OrbitalHub

Rocket Lab dicit:

DARPA’s Radio Frequency Risk Reduction Deployment Demonstration (R3D2) mission […] intends to space-qualify a prototype reflect array antenna to improve radio communications in small spacecraft. The antenna, made of a tissue-thin Kapton membrane, packs tightly inside the small satellite for stowage during launch, before deploying to its full size of 2.25 meters in diameter once it reaches low Earth orbit. This high compaction ratio enables larger antennas in smaller satellites, enabling satellite owners to take advantage of volume-limited launch opportunities while still providing significant capability. The mission could help validate emerging concepts for a resilient sensor and data transport layer in low Earth orbit – a capability that does not exist today, but one which could revolutionize global communications by laying the groundwork for a space-based internet.

Video Credit: Rocket Lab

NASA dicit:

This is a simulation of a twenty-five-and-a-half-day mission from roll-out to recovery of the first integrated flight test of NASA’s Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket, launching from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This uncrewed mission will be the first in a planned series of exploration missions beyond the moon, signaling what astronauts who dare to operate in deep space will experience on future flights.

Video Credit: NASA

ULA dicit:

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV rocket carrying the Air Force’s WGS-10 mission lifts off from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on March 15, 2019. ULA has been the exclusive launch provider for all ten WGS satellites.

Video Credit: ULA

Wikipedia dicit:

Expedition 59 is the 59th Expedition to the International Space Station, started on 14 March 2019 with the arrival of the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft carrying Aleksey Ovchinin, Nick Hague and Christina Koch. Ovchinin and Hague were originally meant to fly to the ISS aboard Soyuz MS-10, but had to return minutes after takeoff due to an unforeseen anomaly. The three will subsequently transfer to the Expedition 60 crew, with Ovchinin as commander, after the undocking of the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft, scheduled for July 2019.

Researchers on Expedition 59 will conduct experimentation on tissue chips because the microgravity environment can replicate the effects of aging and disease. The expedition will also conduct experiments on regolith stimulants and Earth’s atmospheric carbon cycle. Lastly, the expedition will also test Astrobee robots designed to conduct routine chores aboard the ISS.

Video Credit: Roscosmos

NASA dicit:

“The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft undocks from the International Space Station on March 8, 2019 after nearly 5 days aboard the orbiting laboratory during the company’s Demo-1 mission for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and descends to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Just over 5 hours later, the uncrewed spacecraft splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida and is recovered by SpaceX teams.”

Video Credit: NASA

NASA dicit:

“Demonstration Mission-1 (Demo-1) was an uncrewed flight test designed to demonstrate a new commercial capability developed under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The mission began March 2, when the Crew Dragon launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and racked up a number of “firsts” in less than a week.

First commercially-built and operated American crew spacecraft and rocket to launch from American soil on a mission to the space station.
First commercially-built and operated American crew spacecraft to dock with the space station.
First autonomous docking of a U.S. spacecraft to the International Space Station.
First use of a new, global design standard for the adapters that connect the space station and Crew Dragon, and also will be used for the Orion spacecraft for NASA’s future mission to the Moon.

NASA and SpaceX teams gathered in the early morning hours at the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, to follow the spacecraft’s return journey and ocean splashdown.”

Video Credit: NASA