OrbitalHub

Rocket science is hard!

Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX dixit:

“After six successful missions to the International Space Station, including five official resupply missions for NASA, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft are set to liftoff from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, for their sixth official Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission to the orbiting lab. Liftoff is targeted for Monday April 13, 2015, at 4:33pm EDT. If all goes as planned, Dragon will arrive at the station approximately two days after liftoff. Dragon is expected to return to Earth approximately five weeks later for a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of southern California. Dragon is the only operational spacecraft capable of returning a significant amount of supplies back to Earth, including experiments.”

Credits: SpaceX

 


 

NASA dixit:

“After launching earlier in the day in their Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 43 Flight Engineer Scott Kelly of NASA, Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Mikhail Kornienko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) docked at the International Space Station on March 27 U.S. time (March 28 Kazakh time) following a four-orbit, six-hour rendezvous.”

Credit: NASA / Roscosmos

 


 

NASA dixit:

“Outside the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore and Flight Engineer Terry Virts of NASA conducted a spacewalk Feb. 21 to begin rigging cables and other equipment as the precursor to the installation of new docking ports to which U.S. commercial crew vehicles will link up to in the years ahead. The docking ports, called International Docking Adapters, will be delivered to the station later this year on SpaceX Dragon cargo vehicles for attachment to Pressurized Mating Adapters 2 and 3. The spacewalk was the 185th in support of space station assembly and maintenance, the second in Wilmore’s career and the first for Virts.”

“Working outside the International Space Station for the second time in four days, Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore and Flight Engineer Terry Virts of NASA […] completed the deployment of the final cables to provide power and data for the new docking adapters that will begin arriving at the station later this year.”

“Outside the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore and Flight Engineer Terry Virts of NASA conducted their third spacewalk […] to install antennas and communications gear that will be used to provide rendezvous and navigational information to visiting vehicles approaching the complex in the future, including the new U.S. commercial crew vehicles. Wilmore and Virts installed about 400 feet of cable along the truss of the station as part of the new Common Communications for Visiting Vehicles (C2V2) system.”

Credit: NASA

NASA dixit:

“The unpiloted Russian ISS Progress 58 cargo ship launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Feb. 17 to deliver more than three tons of food, fuel and supplies to the residents aboard the International Space Station. Six hours after it launched, the Progress coasted in for an automatic docking to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module where it will remain until late August. The Progress was loaded with 1,940 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water and 3,333 pounds of spare parts and hardware for use on the orbital laboratory.”

Credit: NASA/Roscosmos

ESA dixit:

“Time-lapse movie showing the departure of ATV Georges Lemaître from the ISS on Saturday, 14 February 2015.”

Credit: NASA/ESA