Space Life Blogs

Russia’s ISS Progress 78 resupply ship blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the space station. Credit: NASA TV The uncrewed Russian Progress 78 is safely in orbit headed for the International Space Station following launch at 7:27 p.m. (4:27 a.m. Wednesday, June 30, Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Russia’s ISS Progress 78 resupply ship blasted off today at 7:27pm ET and will dock to the station on Thursday at 9:03pm. More… https://t.co/i174ZK82TS pic.twitter.com/oGgR4kJIFn — International Space Station (@Space_Station) June 29, 2021 The resupply ship reached preliminary orbit and deployed its solar arrays and navigational antennas as planned for a two-day rendezvous on its way to meet up with the orbiting laboratory and its Expedition 65 crew members. After making 34 orbits of Earth on its journey, Progress will dock to the station’s Poisk module on the space-facing side of the Russian segment at 9:03 p.m. Thursday, July 1. Live coverag...

Russia’s ISS Progress 78 resupply ship stands at its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: Energia NASA Television, the agency’s website and the  NASA app now are providing live coverage of the launch of a Russian cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station . The uncrewed Russian Progress 78 is scheduled to lift off on a Soyuz rocket at 7:27 p.m. EDT (4:27 a.m. Wednesday, June 30, Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to begin a two-day journey to the orbiting laboratory. For departure coverage and more information about the mission, visit: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/ . Get space station news, images and features via social media on Instagram at: @iss , ISS on Facebook, and on Twitter @Space_Station and @ISS_Research . from Space Station https://ift.tt/3qMqp6F

The Cygnus space freighter is pictured shortly after its release from the Canadarm2 robotic arm above the United States. Credit: NASA TV At 12:32 p.m. EDT, flight controllers on the ground sent commands to release the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft from the Canadarm2 robotic arm after earlier detaching Cygnus from the Earth-facing port of the Unity module. At the time of release, the station was flying 270 miles over southern Wyoming. The #Cygnus space freighter from @NorthropGrumman is pictured shortly after its release from the #Canadarm2 robotic arm at 12:32pm ET today over southern Wyoming. #AskNASA | https://t.co/yuOTrYN8CV pic.twitter.com/ZTwBLRJJQR — International Space Station (@Space_Station) June 29, 2021 The Cygnus spacecraft successfully departed the International Space Station four months after arriving at the space station to deliver about 8,000 pounds of scientific experiments and supplies to the orbiting laboratory. After departure, Cygnus will remain in orbi...

The Cygnus space freighter is pictured moments before its capture with the Canadarm2 robotic arm on Feb. 22, 2021. About four months after delivering several tons of scientific experiments and supplies to the International Space Station , Northrop Grumman’s uncrewed Cygnus cargo spacecraft is scheduled to depart the orbiting laboratory Tuesday, June 29. This morning, flight controllers on the ground sent commands to use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to robotically detach Cygnus from the Earth-facing port of the Unity module and maneuver it into place. Live coverage of the spacecraft’s release will air on NASA Television and the agency’s website , and the NASA app beginning at noon EDT, with its release from the robotic arm scheduled for 12:25 p.m. NASA astronaut Megan McArthur will monitor Cygnus’ systems upon its departure from the space station. The Cygnus resupply spacecraft is named after NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson , a Black woman who broke through barriers of gender and r...

(From left) The Northrop Grumman Cygnus resupply ship and Russia’s ISS Progress 78 cargo craft will depart and launch just hours apart on Tuesday. The Cygnus resupply ship will complete its cargo mission to the International Space Station on Tuesday. Several hours later, Russia’s ISS Progress 78 (78P) cargo craft will launch on a two-day trip to replenish the Expedition 65 crew. Commander Akihiko Hoshide joined Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet and closed the hatch on the trash-filled Cygnus early Monday morning. Following that, NASA Flight Engineers Shane Kimbrough and Mark Vande Hei installed the Slingshot small satellite deployer on Cygnus’ hatch. Cygnus will be released from the Canadarm2 robotic arm at 12:25 p.m. EDT on Tuesday. Once Cygnus reaches a safe distance from the station, the Slingshot will deploy five CubeSats for a variety of research including atmospheric physics as well as software evaluation and development. The 78P cargo craft sits atop its rocket at the Baik...

The 60-foot-long roll out solar arrays were successfully deployed in a process that took about 10 minutes. Working together outside the International Space Station, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet and NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough successfully installed, connected, and deployed a new ISS Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA). The array deployment began at 1:45 p.m. EDT using stored kinetic energy, unfurling over the course of about 10 minutes. Mission control confirmed good power generation on the new array. It is the second of six total new iROSAs that will be installed in the coming years to upgrade the station’s power supply and completes installation of the pair delivered aboard SpaceX’s cargo Dragon on the company’s 22 nd commercial resupply services mission to the station. The new solar arrays are positioned in front of current arrays, which are functioning well but have begun to show signs of expected degradation as they have operated beyond their designed 1...

The new ISS Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA) were successfully deployed in a process that took about 10 minutes. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet concluded their spacewalk at 2:37 p.m. EDT, after 6 hours and 45 minutes. In the ninth spacewalk of the year outside the International Space Station , the two astronauts installed and deployed a new ISS Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA) on the far end of the left (port) side of the station’s backbone truss structure (P6). Kimbrough and Pesquet successfully removed the array from its position in the flight support equipment, maneuvered it into position, connected the electrical cables, and released it to extend the solar array to its fully deployed position at the 4B power channel. After deployment, Pesquet also retrieved an articulating portable foot restraint (APFR) to bring inside the space station. During two spacewalks June 16 and 20, Kimbrough and Pesquet installed and deployed a new array...