auñón-Chancellor, Sergey Prokopyev and Alexander Gerst to be transported to the International Space Station carrying three new crew members. The Soyuz traveled on the 2-day path.
A few hours ago, the two GRACE-FO twin spacecraft were launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg base. After about ten minutes they successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and entered a polar orbit. Shortly thereafter they started transmitting telemetry signals. SpaceX’s mission continued with the launch of 5 satellites of the Iridium constellation.
A little while ago Orbital ATK’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 ninth official mission, called Orbital-9 or simply Orb-9 but also CRS OA-9, to transport supplies to the International Space Station for NASA.
A few hours ago the Bangabandhu-1 was launched from Cape Canaveral on a Falcon 9 rocket with a first stage in its new version, called Block 5, at its debut. After about 33 minutes it separated from the rocket’s last stage and starte the series of maneuvers that will bring it into a geostationary orbit.
The Block 5 version of the first stage, also called a booster, includes a lot of improvements for the Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX didn’t reveal all the details but a lot of information were provided by the company’s executives or leaked anyway. Various advancements concern performance, meeting NASA’s demands for manned launches, but above all with concern re-use possibilities, a crucial factor in Elon Musk’s company plans.
A few hours ago NASA’s InSight lander was launched together with the two Mars Cube One nanosatellites from the Vandenberg base on an Atlas V 401 rocket. After about 1.5 hours they separated from the rocket’s last stage, called Centaur, and went en route to Mars.
The InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission aims to investigate the geology of the planet Mars. A lander equipped with a seismometer, a thermal sensor and other instruments that will analyze the red planet’s internal structure. This will allow to obtain new data on its formation, also contributing to the existing models on the formation of rocky planets such as the Earth.
