Russia – Page 31 – Spaceflight Now

Photos: Russian Proton rocket blasts off with EchoStar 21

June 13, 2017 Stephen Clark

Look back on last week’s launch of a Russian Proton rocket from Kazakhstan with the EchoStar 21 communications satellite, a commercial craft designed to beam broadband connectivity to customers across Europe.

Soyuz booster rolls out for launch with space station cargo freighter

June 11, 2017 Stephen Clark

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.

Proton rocket successfully returns to flight after year-long grounding

June 8, 2017 Stephen Clark

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 Stephen Clark

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 Stephen Clark

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.

Video: Replay of Soyuz MS-03 crew landing in Kazakhstan

June 2, 2017 Stephen Clark

Watch a replay of the landing of Oleg Novitskiy and Thomas Pesquet inside the Soyuz MS-03 crew capsule on the Kazakh stepped Friday, ending their six-and-a-half month expedition on the International Space Station.

Soyuz with two-man crew lands safely in Kazakhstan

June 2, 2017 William Harwood

Leaving crewmate Peggy Whitson behind in orbit for an extended mission, a Russian cosmonaut and his French co-pilot undocked from the International Space Station early Friday and plunged back to Earth, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 196-day mission.

Live coverage: Two-man crew departs space station, returns home

June 2, 2017 Stephen Clark

Two crewmen returned to Earth from the International Space Station on Friday, riding a Russian Soyuz spaceship to a parachute-assisted, rocket-cushioned landing in Kazakhstan to close out more than 196 days in orbit. Oleg Novitskiy and Thomas Pesquet undocked from the station at 1047 GMT (6:47 a.m. EDT) and landed in Kazakhstan at 1410 GMT (10:10 a.m. EDT).

Russia sends military satellite into orbit for missile warnings

May 25, 2017 Stephen Clark

Russia lofted a military satellite Thursday to join a network of orbiting early warning stations detecting and tracking missile launches around the world, providing the Russian government notice of potential attack.

Photos: Soyuz rocket climbs into space with SES 15

May 21, 2017 Stephen Clark

A Soyuz rocket took off from French Guiana on Thursday with the SES 15 communications satellite, a craft heading for an orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator to provide airborne wifi and aeronautical navigation services over the United States.