Roscosmos

Mikhail Kornienko, Sergey Volkov and Scott Kelly assisted after their landing (photo NASA/Bill Ingalls)

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A few hours ago, the cosmonauts Sergey Volkov and Mikhail Kornienko and the American astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth on the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft, landed without problems in Kazakhstan. Volkov spent about six months on the International Space Station, where he arrived on September 4, 2015 as part of Expedition 45. Kornienko and Kelly spent 340 days on the Station, where they arrived on March 28, 2015 as part of Expedition 43.

Roscosmos logo

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Today the new Roscosmos starts its activities as a state corporation that replaces the old Russian space agency, officially dissolved on December 28 2015 with a decree of President Vladimir Putin. It’s an important step in the reorganization of the Russian space program began in 2013 in an attempt to revamp it and above all to solve the problems it’s been suffering.

The Progress MS-1 space cargo ship blasting off atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago the Progress MS-1 spaceship blasted off atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After about ten minutes it separated successfully from the rocket’s last stage and and got in route. This is the latest evolution of the Progress space freighter which began the resupply mission to the International Space Station also referred to as Progress 62. The spacecraft was launched on the route that requires a two-day journey.

The SoyuzTMA-19M spacecraft blasting off atop a Soyuz rocket (Photo ESA-Stephane Corvaja)

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A few hours ago the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and after about six anx a half hours reached the International Space Station carrying Tim Peake, Yuri Malenchenko and Tim Kopra. The Soyuz used the fast path normally used but it took a bit longer than anticipated because of a problem with the automatic docking system: as a consequence, the maneuver was conducted manually.