Launches

The Shenzhou 20 spacecraft blasting off (Photo courtesy Xinhua/Li Xin)

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A confirmation has arrived that three Chinese taikonauts from the Shenzhou 20 mission reached the Chinese space station Tiangong with an automated docking maneuver. They blasted off about 6.5 hours earlier atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. They form the 9th crew of the Chinese space station and will remain there for about six months, the standard duration for a mission.

The Dragon 2 cargo spacecraft blasting off atop a Falcon 9 in its CRS-32 mission (Image NASA+)

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A little while ago, the SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in its CRS-32 (Cargo Resupply Service 32) mission, also referred to as SPX-32. After almost 10 minutes, it separated successfully from the rocket’s last stage and went en route. This is the 32nd mission for the Dragon/Dragon 2 spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station with various cargoes and then return to Earth, again with various cargoes.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft lifts off atop a Falcon 9 rocket on the Fram2 mission (Photo courtesy SpaceX)

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A few hours ago, the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center on the Fram2 mission. After about twelve minutes, it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage. It will spend between 3 and 5 days in orbit. Unlike the previous private space missions conducted by SpaceX in recent years, in the Fram2, the Crew Dragon entered a polar orbit, the first time for a crewed space flight, at an altitude that will range between 425 and 450 kilometers.

The Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket to start the Crew-10 mission (Image NASA)

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A few hours ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in its Crew-10 or SpaceX Crew-10 mission. After almost exactly ten minutes, it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and went en route to carry out its mission. This is the 10th crewed mission of the Crew Dragon spacecraft within the normal rotation of the International Space Station crew.

The SPHEREx space telescope and the PUNCH satellites blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket (Image courtesy SpaceX)

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A few hours ago, the SPHEREx space telescope and the PUNCH satellites, two NASA astronomy missions, blasted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg base. After about 42 minutes, SPHEREx successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage, and about 10 minutes later, the PUNCH satellites also separated, within about a minute. Both missions will operate from a Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 kilometers for SPHEREx and 570 kilometers for PUNCH.