Video: Soyuz MS-01 leaves the space station for landing

NASA has a builder to construct a five-ton spacecraft to catch up with the aging Landsat 7 Earth observation satellite and refuel it in 2020, employing robotic tools mastered in years of rehearsals on the International Space Station.

A Glonass navigation satellite blasted off Sunday aboard a Soyuz rocket, reaching an orbit nearly 12,000 miles above Earth to join Russia’s fleet of positioning, navigation and timing spacecraft.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, flying in its basic two-stage configuration with no strap-on solids, was stacked aboard a mobile launch platform at Cape Canaveral’s Vertical Integration Facility on Feb. 22 and 23 in preparation to send Orbital ATK’s S.S. John Glenn cargo ship into orbit for the International Space Station.