A Blagovest communications spacecraft lifted off Monday aboard a Proton rocket to complete a network of four relay satellites in geostationary orbit for the Russian military. The Proton rocket’s Breeze M upper stage successfully delivered the Blagovest spacecraft to its intended orbit nine hours later.
Packed with nearly 3 tons of rocket fuel, water, oxygen and crew provisions, the Russian Progress MS-12 supply ship and its Soyuz booster arrived at a launch pad Sunday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, moving a step closer to liftoff Wednesday on a fast-track three-hour flight to the International Space Station.
Fifty years to the day after Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon, a NASA astronaut, an Italian flight engineer and a Russian commander blasted off from Kazakhstan Saturday aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, chased down the International Space Station and glided in for a picture-perfect docking.
A veteran Russian commander, Italian flight engineer and a rookie NASA astronaut lifted off at 1628 GMT (12:28 p.m. EDT) Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, kicking off a six-hour flight to the International Space Station. The crew docked with the station at 2248 GMT (6:48 p.m. EDT).
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