Portal:Spaceflight

The Spaceflight Portal

Introduction

Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in orbit around Earth, but also includes space probes for flights beyond Earth orbit. Such spaceflight operate either by telerobotic or autonomous control. The more complex human spaceflight has been pursued soon after the first orbital satellites and has reached the Moon and permanent human presence in space around Earth, particularly with the use of space stations. Human spaceflight programs include the Soyuz, Shenzhou, the past Apollo Moon landing and the Space Shuttle programs. Other current spaceflight are conducted to the International Space Station and to China's Tiangong Space Station. (Full article...)

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The Cygnus spacecraft is an American automated cargo spacecraft developed by Orbital ATK as part of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) developmental program. It is designed to transport supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) following the retirement of the American Space Shuttle. Since August 2000 ISS resupply missions have been regularly flown by Russian Progress (spacecraft), as well as by the European Automated Transfer Vehicle, and the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle. With the Cygnus spacecraft and the SpaceX Dragon, NASA seeks to increase its partnerships with domestic commercial aviation and aeronautics industry.

Cygnus is the Latinized Greek word for swan and a northern constellation.

Not including its demonstration flight, Cygnus has been launched five times, with one, Cygnus CRS Orb-3, suffering a launch failure. Although designed to be launched by Orbital ATK's Antares rocket from Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, damage to the launch pad caused by the Orb-3 failure led to two Cygnus missions being moved to Atlas V rockets launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Cygnus was renewed for the second round of the Commercial Resupply Services in 2016.

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Next scheduled launch

For a full schedule of launches and deep-space rendezvous, see 2024 in spaceflight.

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Selected biography

Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalyov (Russian: Сергей Константинович Крикалёв, born August 27, 1958) is a Russian cosmonaut and mechanical engineer. As a prominent rocket scientist, he has been veteran of six space flights and currently has spent more time in space than any other human being. He transliterates his name in English as Sergei Krikalev.

On August 16, 2005 at 1:44 a.m. EDT he passed the record of 748 days held by Sergei Avdeyev. He now has spent a total of 803 days and 9 hours and 39 minutes in space.

Krikalev was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia. He enjoys swimming, skiing, cycling, aerobatic flying, and amateur radio operations, particularly from space (callsigns U5MIR and X75M1K).

On February 15, 2007, Krikalev was appointed Vice President of the S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (Russian: Ракетно-космическая корпорация "Энергия" им. С.П.Королева) in charge of manned space flights.

Krikalev was dubbed by many "the last Citizen of the USSR " as in 1991–1992 he spent 311 days, 20 hours and 1 minute aboard the Mir space station while, back on Earth, the Soviet Union collapsed. A fictional account of how Krikalev may have felt about this is described in the song "Casiopea", written by Cuban songwriter Silvio Rodríguez.

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The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) as seen from the departing Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-125. The HST was launched April 1990 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery. The photo was taken in May 2009.

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On This Day

26 April

1962 - A Scout X-2 fails to launch the SR-4B satellite.
1962 - A Vostok-K launches the Kosmos 4 satellite.
1962 - A Thor-Delta launches the first British satellite, Ariel 1.
1962 - An Atlas-Agena launches the FTV 2401 satellite.
1963 - A Scout X-2 fails to launch the OPS 1298 satellite.
1963 - A Thor-Agena fails to launch a CORONA satellite.
1966 - A Kosmos-2I launches the Kosmos 116 satellite.
1967 - A Scout B launches the San Marco 2 satellite.
1967 - A Titan IIIB fails to launch a KH-8 satellite.
1968 - A Kosmos-2I launches the Kosmos 219 satellite.
1974 - A Molniya-M launches a Molniya-2 satellite.
1977 - A Soyuz-U launches the Kosmos 905 satellite.
1978 - A Scout F launches the HCMM satellite.
1980 - An Atlas E/F launches the GPS-I-6 satellite.
1983 - A Soyuz-U launches the Kosmos 1457 satellite.
1985 - A Molniya-M launches a Prognoz satellite.
1988 - A Scout G-1 launches the SOOS 3 satellite.
1988 - A Proton-K launches the Kosmos 1940 satellite.
1989 - A Soyuz-U launches a Foton spacecraft.
1990 - A Molniya-M launches a Molniya-1 satellite.
1993 - Space Shuttle Columbia launches on mission STS-55, a Spacelab research mission.
1994 - A Kosmos-3M launches the Kosmos 2279 satellite.
2003 - A Soyuz-FG launches the manned Soyuz TMA-2 mission to the ISS.
2004 - A Proton-K launches the Ekspress AM-11 satellite.
2005 - A Zenit-3SL launches the Spaceway 1 satellite.
2006 - The first Long March 4C launches the Yaogan 1 satellite.
2008 - A Soyuz-FG/Fregat launches GIOVE-B.
2012 - A PSLV launches RISAT-1.
2013 - A Long March 2D launches Gaofen 1 and 3 cubesats.
2013 - A Soyuz-2-1b / Fregat launches the Kosmos 2485 GLONASS-M navigation satellite.

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Did you know...

... that Iran's first three-stage satellite carrier, Qaem 100, successfully passed its suborbital test?
... that astrophysicist Suzanna Randall continued her research at the European Southern Observatory while training for the spaceflight programme Die Astronautin?
... that astronaut James McDivitt saw a UFO during his first spaceflight?

…that to date, Britain has launched only one satellite, Prospero X-3? It was launched in 1971, using a Black Arrow rocket (pictured).

…that Luna 1 became the first man-made object to enter a heliocentric orbit after a guidance failure led to it missing its planned lunar impact?
…the record for the longest crewed spaceflight stands at 437.7 days, which was set by Valeriy Polyakov aboard Mir?

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