OrbitalHub

NASA dixit:

“A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying 11 satellites for ORBCOMM. The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket returned to Earth and landed safely six miles from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station […]. It was the first time a booster of its kind was successfully recovered in such a manner.”

Video credit: NASA/SpaceX

NASA dixit:

“Two days after its launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the unpiloted Russian ISS Progress 62 cargo ship docked to the Pirs Docking Compartment at the International Space Station Dec. 23. Loaded with 2.8 tons of food, fuel and supplies for the Expedition 46 crew, the Progress reached the complex for an automated linkup following a two-day rendezvous deliberately planned to test upgraded software and telemetry systems. The newest Progress will remain attached to Pirs until early July.”

Video credit: NASA/Roscosmos

NASA dixit:

“After launching earlier in the day on Dec. 15 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 46-47 Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), NASA Flight Engineer Tim Kopra and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of the European Space Agency arrived at the International Space Station Dec. 15 following a four-orbit, six-hour rendezvous.”

Video credit: NASA/Roscosmos

NASA dixit:

“The Soyuz spacecraft carrying Expedition 45 crew members Oleg Kononenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Flight Engineers Kjell Lindgren of NASA and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, departed the International Space Station on Dec. 11 for the return trip to Earth. The returning crew was scheduled to land hours later in Kazakhstan to wrap up 141 days in space.”

Video credit: NASA/Roscosmos

NASA dixit:

“On Dec.6, Orbital ATK’s enhanced Cygnus spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to the International Space Station, on a mission to deliver more than 7,000 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory. This is Orbital ATK’s fourth contracted mission to the station under the agency’s Commercial Resupply Services contract.”

From Orbital ATK news release:

“Orbital ATK has named the OA-4 Cygnus the “S.S. Deke Slayton II,” upholding the tradition of naming each Cygnus in honor of astronauts and individuals who contributed to the United States’ commercial space program.

“With the naming of this spacecraft, we continue our commitment to honor the late Donald ‘Deke’ K. Slayton, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and a champion of America’s commercial space program and leadership in space,” said Frank Culbertson, President of Orbital ATK’s Space Systems Group. “We are pleased that the enhanced Cygnus that bears his name will be able to provide up to 53 percent more in cargo weight to the International Space Station than our previously flown standard version.”

Cygnus, like most Orbital ATK spacecraft, is compatible with multiple launch vehicles, enabling the use of ULA’s Atlas V launch vehicle on this mission. The enhanced Cygnus has several new features, including lightweight UltraFlexTM solar arrays, a mass optimized Service Module structure and a lighter weight propulsion system. In addition to food, clothing, crew supplies, spare parts and equipment, the Cygnus spacecraft is carrying science experiments to expand the research capability of the Expedition 45 and 46 crew members aboard the orbiting laboratory.

Orbital ATK has three CRS missions scheduled in 2016 to support NASA’s ISS cargo needs. A second Cygnus/Atlas V launch will take place next spring from Florida, followed by the return of operations to NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in mid-2016 where the company will continue CRS missions atop the upgraded Antares rocket.

Under the CRS contract with NASA, Orbital ATK will deliver approximately 62,000 pounds (28,000 kilograms) of cargo to the ISS over 10 missions through 2018. The partnership is changing the way NASA does business, helping build a strong American commercial space industry and freeing the agency to focus on developing the next-generation rocket and spacecraft that will enable humans to travel farther in space than ever before.”

Video credit: NASA/Orbital ATK

ESA dixit:

“Liftoff of Vega VV06 carrying LISA Pathfinder from Europe’s Spaceport, French Guiana, at 04:04 GMT/05:04 CET on 3 December 2015. Vega will place LISA Pathfinder into an elliptical orbit around our planet. Then, the spacecraft will use its own propulsion module to raise the highest point of the orbit in six stages. The last burn will propel the spacecraft towards its operational orbit, around a stable point called L1, some 1.5 million km from Earth towards the Sun.

Once on its final orbit, LISA Pathfinder will test key technologies for space-based observation of gravitational waves. These ripples in the fabric of spacetime are predicted by Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity but have not yet been directly detected.

To demonstrate the fundamental approach that could be used by future missions to observe these elusive cosmic fluctuations, LISA Pathfinder will realize the best free-fall ever achieved in space. It will do so by reducing all the non-gravitational forces acting on two cubes and monitoring their motion and attitude to unprecedented accuracy.”

Video credit: ESA/Arianespace