Early this morning up in orbit, three crew members departed the Russian side of the International Space Station. In that spacecraft was NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, the new record holder for the longest time spent in space by a US astronaut.
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Last week, Russia launched the newest three crew members to the ISS on top of its Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. While it probably wasn’t planned to be this way, the flight suit colors of yellow and blue were perfectly timed.
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The joint ESA and Russian Martian mission was expected to launch this year, but due to sanctions brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ESA has decided to suspend its cooperation.
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Roscosmos launched the Soyuz MS-21 mission to the ISS this Friday at 15:55 UTC. Following spacecraft separation, the Soyuz Capsule docked with the ISS’s Prichal module around three hours later to begin a six-month mission.
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Rumors circulated Monday after Dmitry Rogozin, Roscosmos’ Directer-General, posted on his Telegram channel that the Russians would not bring NASA Astronaut Mark Vande Hei back down from the space station. However, cooperation continues between the two agencies behind the scenes to ensure the partnership does not cease.
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Over the past few days, the director of Russia’s space agency, Dimitry Rogozin, took to Twitter to make demands before launching OneWeb‘s next group of satellites. Then on March 3, the company decided to pull out entirely of its Baikonur-based Soyuz launches.
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On Wednesday night, Russian forces began their attack on Ukraine, starting what many viewed as an inevitable invasion of the once soviet country. Once again, we find Russia and the United States on the brink of conflict, but their cooperation in space shows hope.
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While addressing the nation on Thursday, Biden addressed the latest sanctions being put in place against Russia in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Among the industries being affected will be Russia’s space program.
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The Russian space agency Roscosmos plans to send Cosmonaut Anna Kikina to space on a SpaceX Dragon Capsule next September.
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Starting Wednesday morning, we saw three launches from three different continents within 24 hours. It all started in Russia with a launch to the International Space Station on a Soyuz rocket.
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Roscosmos and NASA are in talks about the new Prichal docking module and allowing commercial spacecraft to dock to it, possibly relieving scheduling conflicts.
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On Friday morning, Russian docked its new Prichal module to the Earth-facing side of the International Space Station.
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Monday morning, Russia conducted an Anti-Satellite (ASAT) test against one of its satellites, Kosmos 1408. Now the International Space Station is going through multiple debris field passes.
Updated with statements from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Roscosmos Director Dmitry Rogozin, US Space Command, and the US Department of State.
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As we reported, on Monday morning, the International Space Station residents quickly retreated to their spacecraft as the station underwent emergency procedures. A Russian anti-satellite test created a massive field of debris in orbit, putting Astronauts and Cosmonauts at risk.
Now, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has released a statement condemning Russia’s actions.
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The Russian cargo ship “Progress 78” relocated to the Nauka module this Friday. There the spacecraft will allow the crew to conduct tests on the brand new module.
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Since 2000 humanity has had a constant presence of individuals orbiting the Earth onboard the International Space Station. With the rise of commercial opportunities to reach for the stars, and other nations begin their crew launch programs, when is the next crewed launch?
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Over the weekend, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy undocked his MS-18 Soyuz spacecraft from the International Space Station. Along for the ride were Russian actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko finishing their short stay in space.
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Roscosmos is preparing to launch two private citizens and a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station for a week and a half to film scenes for a movie called Challenge. NASA will provide live coverage of the launch.
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Roscosmos is preparing to relocate the MS-18 Soyuz spacecraft next Tuesday to make room for the crew of MS-19 arriving next month.
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Cosmonauts aboard the ISS have discovered cracks on the space station’s oldest module, Zarya.
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Last week Tesla pulled a “One more thing” and announced they are working on an autonomous robot powered by their Full Self Driving neural net. Many have questioned the companies choice but there could be a clever reason for Elon’s madness. Yes, it includes Tesla Bots on Mars, it’s always about Mars.
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Earlier this week Russia launched their newest module to the International Space Station. After a rough orbit insertion, Nauka caused even more issues when it started firing its thrusters while attached to the International Space Station. Video shows Nauka’s docking mishap.
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On July 21st, a new module to join the International Space Station launched on a Proton rocket into orbit. Since then numerous issues with the Nauka module have cropped up, but recently, it seems to be trending well.
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Before Commercial Crew the Soyuz was the only way to the ISS and normally only two were ever docked, making up a crew size of no more than 6. Now with SpaceX’s Crew 1 is on board, upon MS-18’s arrival, there are now 10 crew members for Expedition 64.
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