Expedition 54 – Spaceflight Now

Soyuz spacecraft brings three station fliers home

February 28, 2018 William Harwood

Bidding their crewmates farewell, a Russian cosmonaut and two NASA astronauts boarded their Soyuz ferry craft, undocked from the International Space Station and fell back to Earth Tuesday, landing safely on the snowy steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 168-day mission.

Live coverage: Three-man station crew lands in Kazakhstan

February 27, 2018 Stephen Clark

Two American astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut boarded their Soyuz MS-06 landing craft for a homecoming Tuesday night, U.S. time, concluding 168 days in orbit. The trio undocked from the International Space Station at 5:08 p.m. EST (2208 GMT), and landed on the snowy steppe of Kazakhstan at 9:31 p.m. EST (0231 GMT Wednesday).

Photos: Russian cargo freighter blasts off from snow-covered launch pad

February 16, 2018 Stephen Clark

A Russian Progress supply ship launched Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, firing into orbit from a snow-covered pad to haul three tons of fuel, water and equipment to the International Space Station.

Spacewalking astronauts complete robot arm work

February 16, 2018 William Harwood

Astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Japanese crewmate Norishige Kanai floated outside the International Space Station Friday, repositioned two robot arm grapple mechanisms following repair work last month and carried out a variety of “get-ahead” tasks before calling it a day.

Progress supply ship docks with International Space Station

February 15, 2018 Stephen Clark

Russia’s Progress MS-08 cargo carrier glided to an automated radar-guided link-up with the International Space Station on Thursday with three tons of fuel, water, supplies and experiments.

Soyuz rocket launches cargo freighter to International Space Station

February 13, 2018 Stephen Clark

Running two days later after a last-minute abort Sunday, a Russian Progress resupply and refueling freighter lifted off in a blanket of fog Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to deliver three tons of cargo, propellant and water to the International Space Station.

Resupply launch scrubbed, thwarting fast-track rendezvous with space station

February 11, 2018 Stephen Clark

The launch of a Russian Progress cargo ship aboard a Soyuz rocket was aborted in the final minute of the countdown Sunday, forcing a delay of at least two days in the start of a resupply and refueling mission to the International Space Station.

Soyuz rocket positioned on launch pad for station resupply flight

February 9, 2018 Stephen Clark

A Russian Soyuz booster and an automated Progress resupply ship reached their launch pad Friday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, two days before firing into orbit test out a new expedited rendezvous sequence that will culminate in the Progress spacecraft’s docking with the International Space Station just three-and-a-half hours after launch.

Cosmonauts upgrade station high-gain antenna on record-breaking spacewalk

February 2, 2018 Stephen Clark

Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Anton Shkaplerov floated outside the International Space Station on Friday and installed an upgraded electronics box on a high-gain communications antenna at the aft end of the Zvezda service module.

Software patch fixes station robot arm; Monday spacewalk repair called off

January 28, 2018 William Harwood

A corrective software patch has fixed a problem with a newly installed grapple fixture on one end of the International Space Station robot arm, NASA officials said Sunday. With the mechanism now fully operational, a re-planned spacewalk Monday to re-install a degraded unit has been called off.