Mission Reports – Page 3 – Spaceflight Now

Soyuz booster rolls out for launch with space station cargo freighter

June 11, 2017

Russian launch crews stood up a Soyuz rocket Sunday on its launch mount in Kazakhstan for a scheduled liftoff Wednesday with approximately 5,500 pounds of supplies, experiments, fuel and several small satellites to be released by spacewalking cosmonauts at the International Space Station later this year.

Photos: India’s GSLV Mk.3 debuts with on-target test flight

June 8, 2017

India’s new GSLV Mk.3 launcher delivered to orbit the GSAT 19 communications satellite Monday, and these photos show the rocket lifting off from a launch pad on the eastern Indian coastline powered by two side-mounted solid rocket boosters.

Proton rocket successfully returns to flight after year-long grounding

June 8, 2017

An EchoStar communications satellite designed to link Europeans with voice and broadband data services rode into orbit on top of a Russian Proton rocket Thursday, deploying into an on-target orbit after nine hours of maneuvers by the launcher’s Breeze M upper stage.

Video: Proton rocket returns to service with launch of EchoStar 21

June 8, 2017

A Proton rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with the EchoStar 21 communications satellite Thursday, the heaviest commercial payload ever flown aboard a Russian booster.

Live coverage: Proton rocket blasts off for first time in a year

June 7, 2017

A Russian Proton rocket launched at 0345 GMT Thursday (11:45 p.m. EDT Wednesday) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with the EchoStar 21 communications satellite, a hefty 7.6-ton telecommunications station designed to support a mobile network in Europe. Managed by U.S.-based International Launch Services, the mission will take more than nine hours to deliver EchoStar 21 into a geostationary transfer orbit using five burns of the Breeze M upper stage engine.

U.S. Air Force taps SpaceX to launch next X-37B spaceplane mission

June 6, 2017

A month after an X-37B mini-space shuttle glided to a landing on Kennedy Space Center’s runway in Florida, the U.S. Air Force announced Tuesday that the spaceplane’s next mission will launch in August aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for the first time.

Photos: Falcon 9 rocket takes flight with station-bound cargo craft

June 6, 2017

Here’s another batch of photos from Saturday’s Falcon 9 launch from Florida’s Space Coast with nearly 6,000 pounds of supplies heading for the International Space Station.

Watch a replay of India’s most powerful launcher heading into orbit

June 5, 2017

India’s GSLV Mk.3 rocket took off Monday on its first full-scale orbital test flight, delivering the GSAT 19 communications satellite to an on-target orbit after successfully demonstrating new solid rocket boosters, a twin-engine core stage and an upgraded cryogenic upper stage engine.

India’s launcher fleet gets an upgrade with successful test flight

June 5, 2017

A powerful new launch vehicle climbed into space from India’s east coast Monday, delivering a multi-beam communications satellite to orbit on its first full-up test flight, setting marks for the heaviest rocket and spacecraft ever launched from India.

Dragon supply ship delivers to space station for second time

June 5, 2017

A commercial Dragon cargo craft wrapped up a two-day trip to the International Space Station on Monday with a glacial laser-guided final approach before astronauts grasped the supply ship with a robotic arm, completing the refurbished capsule’s second journey to the orbiting research complex.