Mission Reports

Despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and worsening relations, joint operation of the International Space Station continues normally with plans in place to bring NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei back to Earth as planned aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft at the end of the month, a senior NASA manager said Monday.

Astra engineers identified two problems — an electrical design issue and a software glitch — that prevented a rocket from reaching orbit last month with a suite of NASA-sponsored CubeSats, clearing the way for a return-to-flight mission that could launch from Alaska this week. A launch attempt Monday was scrubbed due to bad weather.

U.S. military tracking radars confirmed claims from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Tuesday that the Iranian military placed a small satellite into orbit.

Six demonstration satellites for a future Chinese broadband internet mega-constellation launched March 5 on a Long March 2C rocket.

Two recent launches from China set a new record for the largest number of satellites ever deployed by a Chinese rocket, and added a new radar imaging capability to the country’s remote sensing fleet.