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One-Year Crew Prepares to Depart Space Station for Return to Earth

By Ben Evans, on February 26th, 2016

With Sergei Volkov (center) commanding the return to Earth, One-Year crewman Scott Kelly (left) and Mikhail Kornienko will wrap up the longest single space mission of the 21st century next week. Photo Credit: NASA/Scott Kelly/Twitter

Scott Kelly has certainly been waxing lyrical recently, as he wraps up the last couple of percent of his […]

One-Year Mission Underway With Rousing Soyuz TMA-16M Launch

By Ben Evans, on March 27th, 2015

Soyuz TMA-16M roars away from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 1:42 a.m. local time Saturday, 28 March (3:42 p.m. EDT Friday, 27 March), carrying Russian cosmonauts Gennadi Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko and U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly to the International Space Station (ISS). Photo Credit: NASA

The first year-long expedition of the International […]

Ambitious One-Year Mission Counting Down to Friday Launch (Part 2)

By Ben Evans, on March 26th, 2015

Scott Kelly participates in a Soyuz spacecraft training session, ahead of his scheduled 27/28 March launch with Gennadi Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko. Photo Credit: NASA

Twenty-four hours now remain before Soyuz TMA-16M is scheduled to rocket toward the International Space Station (ISS), carrying Russian cosmonauts Gennadi Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko and U.S. astronaut Scott […]

Identical Twin, Former Paratrooper, and Ecologist to Launch Friday Aboard Soyuz TMA-16M (Part 1)

By Ben Evans, on March 25th, 2015

Soyuz TMA-16M will launch on 27 March 2015, carrying (from left) Scott Kelly, Gennadi Padalka, and Mikhail Kornienko. Photo Credit: NASA

Two sons of Earth are presently enjoying their final hours in terrestrial gravity, before embarking on almost an entire orbit of the Sun, as they prepare to journey to the International Space Station […]

Soyuz TMA-17M Crew Ready for May Launch to Space Station

By Ben Evans, on March 19th, 2015

Soyuz TMA-17M crewmen (from left) Kimiya Yui, Oleg Kononenko and Kjell Lindgren discuss their upcoming expedition at yesterday’s press conference at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas. Photo Credit: Michael Galindo/AmericaSpace

Three spacefarers from three discrete nations are currently entering their final weeks on Earth, ahead of launch towards the International Space […]

'Off On the Right Foot': Expedition 43 Underway at Space Station

By Ben Evans, on March 17th, 2015

Under the command of Terry Virts (far right), Expedition 43 will continue until mid-May. From left are Gennadi Padalka, Scott Kelly, Anton Shkaplerov, Samantha Cristoforetti, Mikhail Kornienko and Virts. Photo Credit: NASA

Only a week after the safe return to Earth of Soyuz TMA-14M and its crew of Russian cosmonauts Aleksandr Samokutyayev and Yelena […]

'As Long As It's Not a Hurricane': 20 Years Since the Record-Setting Mission of Norm Thagard (Part 2)

By Ben Evans, on March 15th, 2015

Norm Thagard and Bonnie Dunbar participate in Soyuz-TM training in October 1994. Photo Credit: NASA

Twenty years ago, this week, the first U.S. astronaut in history was launched in a non-U.S. spacecraft, from a non-U.S. nation, with a crew entirely composed of non-U.S. comrades. Four-time shuttle veteran Norm Thagard had spent more than a […]

'To Live Like Russians': 20 Years Since the Record-Setting Mission of Norm Thagard (Part 1)

By Ben Evans, on March 14th, 2015

Twenty years ago, this week, NASA astronaut Norm Thagard embarked on the United States’ first long-duration space station expedition in more than two decades. Photo Credit: NASA

Today, in 2015, it seems hard to imagine U.S. astronauts being totally unaccustomed to long-duration spaceflight. Over the past two decades, around 50 Americans—from civilian medical doctors […]

Alexei Gubarev, Commander of First International Mission to Space Station, Dies Aged 83

By Ben Evans, on February 25th, 2015

The first “international” crew aboard the Salyut 6 space station in March 1978 consisted of (from left) Vladimir Remek, Alexei Gubarev, Georgi Grechko, and Yuri Romanenko. Gubarev and Grechko had previously flown together to Salyut 4 in early 1975. Photo Credit: Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts.de

Former cosmonaut Alexei Gubarev—who commanded a month-long mission to the […]

Workhorse Progress Freighter Set to Launch to Space Station on Tuesday

By Ben Evans, on February 16th, 2015

A Progress cargo ship approaches the International Space Station (ISS). Photo Credit: NASA

The continuous relay of unpiloted resupply craft visiting and departing the International Space Station (ISS) is expected to continue Tuesday, with the launch of Russia’s Progress M-26M atop a Soyuz-U booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff of the mammoth […]

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